HD Voice has helped Orange bring users back to the phone call, but it'll be a while before it's something worth listening to in the U.S.

Sarah Thomas, Director, Women in Comms

May 7, 2012

3 Min Read
HD Voice: Can't Hear You Now

NEW ORLEANS -- International CTIA Wireless -- Have you heard? Voice quality on smartphones is starting to get more attention.

Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) was the first in the U.S. to announce inclusion of high-definition voice, on the High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) (Taiwan: 2498) Evo Long Term Evolution (LTE), and Samsung Corp. last week unveiled the Galaxy III smartphone with a voice equalizer for better-quality calling. (See Sprint to Fully Support HD Voice in 2013, Sprint's LTE Evo Has HD Talk, No WiMax and Samsung's New Galaxy: A Data Hog Approaches.)

These improvements are more than just nice-to-haves. For the wireless operators they are a way to lure customers away from text messages and back to the phone call, maybe even to make up for the revenue lost to instant messaging services. At least, that's the big hope.

Salt SA provides some evidence that they may be on the right track. It was among the first to launch HD Voice in September of 2009, first in Moldova, then in 15 other markets, reaching 1 million customers. Orange says that hundreds of thousands of full HD calls -- meaning between two compatible handsets on 3G -- are made each month and that the figure is doubling every month. (See Orange Boasts HD Voice .)

It may be slight, but from January to July 2011, Orange observed a 3 percent increase in voice usage for customers who switched to a HD Voice handset in France and Belgium, a carrier spokesman says.

The carrier's users -- 96 percent, according to its own survey -- have so far been satisfied with the service, and 86 percent said HD voice will be a criterion of choice when they buy their next phone.

The wait for HD Voice
In Orange's 15 markets, those customers will have 46 different devices to choose from. In the U.S., it's slimmer pickings: Sprint's HTC Evo, and nothing else.

To get the full HD voice experience, both handsets must have the technology and be on the same wireless operator. Orange says that it is working on interoperability, both between VoIP and mobile HD voice, as well as between mobile operators. A spokesman says to expect all that by 2013. In the U.S., on the other hand, there's been no such commitment. Most of the wireless operators have plans to implement voice-over LTE (VoLTE), but there's been no indication from any, including Sprint, on whether that would be HD VoLTE.

It could take years to get enough support for the technology to make it worthwhile, according to 8x8 Inc. (Nasdaq: EGHT) VP of Business Development Huw Rees. 8x8 has been offering HD voice to its enterprise customers for the past two years. Rees says there's a lot of activity around the technology, which operates on the G.722 standard, but the pool of service providers using it is still too small for your HD voice call go through every time.

His take is that when HD voice reaches critical mass, it will be a draw for consumer or enterprise users who aren't happy with the level of quality they get today. And, it just makes sense to do HD VoLTE, he adds.

"It's like HDTV; if you've never seen it, you don’t get it," Rees says. "It's the same thing with voice; people are not aware of the terrible quality. Hopefully at some point, there will be a demand push, but right now, it's a supply."

— Sarah Reedy, Senior Reporter, Light Reading Mobile

About the Author(s)

Sarah Thomas

Director, Women in Comms

Sarah Thomas's love affair with communications began in 2003 when she bought her first cellphone, a pink RAZR, which she duly "bedazzled" with the help of superglue and her dad.

She joined the editorial staff at Light Reading in 2010 and has been covering mobile technologies ever since. Sarah got her start covering telecom in 2007 at Telephony, later Connected Planet, may it rest in peace. Her non-telecom work experience includes a brief foray into public relations at Fleishman-Hillard (her cussin' upset the clients) and a hodge-podge of internships, including spells at Ingram's (Kansas City's business magazine), American Spa magazine (where she was Chief Hot-Tub Correspondent), and the tweens' quiz bible, QuizFest, in NYC.

As Editorial Operations Director, a role she took on in January 2015, Sarah is responsible for the day-to-day management of the non-news content elements on Light Reading.

Sarah received her Bachelor's in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She lives in Chicago with her 3DTV, her iPad and a drawer full of smartphone cords.

Away from the world of telecom journalism, Sarah likes to dabble in monster truck racing, becoming part of Team Bigfoot in 2009.

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