KT saves battery on voice calls

Industry

Published: 15 Jan. 2018, 20:34

KT saves battery on voice calls

KT upgraded its network technology to minimize battery usage on smartphones when customers make voice calls, the mobile carrier said Monday.

After the upgrade, iPhone X users will see battery life extended by as much as 51 percent when making voice calls, KT said.

The test was approved by Korea’s information communications technology testing and certifying body, the Telecommunications Technology Association.

According to the association, users could make 17 hours and 24 minutes of voice calls on LTE networks on one battery charge of an iPhone X after the upgrade. Previously, one battery charge would only power 12 hours and 46 minutes of voice calls.

The technology dubbed “connected mode discontinuous reception” periodically switches smartphones’ telecommunications capacity to low-power mode when there is no data transmission or reception.

The company applied network technology that lowers battery usage throughout its long term evolution network during the first half of last year. The upgrade on Monday enables users to reduce battery use not only when exchanging data over LTE networks but also during voice calls.

“Unlike internet data usage, voice calls may seem impossible to apply discontinuous reception technology because voice data must be transmitted continuously,” KT said in a statement.

“However, voice calls over LTE networks actually transmit voice data every 20 milliseconds, which means there is time to turn phones to low power mode during the intervals.”

According to the carrier, the quality of the call is not diminished when the battery usage is minimized. The technology has been applied to KT’s nationwide LTE network from the end of last year after a series of field tests. KT subscribers will automatically benefit from the upgraded network without any need for software updates on their devices.

BY KIM JEE-HEE [kim.jeehee@joongang.co.kr]