MTN South Africa has launched voice over LTE, also known as VoLTE, to customers with certain supported devices. Previously, calls were only carried on the operator’s 2G and 3G infrastructure.

Rival Vodacom has offered VoLTE calling since 2015.

VoLTE, to marketed by MTN as HD Voice, is available with immediate effect to selected smartphone users. MTN promises better quality calls and a faster call connection time using the technology.

“In order to enable the HD voice service, customers are required to update their smartphones with the latest software made available by their smartphone manufacturer,” the operator said. “Once they accept the software update, their smartphone will automatically be enabled with this service.”

Customers will receive a complimentary 1GB of data that can be used for the software update. Once completed, the device will be enabled and HD Voice calls will be billed according to normal price plan rates.

The introduction of VoLTE will be carried out in a two-phased approach.

The first phase, starting immediately, will apply to Samsung Galaxy S8 & S8+, Huawei P20 Lite, Sony Xperia XZ2 and CAT S61 users.