U.S. Carriers Unlikely to Support iPhone 5's Wideband Audio, European Support More Likely

[MacRumors]

One of the iPhone 5 features highlighted by Phil Schiller during yesterday's introduction was wideband audio, which offers "crisper word clarity and more natural sounding speech" according to Apple's press release. Schiller noted that the feature requires carrier support and that it would be supported by over 20 carriers on the iPhone 5 at launch, but did not specify which carriers those would be.




Phone Scoop reported late yesterday that Sprint has confirmed it will not support wideband audio (frequently marketed as "HD Voice") on the iPhone 5, and PCMag.com has a good overview of why none of the three major U.S. carriers are likely to support it.

There are three ways to do high-quality, or "wideband" voice calls.

One is to use a new codec, called AMR-WB, over a "3G GSM" (UMTS) network. That's what some European carriers are doing and what's in the iPhone. This is relatively easy to implement on the phone side, provided that the network supports it. In the U.S., only AT&T and T-Mobile would be eligible to do this, and they won't because they're focused on 4G (see below.)

The report goes on to discuss the other two mechanisms for providing HD Voice support, which include a CDMA-related codec being used by Sprint and voice-over-LTE technology being pursued by both AT&T and Verizon, but the iPhone 5 does not support either of those mechanisms.

The result is going to be extremely limited HD Voice experiences in the U.S. for at least a few years. It'll be restricted to calls between limited sets of phones, probably on the same carrier, and it won't be on the iPhone 5.

Beyond wideband audio, Schiller touted several other audio enhancements on the iPhone 5, including a total of three microphones for noise cancelation and accurate voice transcription, a smaller and improved speaker, and a noise-canceling earpiece.

(Images from The Verge)

Article Link: U.S. Carriers Unlikely to Support iPhone 5's Wideband Audio, European Support More Likely

[floatingspirit]

US Carriers suck. Always have.

[chrmjenkins]

But remember, apple only caters to the American market.

[Dr McKay]

Doesn't Orange in the UK have their "HD Voice" package already? I remember them advertising it a few years ago.

Originally Posted by chrmjenkins

But remember, apple only caters to the American market.

So because American carriers are less likely to adopt something Apple releases that undoes all the things Apple has done purely for the US Market? Such as way overcharging other Nations, Siri still gimped outside the US, not supporting 4G outside the US.

[Rodimus Prime]

Originally Posted by floatingspirit

US Carriers suck. Always have.

it is a spetrum issues. They are already struggling in that department so they sure as hell are not going to lose more for calls for what would be very marginal gains and very few people could even use it.

[iPusch]

Didn't Philler say "Deutsch Telecom" and "Orange" will support that feature on launch day? Why those small tiny countries but not the united states?

[Omacc]

So i am paying money for a "wideband audio" feature that at verizon i cannot access or use?

[Orange Crane]

Kind of like how mountain lion supports video mirroring to apple tv.. Except if you're using 90% of the apple hardware supposedly compatible wih ML that doesn't support video mirroring to apple tv.

[superfula]

Originally Posted by Omacc

So i am paying money for a "wideband audio" feature that at verizon i cannot access or use?

Yes. Without wideband audio the iPhone would certainly be cheaper.

[Speedy Gonzalez]

Who cares just give me my iPhone 5

[bboucher790]

On second thought, I really don't care.

[DTphonehome]

That sucks! I absolutely detest cell audio quality and was really looking forward to this. It would only take a minuscule greater amount of bandwidth. Hell, they could charge me a couple bucks a month and I'd still get it.

[nick_elt]

If I use the iphone and dont use lte would i get better battery life with lte turned off?

[omyard]

Originally Posted by Omacc

So i am paying money for a "wideband audio" feature that at verizon i cannot access or use?

Yes and no.

Yes, because you're paying for a feature that you won't be able to use.

No, because the iPhone would've cost the same with the feature or without it.

It's not like you previously had access to the feature and it was removed. So outside of the fact that US carriers suck I wouldn't lose any sleep over not having this new feature.

[Mundty]

This is not good enough, I need to hear the smacking of my friends lips as he speaks.

[ditroia]

Telstra in Australia supports it as well.

[FSMBP]

Do yourself a big favor and use Skype and you'll see how crappy AT&T/Verizon/Any Cell provider's quality is.

Get a friend with an iPhone. Both download Skype (you'll need usernames, yuck, but whatever). Call your friend on Skype. Talk for at least 5 minutes. Hang up, then call using your carrier (AT&T/Verizon) and you'll see how these horrible the carrier's quality is.

I know AT&T is concerned on making money, but at least make some improvements to the voice network.

[alent1234]

Originally Posted by floatingspirit

US Carriers suck. Always have.

more like european carriers are way behind since they don't have LTE yet

[Speedy Gonzalez]

[afurry13]

We won't be able to experience this "HD Audio." However, those of us with AT&T get the privilege of paying more for shared data in order to use Facetime. Carriers suck. Carriers suck. Carriers suck.

[dlucks]

Please hang your heads in shame! This is an outrage!!

Apple is in a great position to "encourage" the U.S. carriers to step up and deliver the world's BEST to this country's citizens. It makes me sick to know that the United States of America is getting PUNKED by other countries.

This article is 4 years old. What's it gonna take?

http://arstechnica.com/uncategorized...to-every-home/

[Intarweb]

AT&T will support it, for $4.99 extra a month limited to 100 minutes per month.

[ronm99]

That is too bad. Landline and cell phone both are horrible ... I never realized how bad they were until I used Skype from computer to computer using a decent headset. The sound quality difference is bigger than the difference between standard and HD TV. It sounded SO much better.

Hopefully with LTE becoming more common in the US, voice over LTE will give us better audio quality at some point in the future.

[peteullo]

Originally Posted by nick_elt

If I use the iphone and dont use lte would i get better battery life with lte turned off?

I don't think it would matter. According to Apple, talk/surf time is the same from 3G/4G and LTE

[rnizlek]

Wait, where has it been confirmed that the iPhone does not support VoLTE?

Does the Qualcomm 9215 really not support VoLTE? The PC World article makes no references to sources for any of the information.