Last month, when T-Mobile USA announced that it will finally offer Apple’s iPhone, it also revealed that it will support iPhone 5′s Wideband Audio or HD Voice feature, which makes it the first carrier to support the feature in the U.S.
Wideband Audio or HD Voice extends the frequency range of audio signals transmitted, resulting in crisper word clarity and more natural sounding speech.
Gizmodo who got a chance to test iPhone 5’s Wideband Audio feature on T-Mobile’s network had this to say:
Calling from one T-Mobile iPhone to another, my caller’s voice came through loud and clear. You know how sometimes cell-to-cell voice calls can sound a little fragmented? Like little bits of sounds are being dropped? This didn’t have that. It was a much more natural sounded call. It was a bit richer, and definitely fuller. I wouldn’t say it was like night and day, but it’s definitely a noticeable improvement.
AT&T has just revealed that it will also be adding ‘HD Voice’ support to its network later this year, according to a report from AllThingsD.
Speaking on Monday, AT&T senior VP Kris Rinne said that the carrier will roll-out its own support for the technology later this year as it begins to route voice calling over its LTE network.
“HD Voice is part of our voice over LTE strategy,” Rinne said, speaking at the VentureBeat Mobile Summit in Sausalito, Calif.
It remains to be seen when Verizon and Sprint will announce plans to add support for HD Voice. AllThingsD also notes that Sprint has talked about adding HD voice support sometime in the future.
