Three boosts indoor and rural coverage with 4G Super-Voice

Three boosts indoor and rural coverage with 4G Super-Voice

Three has launched 4G Super-Voice, a network enhancement which promises its customers improved mobile coverage while indoors and in rural locations.

4G Super-Voice is actually VoLTE (Voice over LTE), and has been made possible by the implementation of the network's 800MHz spectrum. This low frequency spectrum is better at penetrating buildings and can travel greater distances - meaning it can reach into areas of the countryside currently not touched by the network.

It also means you phone won't have to fall back to the 3G network every time you're on a voice call, keeping you on the speedy 4G service at all times.

The new enhancement has already been rolled out to three quarters of London, Edinburgh, Exeter and Birmingham, and Three plans to have 65% of the nation covered by the end of the year.

Next on the 4G Super-Voice hit list are Cardiff, Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol, with the service starting to roll to these areas out now.

The catch

You won't necessarily be able to take advantage of 4G Super-Voice right away, even if you are in a coverage area. For now, only Samsung Galaxy S5 and LG G4 owners are switched on.

In fact Galaxy S5 owners should already have the update, and you may have already experienced VoLTE and not even realised it.

Three says all handsets which support VoLTE will be switched on before the end of the year, and that includes the newly announced iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, as well as last year's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

This comes off the back of both EE and Vodafone launched Wi-Fi Calling smarts this year, allowing you phone to make and receive phone calls and text messages via a Wi-Fi network.

Three technically also supports this with its InTouch app (as does O2 with the TuGo app), although implementation is no where near as seamless as its Wi-Fi Calling rivals.

Vodafone, EE and O2 have all talked about launching VoLTE services in the future, and now Three is out of the gates you can expect the others to follow suit soon.

John McCann
Global Managing Editor

John joined TechRadar over a decade ago as Staff Writer for Phones, and over the years has built up a vast knowledge of the tech industry. He's interviewed CEOs from some of the world's biggest tech firms, visited their HQs and has appeared on live TV and radio, including Sky News, BBC News, BBC World News, Al Jazeera, LBC and BBC Radio 4. Originally specializing in phones, tablets and wearables, John is now TechRadar's resident automotive expert, reviewing the latest and greatest EVs and PHEVs on the market. John also looks after the day-to-day running of the site.