Bharti Airtel has announced the launch of the mobile HD voice service for its subscribers in Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi and Nigeria.
HD voice is the most significant improvement in voice communications in the past two decades. Mobile HD voice offers crystal clear audio quality and will enhance user experience on Airtel mobile networks.
To enjoy the maximum benefits of this new technology, both the calling and the called party need an HD-voice compatible mobile phone. However, improvements in call quality are also perceived when using an HD voice-enabled phone to call a non-HD voice phone.
Mobile HD voice based on AMR (Adaptive Multi Rate) W-AMR (Wideband Adaptive Multi Rate) operates with nine different bit rates, providing high-quality voice calls. Compared to the current narrowband speech codec, the W-AMR speech-compression algorithm doubles voice bandwidth and produces better results.
"Surveys confirm that customers place a high value on HD voice and the new service will enrich end-user experience for Airtel subscribers, " said Andre Beyers, chief marketing officer, Airtel Africa.
Mobile HD voice enables high-quality voice calls because it reduces background noise often heard on a regular call. Airtel customers on 3G networks will experience a significant improvement in their voice communications as the new service will enable them to hear better in noisy environments.