WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.
Australian market-leader Telstra has switched on HD voice across its Next G network, claiming it will offer much clearer voice calls for subscribers using HD-compatible phones.
The upgrade uses a technology called Wideband Adaptive Multi-Rate coding (WB-AMR), which uses the same network capacity to double the voice bandwidth compared to traditional mobile and fixed network calls.
“The difference between a standard and HD call is the voice equivalent of comparing a VHS with a blue-ray DVD, HD Voice calling sounds like you’re talking face to face, even if you are hundreds or thousands of kilometres apart,” said Mike Wright, executive director at Telstra's Networks & Access Technologies unit.
According to its supplier Ericsson, Telstra is now the operator with the largest HD voice network in the world, covering more than 2.1 million square kilometres of Australian landmass.
Telstra said that HD voice would be free to access for subscribers using compatible phones such as Nokia’s 6720, E52, E72 and N8-00, and the HTC Desire S.
The operator also plans to launch Sony Ericsson’s Neo-Xperia HD-compatible handset next month and “expects a large percentage of new devices to be launched with HD Voice support in the coming year.”
Although rival Australian operators Optus and VHA have yet to support HD voice, Telstra’s Wright told ZDNet Australia that the market leader was keen on enabling the feature to work between networks.
"I guess the best analogy is: when we first had SMS, it used to only be within networks, so as soon as there's a critical mass, we're interested in connecting customers so we would start to talk to Optus and VHA about an interworking capability,” he said.
Earlier this year Canadian operator Wind Mobile launched HD Voice services, claiming it to be "a North American first." Orange is also a strong proponent of the technology.
