NTT DOCOMO, Thursday announced that it became the first member of the Global Certification Forum (GCF) to open up a Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) network for field trials. With the open availability of DOCOMO's VoLTE network that was launched in June 2014, mobile device manufacturers will be able to confirm the interoperability of their devices with the network.
The GCF is an independent certification scheme established in London to promote interoperability between mobile devices and networks. The move represents an important step in the GCF's efforts to encourage mobile device manufacturers to verify the interoperability of their devices with VoLTE commercial networks that comply with specification established by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
According to DOCOMO, it has joined the GCF in 1999 and, since 2005, has served as one of the forum's 21 Field Trial Qualified Operators (FTQO), who make their commercial networks available to the forum for W-CDMA/LTE interoperability testing by mobile device manufacturers that seek to obtain GCF certification for their devices.
