At the 5G New Calling Industrial Roundtable hosted by GSMA during MWC Shanghai 2023, Mr. Song Yue, Chief Researcher of China Mobile Research Institute and Chairman of 3GPP CT4, delivered a keynote speech entitled "Developing New Calling and Heralding a New Era for Real-Time Communications". In addition to explaining China Mobile's strategic positioning and practices on 5G New Calling, he also discussed the industry value, challenges, and development plan of New Calling, together with other participants.
Mr. Song Yue delivering a speech at the 5G New Calling Industrial Roundtable
Scenario-based calling is the primary driving force behind the development of New Calling.
As technology advances, different user groups raise new requirements on calling. For example, the young want fun and personalized social interactions, the elderly want closer communication with their families, and enterprises want better business handling efficiency, communication security, and customer experiences through features such as video-based customer support and on-screen menus. To meet these requirements, calling must be enhanced with rich media and interactive capabilities. This is where New Calling comes into play.
Four key technologies empower the open New Calling network.
New Calling uses the IMS as the underlying network and integrates four key technologies, namely, the VoNR+ capability platform, IMS data channel (which provides real-time interaction capabilities), AI capability platform (which offers rich media processing capabilities on the network side), and mini program mechanism (which can decouple services from terminals). These technologies form a VoNR+ technical system that, in turn, opens New Calling network capabilities to industry partners through standard APIs. Such capabilities enable partners to create new services and bring richer service experiences to users.
China Mobile is committed to developing 5G New Calling and promoting its network-wide commercial use by the end of this year.
China Mobile has positioned 5G New Calling as a strategic product, aiming to build a calling-based service platform and develop new 5G applications for users. According to Song Yue, China Mobile has made a considerable effort in standards, terminals, and networks to promote the development of New Calling.
In terms of standards, China Mobile has worked with standards organizations — including 3GPP and China Communications Standards Association (CCSA) — to initiate more than 10 standardization projects and defined the VoNR+ target network architecture and typical service flows. Furthermore, at the beginning of 2023, China Mobile beta-tested multiple services, such as fun calling, visualized voice calling, speech-to-text conversion and Chinese-English translation, in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Guangdong provinces.
As early as 2021, China Mobile, together with Huawei and other industry partners, set up a VoNR+ working group. In the following year, they held the VoNR+ Makerathon thematic competition to promote the development of New Calling and the maturity of the ecosystem.
In terms of terminals, in March this year, China Mobile, together with chip suppliers and mainstream terminal vendors in China, internally tested the DC-capable terminals and made the first call on the live network. DC-capable terminals are expected to be commercially used at the end of this year.
In terms of networks, China Mobile has recently started to construct a nationwide New Calling network and plans to commercialize it by the end of this year. These activities will fast-track the development of New Calling and bring differentiated 5G experiences to users.