TIM and VODAFONE Align to Initiate Interoperability Test for VoLTE, RCS services

TIM and Vodafone Italia announce the roll out of tests with a view to establishing an IP interconnection between the two operators’ mobile networks. This will enable their customers to make calls using VoLTE (Voice over Long Term Evolution) technology and exchange messages based on the RCS (Rich Communication Suite services) standard.

Thanks to VoLTE, customers of TIM and Vodafone Italia will benefit from clearer and crisper sound quality, thereby cutting setup times and, thanks to the RCS standard, they will be able to share video content, images, maps and files during calls.

The VoLTE/RCS interoperability between TIM and Vodafone Italia is a major step in boosting the value of innovation on mobile networks, with the aim of ensuring the best possible quality, privacy and security of the content exchanged by the two operators’ respective customers.

Mario di Mauro, Head of Strategy & Innovation at TIM, commented: “The launch of VoLTE on the Italian market is improved by this initiative showing how TIM continues to innovate in order to drive the growth of key new markets for telecoms companies, providing, ever more advanced services that offer the final customer very high quality and a simple and compelling user experience”.

“Vodafone Italia is committed to promoting the use of communication technologies that exploit open, interoperable standards so as to maximise their take-up and ease of use and offer the best services in the market,” stressed Fabrizio Rocchio, Vodafone Italy’s Chief Technology Officer. “Thanks to this initiative, Vodafone customers, who already use VoLTE technology and RCS based app Call+ and Message +, will be able to use them when communicating with the customers of other operators.”