Ubuntu Touch Planning Path For VoLTE/4G Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ubuntu Touch Planning Path For VoLTE/4G Support

In addition to still working on moving from Ubuntu 16.04 to 20.04 LTS for its base, Ubuntu Touch has also begun engaging in another important project: supporting Voice over LTE (VoLTE) with Ubuntu Touch...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Touch-VoLTE-Plans

[AHOY]

As we know that's one of the most asked questions about mobile OSes. Sir, does it have VoLTE?

[ElectricPrism]

• AT&T stopped servicing its 2G network back in 2017.
• Verizon Wireless phased out its 2G CDMA network at the end of 2020.
• Sprint sunsetted their 2G CDMA network in December of 2021.
• T-Mobile plans to sunset their 2G network in December of 2022.
• Verizon will sunset its CDMA network at the end of 2022.
• AT&T has stated they will sunset their 3G network in February of 2022 with the last date for phone activation on the 3G network being already past.
• T-Mobile has stated that they will shutter their 3G networks in April, 2022.
• The last activation date for 3G on the Sprint network was April 2019 and the Sprint 3G network will be shut down in December of 2022.

https://www.digi.com/blog/post/2g-3g...utdown-updates

4G wavelengths have a range of about 10 miles. 5G wavelengths have a range of about 1,000 feet, not even 2% of 4G's range.

https://www.businessinsider.com/5g-h...-switch-2019-4


TL;DR -- CDMA, 2G and 3G are going away fast. 5G is impractical outside large cities where cellphone towers are strapped to every other light pole.

This was major deciding logic for me against purchasing a Fairphone 3 or other FOSS phones with sub 4G modems.

Due to 5G being a disaster and having characteristics that attempted to recreate the pitfalls of "Net Neutrality" by utilizing a waveband that could segregate and discriminate against the user and traffic -- essentially "slow lanes" and "fast lanes" -- want to go faster? Pay more. and Foreign fiascos of subverting and becoming Main In The Middle I wouldn't be surprised if 6G is just around the corner. 5G is useless - it can't even penetrate a glass barrier well due to its wavelength's ineffectivity.

[Vistaus]

As we know that's one of the most asked questions about mobile OSes. Sir, does it have VoLTE?

VoLTE is overrated anyway. I tried VoLTE multiple times on Android before I installed Ubuntu Touch on my Cosmo Communicator and there was almost no difference at all. The other side was always using VoLTE as well btw.

[attah]

ElectricPrism

4G wavelengths have a range of about 10 miles. 5G wavelengths have a range of about 1,000 feet, not even 2% of 4G's range.

This is a deployment choice - not a universal truth. 5G can operate on the same low frequencies that LTE gets 6km/10Mi range on - it just also scales better to higher frequencies. They have the same lowest modulation scheme, so they will perform nearly identically, both in coverage and in speed (per bandwidth utilized), 5G just has slight generational improvements in less overhead, and more flexibility. It will also trend towards better antennas (not to mention beam forming) by virtue of just being newer.

Due to 5G being a disaster and having characteristics that attempted to recreate the pitfalls of "Net Neutrality"

Huuuh? Are you saying Net Neutrality is bad - how?

utilizing a waveband that could segregate and discriminate against the user and traffic -- essentially "slow lanes" and "fast lanes" -- want to go faster? Pay more.

So you do like Net Neutrality? I can assure you the frequencies have nothing to do with enforcing priorities/speeds etc. But indeed 5G comes with reworked concepts for this, however.... cellular networks has always had them - it is what the operators do with it that matters.

Edit: and i almost forgot... i think you need to read up on the Fairphone specs again, nothing "sub 4G" about it - they most certainly have it. Are you mixing it up with VoLTE?

[attah]

Guest
While i can't speak to the quality difference, it sounds like you are mixing "HD Voice" and VoLTE. Since some operators want all traffic to be LTE-only, you'd definitely be using VoLTE even when calling people with other operators. They also can't know who you are calling early enough on to choose between CS-fallback to 2G/3G or VoLTE based on that.
It is pretty easy to check if VoLTE is used; still on 4G/LTE in a call - you must be using VoLTE.

While entirely possible that they use lower-rate codecs for outbound calls, I'd also be surprised if no operators at all connect their customers with higher-quality codecs. Maybe it is a US thing to limit that...

[heredoc]

Phoronix: Ubuntu Touch Planning Path For VoLTE/4G Support
[...]The UBports Foundation has contracted Sysmocom[...]

Sysmocom and Osmocom are steered by Harald Welte
who also brought us

• rtl-sdk
• openmoko
• openwrt (e.g opensourced linksys and broadcom-legacy drivers)
• plenty of security reports about everything related to RFID
• broke DECT security by obscuity
• iptables(some parts at least) firs rulings regarding GPL in german courts
• gpl-violations.org

and much much more..
Hooray for harald welte

[Vistaus]

Guest
While entirely possible that they use lower-rate codecs for outbound calls, I'd also be surprised if no operators at all connect their customers with higher-quality codecs. Maybe it is a US thing to limit that...

Not exactly since I'm from the Netherlands.