Verizon to launch voice over LTE service

Verizon Wireless has revealed that they're set to launch a new feature on its recently launched 4G LTE network that will, among other things, let users make voice calls and access data at the same time.

Slated to arrive next year, Verizon's Voice Over LTE service (or VoLTE) would also boost call quality, as well as handle native video chat that's tied to your cell phone number rather than, say, to a Skype account.

Verizon will demonstrate its upcoming VoLTE at the Mobile World Congress confab in Barcelona in the coming week on the LG Revolution, an Android-based smartphone that Verizon unveiled last month at CES in Las Vegas.

Running on Android OS 2.2, the 4G-ready Revolution boasts a jumbo 4.3-inch display, wireless hotspot capabilities, and a pair of cameras - a 5MP one in back, plus a front-facing lens for video chat. Unfortunately, the handset won't do the VoLTE trick when it initially ships later this year.

The news comes just a couple of days before the official, long-awaited debut of the iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless. While millions of AT&T iPhone users frustrated by dropped calls and spotty connections are expected to jump ship for the Verizon iPhone, the arrival of the iPhone 4 highlights a key deficiency of Verizon's existing CDMA network: it can't handle voice calls and data at the same time.

AT&T's GSM network, on the other hand, does support simultaneous voice and data - a fact that the carrier, which has now lost its exclusive hold over the iPhone.

Verizon's recently launched LTE network only covers about a third of the U.S. so far. At CES last month, Verizon executives promised that it would have most of the country blanketed in LTE coverage by 2013.

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