Telcos tuning up for HD Voice

All the UK's networks are going to be rolling out "HD Voice" over the next year or two, promising to relay every nuance of our words and stop us making calls on the bog. Orange was first up, announcing back in December that it would be rolling out the service over the next year, and 3 has started doing live demonstrations on …

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm only surprised

They have been able to get away with the awful call quality we have now (worse than analogue) for so long.

[The Guv]

HD calls....done 3 years ago.

BT Broadband Talk launched HD calls over 3 years ago.

The sound quality is superb.

Down side of HD calls - both ends need to be compatible for it to work....

How long will that take in the mobile world...not everyone changes their handset every other year.

[Ian Goetz]

HD Voice - Many issues to resolve

Before declaring the HD Voice is easy to do, you need to be sure that all aspects of the end to end experience have been covered. WB-AMR was standardised as a CODEC and NOT a service. Hence, all the end to end call path aspects were not fully considered at the standardisation stage, including the Handset Acoustic interface, which was under the remit of the same standards body, 3GPP SA4, as the codec. The solution relies on a clear end to end path and is only applicable for mobile to mobile calls. Hence the TFO and TrFO protocols are used. However, with echo cancellers, handovers and other in call processes to consider, the impact of changing from "HD Voice" to normal voice and back within a call has to be considered. In addition, the acoustic interface on the handset is more complex and has an impact on the capability of the device for normal voice. By widening the speech band you don't just pick up more voice, you pick up much more background noise as well. HD Voice will also suffer from a similar issue to 3G Video Calling - how do you know the far end party is able to process HD Voice, their is no voice capable presence enabkled phone book to tell you.

When you then add the long speech delays inherent in a mobile network to this clearer codec and all the end to end issues above, it is far from certain that HD Voice will be a success.

[Adam 10]

Handshaking, perhaps?

"how do you know the far end party is able to process HD Voice"

Handshaking protocol dictates what codec is to be used whilst initiating the call. To the end user it's transparent.

[mulder]

hd stands for "high dropped" voice?

Why don't they start with coming up with a technology that gives reliable connections regardless what side of my couch is am sitting.

[pctechxp]

so clear you can hear a fly fart

It really annoys me how such improvemernts are just a software upgrade for the operators but we have to go out and buy new kit (no prob if you are on a contract but if you are more descerning and buy SIM free then it maybe 200+ quid

It should be just a case of a firmware upgrade for us just like the operators.

[Henning]

2G/3G Support

Hi Bill,

it depends what is meant with "HD Voice" but if "HD Voice" means WB-AMR then it is available for GSM and WCDMA networks. Even calling from GSM to WCDMA in wideband quality is possible. It is of course another question if the installerd HW in the network does support WB-AMR in both systems. Or if the operator enables it in both systems. Or if there are mobile terminals supporting GSM and WCDMA.