A base station transmits a rate recommendation to a first user equipment (UE) device. The rate recommendation is to be used for a Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE) call between the first UE device and a second UE device. In some instances, the first UE device and the second UE device negotiate the rate to be used for the VoLTE call, based on the rate recommended by the base station. If the negotiated rate is supported by the base station and/or matches a supported codec rate, the UE devices implement the rate and provide rate feedback to the base station.