(Telecompaper) Vodafone Italia has announced the commercial launch of LTE-A services in 80 Italian cities, with the number set to rise to 110 by March 2015. The operator's LTE-A (4G+) technology will allow its customers to download at speeds of up to 225 Mbps, around twice the top speed currently available under a standard LTE network. Vodafone said it is using a combination of the 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz bands for its LTE-A service but will increase top speeds to 300 Mbps once it adds the 800 MHz frequency in 2015. At the presentation of the 4G+ launch, Vodafone also revealed that it has begun trials of voice services over its LTE network (VoLTE), offering connection speeds up to 20 times faster than VoIP over 3G and allowing customers to easily switch between voice and video within a call. The company expects to launch the VoLTE service commercially in mid-2015. Vodafone also confirmed that its standard 4G network now covered 74 percent of the Italian population, equivalent to around 2,500 localities, with plans to extend the network to 80 percent of the Italian population by the end of March, and to 90 percent of the territory within a year.