- The GSMA has told Android Authority it could work with Google to broadly enable VoLTE around the world.
- Google Pixel phones lack VoLTE support in most markets where Pixels aren’t sold.
- This news comes months after Samsung and the GSMA announced a plan to enable VoLTE by default on Galaxy phones.
Samsung and the GSMA announced a plan earlier this year to broadly enable VoLTE tech by default on Galaxy phones in many markets. This is a big deal as 3G networks are shutting down in many markets, and conventional phone calls rely on 3G or insecure 2G connections. So VoLTE will allow people to keep making calls when these networks are shuttered.
This announcement is pretty interesting because Google Pixel phones lack VoLTE in most countries around the world. In fact, Google generally restricts VoLTE on Pixels to markets where the phones are sold. That means Pixel owners in unsupported markets will either have to rely on insecure 2G networks or go without phone calls when 3G networks eventually shut down in their country. This could also be a major inconvenience if you’re traveling from the US or Europe to these unsupported markets. It would also be a pain if you’re importing your Pixel to an unsupported locale.