Ookla says 4G VoLTE beats 5G VoNR on call setup

TL;DR: Ookla said 4G VoLTE still delivers faster and more consistent voice call setup than 5G VoNR in most tested markets. In RootMetrics data from eight cities, Seoul recorded the fastest median VoLTE call setup time at 1.06 seconds, and 90% of VoLTE calls there connected in under two seconds.

Ookla said most mobile voice calls still run over 4G VoLTE rather than 5G VoNR, even in markets with active 5G core networks. The company said carriers still need more optimization on 5G voice to match the maturity and call connection speed of VoLTE.

Ookla's RootMetrics tested call setup times in eight cities including London, New York, Seoul and Singapore. Seoul delivered the fastest median VoLTE call setup time at 1.06 seconds, and 90% of VoLTE calls there met the under-two-second target that Ookla uses as the threshold for an instant-feeling connection.

Six out of eight carriers in the study connected calls faster on VoNR than on VoLTE, but results varied by operator. Singapore's Singtel and Malaysia's Yes posted faster call setup on VoNR than on VoLTE, while Singapore's StarHub and Korea's KT recorded VoNR setup times that were 32% and 13% slower, respectively, than VoLTE.

Ookla said VoLTE benefits from about a decade of network refinement, while 5G standalone rollouts and VoNR optimization are still in progress. Luke Kehoe, lead analyst at Ookla, said the vast majority of standard voice calls in developed markets still go over VoLTE, with many operators falling back to LTE for voice even after launching 5G standalone.