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AT&T Will Roll Out 'HD Voice' Support Later This Year

Arran said:
I don't mean to sound cynical, but calls on AT&T already sounded amazing on my old iPhone four years ago, but have steadily degraded over the years.

It's probably network congestion, but I can't help but feel I had great voice quality before, lost it because AT&T didn't invest in their infrastructure and now I'm being sold it again (no doubt at an additional cost).
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AT&T not invest in infrastructure totally untrue. I'm in NYC the company I work for builds Data centers for verzion and AT&T. AT&T spares no expense when it come to infrastructure. AT&T is the only carrier that builds iPhone specific data centers. I have seen 2 year old data centers get ripped out and replaced. Verzion rents a couple of floors in the AT&T building I work in. Ima tmobile user.
 
Unbelievable the hate for AT&T. How come few are pointing out that Verizon isn't doing this? That they have announced no plans whatsoever?

duneriderltr450 said:
Does this fix the dropped calls? :rolleyes:
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This is a very old argument. A non-issue. I haven't dropped a call on AT&T in years.
 
Obviously AT&T doesn't want to lose their clients to T-Mobile. But the big deal with T-Mobile is not only the HD Voice, it's also the free tethering, and unlimited text all for $25/month less than my AT&T. Moreover, I can Facetime on T-Mobile which I can't do on AT&T because I'm grandfathered into the unlimited plan.
 
Medic311 said:
woohoo...a higher bitrate call...even better for GSM that by nature of GSM itself is a non-variable bitrate technology which results in MORE dropped calls as the signal chokes on low signal and drops

how annoying is it during HD Radio when it goes in and out of HD signal. imagine what a phone call would be like....no thanks

it's hard to care about HD voice quality when they have other more obvious issues to address with their network.
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Yes HD radio sucks I just disable it in my car, not only is it irritating as it turns on and off I find that the audio doesn't match up so when it turns on and off there are overlaps in the audio. Is clearer voice really an issue for anyone?
 
This is the improvement using HD Voice compared to standard audio:


The improvement in quality is dramatic. Now, how AT&T will implement this could be problematic....
 
Anyone know about verizon? It was supposed to happen in 2012. If my recent terrible long distance calls from iP5 to iP5 are any indication, it's not here yet.
 
I may have missed it but how does HD Voice work? Would the person on the other end have to have a HD Voice phone?
 
Neat and should be free.

Voice as it is works just fine right now. To charge for a better voice quality when you already have something that works, I don't think that will fly.

I doubt there is a big audiophile phone conversation market out there.

Let our HD voice be FREE! :D
 
osofast240sx said:
AT&T not invest in infrastructure totally untrue. I'm in NYC the company I work for builds Data centers for verzion and AT&T. AT&T spares no expense when it come to infrastructure. AT&T is the only carrier that builds iPhone specific data centers. I have seen 2 year old data centers get ripped out and replaced. Verzion rents a couple of floors in the AT&T building I work in. Ima tmobile user.
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That may be, but are they building them fast enough?

And is ripping out and replacing a 2-year old data center really a good use of capital? Lack of planning, perhaps?
 
knowing AT&T, they will not roll this out with the quickness... maybe during the 5S release and/or the iPhone 6 the earliest
 
Everyone is pointing their finger at AT&T and thinking they're going to charge for it. Maybe so. But I know one company that is definitely going to charge for it and the price will be the same as what someone would pay for an iPhone 5S.
 
Verizon is the one who stands to benefit the most from implementing VoLTE which would finally allow talk and surf. Interesting that they appear to be late to the party on this though.
 
This is great news! Glad to see AT&T pushing forward (even though it would have been even better if it had launched alongside the iPhone 5)

Tuck

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newdeal said:
Yes HD radio sucks I just disable it in my car, not only is it irritating as it turns on and off I find that the audio doesn't match up so when it turns on and off there are overlaps in the audio. Is clearer voice really an issue for anyone?
Click to expand...

I actually really like HD radio in my car. I notice a much fuller sound and highs, mids, and lows all are much more defined. However, I live in a dense city area and don't have much problem with the HD signal dropout (it happens occasionally).

Tuck

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Medic311 said:
woohoo...a higher bitrate call...even better for GSM that by nature of GSM itself is a non-variable bitrate technology which results in MORE dropped calls as the signal chokes on low signal and drops

how annoying is it during HD Radio when it goes in and out of HD signal. imagine what a phone call would be like....no thanks

it's hard to care about HD voice quality when they have other more obvious issues to address with their network.
Click to expand...

I have a feeling that the HD Voice feature won't work the same way as HD radio. It will probably be some form of VoLTE as opposed to a traditional phone call. But I'm just speculating.

Tuck
 
Only works iPhone 5 to iPhone 5

I think people are forgetting that it only works supported device to supported device (iPhone 5 to iPhone 5) It doesn't work to other devices or land lines. FYI
 
The Tuck said:
This is great news! Glad to see AT&T pushing forward (even though it would have been even better if it had launched alongside the iPhone 5)

Tuck

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I actually really like HD radio in my car. I notice a much fuller sound and highs, mids, and lows all are much more defined. However, I live in a dense city area and don't have much problem with the HD signal dropout (it happens occasionally).

Tuck

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I have a feeling that the HD Voice feature won't work the same way as HD radio. It will probably be some form of VoLTE as opposed to a traditional phone call. But I'm just speculating.

Tuck
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HD voice is less compress than standard voice.
 
Sure it has been said but I would prefer better pricing of voice and data without having to find sneaky ways to keep unlimited data.
 
AppleMad98004 said:
I think people are forgetting that it only works supported device to supported device (iPhone 5 to iPhone 5) It doesn't work to other devices or land lines. FYI
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It requires connectivity to a 3G network (or better), along with supported devices on both ends.

However, there are a fair number of devices with this support. iPhone 5 obviously, but also the entire Nokia Lumia range, multiple Sony Xperia devices, HTC One devices (probably others, but I'm too lazy to check), and numerous Samsung phones (including the Galaxy S3).

Statistically, Windows Phone users are most likely to support it.
 
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woo hoo!

I'm very excited for this. I've always noticed even when I had T-Mobile and I had an unlocked iPhone the sound/voice was much more clear than AT&T, so this will be great to have this!
 
giantfan1224 said:
Verizon is the one who stands to benefit the most from implementing VoLTE which would finally allow talk and surf. Interesting that they appear to be late to the party on this though.
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They have talk and surf, just not on the iPhone. Works fine on the handsets which add the extra antenna that is required (i.e. android handsets).

Though that hasn't made me switch to Android, still kicking an iPhone on Verizon here. I think the iPhone 5 will be my last phone until I can't use it anymore (i.e. breaks and my AC+ is out). Nothing new is coming out in the phone market that makes me say "Damn, I wish I had that!".

Actually I bought the 5 solely for the LTE support. Otherwise I'd still have the 4S. I use 60+GB/mo so LTE was important. The rest, meh.
 
If you've ever used Skype on an iPhone, you really have to wonder why it has taken so long for wireless carriers to start even coming close to that kind of audio quality.
 
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