How to improve voice quality?

[bob]

I have used various gsm (dumb) cellphones for a few years. All of them sound
inferior to an ordinary landline phone. The cellphones seem to cut off low
frequencies (bass) making people's voice sound nasal. Is this due to the
physically small size of the phone, or a limitation of the GSM protocol?

Would voice quality improve much if I switch to a non gsm carrier like
verizon?

Assume the other party I'm talking to is on a landline. Obviously if they're
also on a cellphone, the voice may already be degraded before it gets to my
carrier.

[matt weber]

Post by bob
I have used various gsm (dumb) cellphones for a few years. All of them sound
inferior to an ordinary landline phone. The cellphones seem to cut off low
frequencies (bass) making people's voice sound nasal. Is this due to the
physically small size of the phone, or a limitation of the GSM protocol?

The standard data rate for a voice grade wireline connection is
64kbps. The voice encoding on a GSM telephone is limited to 9.6kbps.
There is no effort to compress the voice information on a local
wireline circuit, obviously substantial compression occurs with voice
over a mobile phone.

Post by bob
Would voice quality improve much if I switch to a non gsm carrier like
verizon?

Possible, but not likely by very much. The nominal data rate for a
CDMA phone is 14.4kbps, however it is a variable bit rate encoder, so
while sometimes you may get better voice quality, during period of
heavy load on the network, it could be substantially worse.

Post by bob
Assume the other party I'm talking to is on a landline. Obviously if they're
also on a cellphone, the voice may already be degraded before it gets to my
carrier.

[Asiantuntija]

Post by matt weber

Post by bob
I have used various gsm (dumb) cellphones for a few years. All of them sound
inferior to an ordinary landline phone. The cellphones seem to cut off low
frequencies (bass) making people's voice sound nasal. Is this due to the
physically small size of the phone, or a limitation of the GSM protocol?

The standard data rate for a voice grade wireline connection is
64kbps. The voice encoding on a GSM telephone is limited to 9.6kbps.
There is no effort to compress the voice information on a local
wireline circuit, obviously substantial compression occurs with voice
over a mobile phone.

Post by bob
Would voice quality improve much if I switch to a non gsm carrier like
verizon?

Possible, but not likely by very much. The nominal data rate for a
CDMA phone is 14.4kbps, however it is a variable bit rate encoder, so
while sometimes you may get better voice quality, during period of
heavy load on the network, it could be substantially worse.

Post by bob
Assume the other party I'm talking to is on a landline. Obviously if they're
also on a cellphone, the voice may already be degraded before it gets to my
carrier.

Some GSM and/or 3G operators have started to support the WB-AMR
(Wideband AMR) speech codec, which improves voice quality in case the
handset (in both calling and receiving side) support the feature. Many
of the new(er) devices do. Some operators call this "HD voice" etc. as a
marketing term.

I'm not aware if any US operators support it (and if so, whether only
for 3G or also 2G, or both).

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_Wideband

[amriednbelly]

Yeah the best way is to take a glass of brandy mixed with water, add 1 /
2 teaspoon pepper and google drink and the man works.