For many years, high-definition voice services have been seen as a little like 3D motion pictures: a neat innovation that adds to the experience, but less than an absolute must-have. That’s finally changing with the advent of enhanced IP applications. And carriers are quickly starting to realize that HD voice very soon will be seen as an important distinction in the crowded business market. High-def voice is moving from “nice to have” to “must have” status.
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| Alteva's Bill Bumbernick |
“I used to wonder how much teeth HD voice really had as an innovation,” said Bill Bumbernick, CEO of hosted VoIP provider Alteva LLC. “It’s nice to have a clearer phone call — but what else does it do besides that? But then we realized that a lot of development initiatives for new services are held up by voice quality issues.”
HD can now enable voice-recognition applications that are 99.9 percent accurate, and international calls where there’s no need to strain to make out what an accented speaker is saying. Making such capabilities ubiquitous requires service providers to implement the technology within their networks, in a standardized way. So far this charge is being led by European carriers: France Telecom, British Telecom plc, T-Mobile AG and Telecom Italia are all in the process of deploying HD voice in their networks and should be able to swap traffic by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, Korea Telecom announced this week that it’s upgrading for HD voice, and a handful of U.S. providers, including Alteva and Optimum Lightpath, are embracing the technology as well.
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| HD endpoints like this one from Polycom are only one part of the mass adoption equation. |
HD voice has been around for a while, implemented within businesses using IP converged LANs and HD endpoints from companies like Polycom Inc.. The challenge lies in enabling businesses (and consumers, for that matter) to talk in HD to outside parties — partners, suppliers, customers, consultants, service organizations and the like — an increasingly important point as the world moves toward more cloud-based services, more mobility and more complex organizations.
The Big Nut
“This is especially important as businesses look to opportunities in emerging markets such as India and China,” said Will Stofega, analyst at IDC. “Doing business on a global basis demands new standards of clarity and consistency in communications.”
“The big nut to crack is getting the interconnect carriers to support it on their networks so it becomes a broader experience,” said Jim Kruger, vice president of marketing for voice communications solutions at Polycom. “Many have strategies on the wireless side where there’s a huge benefit in improving voice quality. But it’s early days.”
