There is a new role of voice in today's communications. While we increasingly use text messages, instant messages, video, chat, and other technologies to communicate, voice continues to be a strong application that we use to reach out to each other.

The methods of connecting voice calls have evolved over the years, and now Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWi-Fi) appears to be growing in adoption to complement Voice over LTE (VoLTE). According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, VoWi-Fi is going to surpass VoLTE by 2016 and VoIP by 2018 in terms of minutes of use. By 2020, VoWiFi will have 53 percent of mobile IP voice, up from 16 percent in 2015. VoLTE is expected to surpass VoIP minutes of use by 2019.

This growth in VoWi-Fi is attributed to the recognition that 95% of data consumption occurs indoors, with Wi-Fi used as a popular method for users to connect on their mobile devices. In addition, VoWi-Fi can also be adopted by non-SIM devices, increasing the devices able to make voice calls.

We recently worked with two leading analysts, Monica Paolini from Senza Fili in her webcast with RCR Wireless and Ray Mota from ACG in Cisco's Knowledge Network webcast about their perspectives on the growth of VoWi-Fi.

In Monica's webcast with RCR wireless, "Voice comes to the fore, again. VoLTE and Wi-Fi Calling redefine voice," Monica discusses not only how VoWi-Fi is integrated into the existing mobile networks' architecture with the IMS core, but how VoWi-Fi and VoLTE appear to be complementing each other instead of competing with each other to ensure that voice services are best delivered to the mobile subscribers. To complement the webinar, Monica spoke with Cisco's own Mark Grayson, Distinguished Engineer from Office of the Mobility Cisco CTO, about how VoWi-Fi will also benefit enterprises in addition to Service Providers.  Mark states ""if we look at the enterprise in the broader sense, there is a set of enterprises that want to serve their users, their visitors, irrespective of carrier affiliation. Here we see Wi-Fi Calling has some benefits over the alternative licensed propositions, in terms of being able to serve all the users, all the visitors to a particular venue, irrespective of their affiliated carrier."

When Ray Mota joined Cisco's Peter Curtin in the Cisco Knowledge Network webcast, "Voice over Wi-Fi: An Economic View," they discussed VoWi-Fi from the angle of economics.  Ray has published more details about the financial comparisons in his whitepaper "It's about APPU and QoE, not ARPU".

Clearly, 2016 is the year of VoWi-Fi, as Ray eloquently stated in the Cisco Knowledge Network. Not only are the subscribers adopting it due to increased Wi-Fi connectivity, but there are benefits for both operators and enterprises financially and to help serve their constituents.   Watch the recent webcasts, listen to the interviews, and read the latest whitepapers to learn more:

• Cisco Knowledge Network webcast with Ray Mota of ACG and Peter Curtin from Cisco: Voice over Wi-Fi: An Economic View (from May 24, 2016)
• RCR Wireless and Senza Fili webinar: Voice comes to the fore, again. VoLTE and Wi-Fi Calling redefine voice
• Mark Grayson Interview with Monica Paolini from Senza Fili: "Cisco: A push for voice over Wi-Fi in the enterprise. A conversation with Mark Grayson, Distinguished Engineer, Office of Mobility CTO, Cisco" video/YouTube and blog and http://bit.ly/1OL7PRt
• Full Senza Fili VoWi-Fi report and http://bit.ly/1SUKK5C
• Cisco VoWi-Fi solution page