By Yoon Ja-young
Fourth-generation (4G) long-term evolution (LTE) services have 3 million customers here, marking unprecedented steep growth among major countries. Despite promising five times faster download speeds than its 3G predecessor, however, they are drawing increasing complaints over quality.
According to local mobile carriers, the number of LTE users here has reached 3 million since the launch of LTE phones here in September. The industry expects the figure to reach 12 million by the end of this year.
Consumers are attracted to promises of faster data downloads. Mobile carriers have promoted bringing huge changes to mobile life, letting customers enjoy services like high-definition video content and video calls.
However, those who have switched to LTE despite the high mobile rates and expensive handsets for the premium service seem to be regretting their choice. Consumer complaints are increasing over poor quality.
According to the customer satisfaction center at the Korea Communications Commission, the country’s telecommunications regulator, the number of complaints filed over LTE call quality surpassed 100 in January. The complaints about LTE accounted for half of all those filed over the call quality of mobile phones. They were especially annoyed by poor voice quality, including dropped calls and dead phones.
According to industry analysts, the problem stems from the division network. Currently, LTE services offered by local carriers are not 100 percent LTE. They are providing data services through LTE networks, but for voice calls, they use 3G or 2G networks.
The voice call problem is especially notable for SK Telecom and KT, which use a single chip for both LTE and 3G. The chip in the handset connects to an LTE network but when the phone has to make or receive a voice call, it switches to a 3G network. But the switching process is not always smooth.
“As it has to go through diverse steps to make a voice call, the handset sometimes fails to make a call or suffers a delay in connection,” an industry analyst said. “The fundamental problem of the single chip method is that it connects to only one of either voice or data.”
LG Uplus, meanwhile, uses two chips, one serving 2G voice calls and another for LTE data. This incurs fewer problems in call quality, but this consumes more battery power. This adds to complaints over batteries. LTE phones are designed to use more battery life than 3G phones due to bigger screens.
The problem is likely to continue until the introduction of voice over LTE (VoLTE) services, which serve both data and voice calls through an LTE network.
Currently, mobile carriers are pondering ways to improve call quality. SK Telecom has expanded its Advanced-SCAN, a virtualization technology, to the whole of Seoul to lessen signal interference.