For most of its history, the Internet of Things has been quiet. Devices reported in — a location ping, a meter reading, a few bytes of telemetry — and the whole industry optimized around making that data smaller, cheaper, and more power-efficient. Voice was the thing IoT left behind. It belonged to the 2G era, a legacy capability you maintained for old alarm panels and elevator phones while the real innovation happened in data.
That assumption is now being retired, along with the networks it ran on. The devices we connect today ship with microphones, speakers, and enough compute to run a voice interface. The people who use them expect to talk, especially at the moments that matter most. And regulators, starting with the automotive industry, are mandating it. Voice is coming back to IoT, not as a legacy feature, but as a native one. The technology carrying it is Voice over LTE (VoLTE).
Why IoT went quiet and why it’s getting loud again
The first generation of connected machines actually lived on voice networks. Early M2M devices piggybacked on circuit-switched 2G and 3G, and many safety-critical products — elevator emergency phones, medical alert pendants, alarm systems, in-vehicle emergency calling — depended on those networks for a simple, reliable voice channel. As IoT matured, the industry’s attention moved to data-only connectivity, and voice was quietly deprioritized.
Three forces are reversing that. First, devices have grown up: a car console, an EV charger, a shared scooter, or a telehealth device is now a capable audio endpoint, not just a sensor. Second, human nature hasn’t changed: when something goes wrong — a crash, a fall, a stuck elevator, a failed payment — people don’t want to open an app and file a ticket. They want to talk to someone, immediately. Voice is the interface of urgency. Third, the old voice rails are being switched off, which turns “someday” into a deadline.
The sunset that forces the issue
The phase-out of 2G and 3G is no longer a forecast; it’s mostly history. In the United States, the major carriers completed their 3G shutdowns back in 2022. In Japan, NTT DoCoMo switched off 3G in March 2026. Across Europe, operators are retiring 2G and 3G in waves through 2028 — in Germany, for example, once 2G voice ends, calls will only be possible over VoLTE on 4G or 5G.
Every device that relied on circuit-switched voice needs a new path, and VoLTE is that path. Instead of treating voice as a separate legacy service, VoLTE carries it as IP traffic over the same LTE connection the device already uses for data, using the operator’s IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) infrastructure. One radio, one SIM, one session — voice and data together. For device makers, that simplifies architecture. For operators of long-lived deployments, it removes the dependency on networks that are actively disappearing.
Automotive is the proof
If you want evidence that voice has become a first-class IoT requirement, look at the car. Since 2018, every new car sold in the EU has been required to carry eCall — an automatic emergency calling system that, until recently, ran on circuit-switched 2G/3G. As of January 2026, EU regulation requires Next-Generation eCall for new vehicle type approvals, extending across new vehicles from 2027 — and NG-eCall is built on packet-switched networks, using IMS and VoLTE over 4G/5G. In other words, the most heavily regulated voice application in IoT now mandates exactly this technology.
But emergency calling is just the anchor. Once a vehicle has native voice, it becomes a communications endpoint: roadside assistance, concierge services, fleet dispatch talking directly to the cab, support agents troubleshooting an infotainment issue with the driver hands-free on the highway. This is why VoLTE is a core part of our automotive connectivity solution at Monogoto — the same capability that satisfies the regulator also upgrades the product.
Beyond the car
What starts in automotive rarely stays there, and the same pattern is emerging across verticals. Elevators are a classic case: safety codes require a two-way voice line in the cab, and those lines are migrating from analog and 2G/3G to VoLTE. Healthcare wearables and mPERS devices exist precisely so that a vulnerable person can reach a human voice with one button. Security panels, intercoms, and access-control systems need to call monitoring centers. Payment terminals, kiosks, EV chargers, and micromobility fleets all serve customers in the field — far from any help desk.
That last group points to the use case we find most interesting: talking to customer support through the product itself. Picture a rider whose scooter won’t unlock, or a driver standing at a charger that refuses to start a session. Instead of hunting for a phone number and reading out serial numbers, they press a button on the device and are connected to the operator’s support line — with the device’s identity, location, and status available alongside the call. No app, no friction, no lost customer. Increasingly, the agent answering that call may be an AI voice agent, which makes device-originated calling even more scalable: the device becomes a first-class caller into a modern, automated contact center.
Two ways to wire voice into your solution
Monogoto supports VoLTE on compatible devices and networks, and we deliberately support two ways to connect the voice leg, because different products need different plumbing.
The first is a SIP trunk. Device calls are delivered straight into your existing voice infrastructure — a contact center platform, a PBX, or a conversational-AI stack. You route, queue, record, and escalate device calls exactly like any other call in your business, and the call can carry device context along with it. This is the natural fit for the customer-support scenarios above.
The second is traditional phone numbers. A device gets a regular MSISDN and can dial out to — and be reached from — the public phone network, like any mobile phone. This is the simplest path for emergency-calling flows, for field technicians who need to call a machine, or for products that must interoperate with plain telephony.
Both run over the same SIM and the same LTE data connection, with IMS registration handled on supported networks. Together with SMS and data on one profile, this turns a single Monogoto SIM into a complete communications package for the device.
What it takes to get right
Moving voice to LTE is straightforward in concept but unforgiving in the details — a point worth being honest about. Successful VoLTE operation requires more than basic LTE connectivity: the device, modem firmware, SIM configuration, IMS registration, and the serving mobile network must all support the required voice services, and VoLTE availability still varies between countries and operators. That’s why we validate support for the specific deployment area — device, firmware, SIM profile, and serving networks — before a project moves to production. It’s the difference between a demo that works and a fleet that does.
The bottom line
For twenty years, voice was the capability IoT was migrating away from. Now it’s one worth designing in. The networks that made voice a legacy problem are disappearing; the regulation, the devices, and the customer expectations that make it a product feature are already here. The next generation of connected devices won’t just report — they’ll converse.
If you’re building a voice-enabled device, migrating a voice-dependent fleet off 2G/3G, or exploring what a talking product could do for your customers, we’d love to help you validate VoLTE for your deployment areas and design the right voice architecture — SIP trunk, phone numbers, or both.
