No matter how unique your smartphone is, it’s still a phone, first and foremost. And even if you’ve replaced traditional phone calls with audio messages or video calls, being able to call friends and families, businesses, and more is essential. Still, as cell networks have evolved to meet modern data speeds, voice calls haven’t been left behind. And with 5G NR now widespread throughout the United States, you can be sure carriers are working to adapt to the latest technology.




But nothing is as easy as it seems, and we’re still in the very early days of anyone conducting high-quality voice calls over 5G connectivity. If you’re curious about what makes Vo5G different from other phone calls and whether your carrier supports them yet, read on to find out.



What is Vo5G?

A Sony phone outside running on a 5G network.

Voice over 5G — also called Voice over New Radio (VoNR) — is the latest advancement in voice calls for your smartphone. As a communication standard, it does exactly what’s on the tin, allowing you to place phone calls to your friends and family over 5G rather than relying on the standard LTE network. It’s the next step in voice technology, which remains an essential part of networks despite the prevalence of messaging apps in 2023.

Although it’s early days for Voice over NR, as cell networks look forward to the eventual retirement of 4G LTE networks, the ability to place phone calls over 5G standalone (or 5G SA) remains a priority. That way, when LTE goes offline, the work has been done to make sure phone calls aren’t interrupted. Consider how long it took VoLTE to roll out following the arrival of 4G data networks. Still, VoLTE was ready to go once the national U.S. carriers finally disabled their 3G networks.

It’s not as easy as your carrier flipping a switch. A lot of prep work has to go into getting VoNR to work properly, which is likely why you haven’t seen it on your smartphone.

Why is Voice over 5G called VoNR?

We use the term Vo5G throughout this article to keep things clear, but VoNR is the technical term you’ll often see thrown around the industry. NR, or New Radio, never caught on like 4 G’s LTE branding did, but it’s effectively the same thing. Simply put, 4G is to 5G, as LTE is to NR.

How is it different from VoLTE?

smartphone receiving call while resting on pale wood surface

Aside from relying on 5G networks, Voice over LTE and VoNR are similar. Smartphones and other supported devices can use 5G networks if Vo5G is active to place phone calls, with the promise of improved sound quality compared to older technology. Thanks to improvements to the IMS (or IP Multimedia Subsystem), when paired with a 5G core, your calls will feature better voice quality and lower latency than ever before.

Even the way carriers worked toward rolling out this new standard is similar to how VoLTE appeared on the scene. Well into the era of Android, most voice calls were placed over 3G. MetroPCS was the first carrier to launch VoLTE services in August 2012, though it required a specific LG smartphone to be compatible. We’re in the same early period for Vo5G, giving this endeavor a big dose of déjà vu.

What carriers support Vo5G?

A T-Mobile logo displayed on a billboard with #AreYouWithUs shown below it.

In the summer of 2022, T-Mobile became the first mobile network in the U.S. to deploy VoNR, albeit with some strict limitations in place on their 5G deployment. In June of last year, when the company flipped the switch on its new voice services, it did so in two markets: Salt Lake City and Portland. In the year since this launch, Vo5G has expanded to include Cincinnati, New Orleans, New York, and Seattle, with further plans for expansion set throughout the rest of 2023.

Still, that means Voice over 5G remains limited. What’s worse, though, is that T-Mobile is only actively pursuing this technology in the United States. In 2021, as T-Mobile began to prepare its backend for Vo5G, Verizon and AT&T confirmed with FierceWireless that they saw VoLTE as good enough for what most customers require when placing voice calls.

Even so, T-Mobile isn’t going out of its way to promote Vo5G calls as a specific feature. Even if you are on the Uncarrier’s network with a supported device in a supported city, you still won’t see any denotation that a Vo5G call is being placed.

What about smaller service providers? Dish Network, the fourth national carrier spun up in the aftermath of T-Mobile’s acquisition of Sprint, has also been working on rolling out Vo5G. As a 5G standalone service, Dish doesn’t have an underlying LTE network to fall back on for voice calls, so it (along with its Boost MVNO) relies on T-Mobile and AT&T’s 4G network for phone calls from most of its customer base.

For its part, Dish has said that it’s launching 5G standalone in more markets on a weekly basis through its Boost Infinite network, though it’s well behind its initial nationwide schedule.

A Google Pixel 7a running on a 5GUW network outdoors.