According to Reza Arefi, Intel director of spectrum strategy, nobody is working on voice as part of 5G at any of the core standards bodies. That might come as a shock to many observers, but simply seems to point to the changing value of various revenue streams in the access business, and the fundamental way applications are created and delivered on modern networks.
The lack of focus on voice also is a reflection of changes in the core requirements for modern communications networks, where the growing range of capabilities come in the “connecting computing devices” area, not voice or messaging.
Also, the growing reality is that voice is a feature, less a key revenue driver. It is a key function, to be sure; just not the driver of revenue growth.
That, in part, explains the lack of work on voice as a core feature of 5G. That “neglect” is not new. You might recall that the 4G standard also did not originally support voice, either.
It might be reasonable to argue that 5G standards work does not include voice support because voice is seen as a service supported on 4G. Others might argue some extension of voice over Wi-Fi will be part of the solution.
Consider revenue drivers for the industry globally, which are predicted by STL Partners to continue declining significantly.
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