Early fall, indeed.
Verizon on Friday announced it will roll out Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) technology for its prepaid customers this weekend.
The announcement comes about a month after a placeholder landing page for the new prepaid feature was accidentally discovered by media in August. At the time, Verizon told Wireless Week the page went live by mistake and that it wasn’t planning to launch the feature until sometime in the early fall of this year.
Verizon said the Sept. 25 launch of the feature will give prepaid customers access to its HD Voice service, which it said offers clearer calls and the ability to use data and talk at the same time. The service also includes one- or two-way video calling, six-way conference calling and Wi-Fi calling, Verizon said.
Customers must have a 4G LTE connection to use the feature, Verizon said. HD Voice will be billed the same as traditional voice calls, it said.
Verizon currently sells 26 HD Voice-capable devices in its lineup, including the including the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Note 7, Apple iPhone 6s, Droid MAXX 2, Blackberry Priv, LG G5 and HTC 10.
Though Verizon was the last of the major four wireless carriers to launch Wi-Fi calling for its postpaid customers, Sunday’s launch will put it ahead of AT&T in offering VoLTE on prepaid.