LTE: SK Telecom launched HD Voice call service over LTE.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

LTE: SK Telecom launched HD Voice call service over LTE.

South Korean service provider SK Telecom has launched HD voice call service over LTE. According to the company, HD voice call connection time is less than 0.25 to 2.5 seconds, 2 to 20 times shorter than 3G voice calls that require an average of 5 seconds to connect a call.

SK Telecom claims to be first to offer high definition voice call service over LTE that can dramatically push up audio quality. HD Voice uses Adapted Multi-Rate Wide Band (AMR-WB) codec, which offers much upgraded 3G speech coding, and 23.85 Kbps transmission bandwidth, 2.2 times wider than that of 3G voice call, thereby transmitting the previously-inaudible low and high sound waves, and improving voice quality by 40% compared to that of 3G. HD Voice (AMR-WB) provides a much richer, clearer and more natural speech quality due to a wider speech bandwidth of 50–7000 Hz compared to 3G voice call service that is optimized for only 300–2400 Hz voice band.

Operator will offer HD Voice at same rates (KRW 1.8 per second) as that of 3G under pay-per-second billing scheme and allow users to make/receive HD Voice calls without going through a subscription process, thus enabling them to conveniently experience the high-quality, premium service with no additional cost burden.

The company will begin selling Galaxy S3 LTE embedded with HD Voice feature on August 8 and plans to offer firmware upgrades for existing users of Galaxy S3 LTE within this month. In addition SK Telecom plans to embed HD Voice as a basic feature in most of its LTE smartphones to be released in the future.

As an All IP-based premium service that provides high-quality voice, video and data in an integrated manner unlike traditional simple voice calls, HD Voice can be expanded to many new and value-added services. For instance, it offers both voice and video services characterized by seamless in-call voice-to-video call switching and content sharing by linking to RCS services.

SK Telecom completed nationwide LTE rollout (covering 99% of the population) by June 2012 and is providing LTE coverage in underground and in-building areas as well as mountainous region, and coastal/island/marine areas.

Australia: Telstra rolls out HD voice on Next G.

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.

Global service status: vendors shipping more devices with HD Voice activated as default.

WorldWideTech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

HD Voice based on the AMR (Adaptive Multi Rate) Wideband technology (W-AMR) enables high-quality voice calls in mobile networks and an improved user experience.

It provides significantly higher voice quality for calls between mobile phones supporting the feature, and can be implemented in GSM, WCDMA (UMTS), and LTE networks.

The higher voice quality of HD Voice improves the call experience and allows people to better share feelings, do business and communicate information.

 HD Voice can help operators to clearly differentiate their offerings and can enable high quality services to voice dependent business like call center services, information services, emergency services etc.

This updated report outlines the opportunities and benefits of deploying HD Voice service, gives an update overview on network deployment commitments and service launches globally (to March 9, 2011), and confirms the expanding range of HD Voice-capable phones which are available on the market.

An increasing number of devices are now being shipped with the HD Voice feature activated as the default.