A couple months ago, my colleague Mats blogged about the dangers of overhyping “super wideband” speech.  Since then, there have been a few posts on the GIPS blog discussing the technological significance, as well as the market implications of super wideband. While these posts have certainly been accurate and well-informed, they have tended to downplay the importance of this emerging technology. Thus, I would like to highlight a few of the potential benefits of wideband technology, or HD voice, in general (as if we needed another opinion on the matter), and in turn hopefully broaden the overall discussion.

Perhaps the most promising element of the debate over HD voice is the growing awareness of the perception of voice quality. Skype’s announcement of their SILK codec, and Jeff Pulver’s plans for an HD VoIP Summit have raised the profile of the topic to the point where it is getting significant discussion. Since the inception of the company, GIPS has been arguing that voice quality matters. While there may be questions about the useful application of super wideband codecs, it only means that there is uncertainty in the market about the degree to which emerging technology should be implemented. The very fact that the discussion is taking place means that people recognize legacy solutions (e.g. those designed for the PSTN) are inadequate for the next generation of communication, and that new technology needs to be adopted to overcome these limitations.

Which leads me to my next point- an awareness of the importance of voice quality is good for the overall VoIP market. If VoIP can be recognized as not only a low cost alternative to the PSTN, but also a mode of communication that can deliver even better quality than what people have become accustomed to, then it will truly gain mass adoption. I can’t tell you how many times I have dialed into a conference call from a landline or cell phone and struggled to keep up with the conversation due to poor quality. When people realize a better world is possible, it will be too difficult to go back to the inadequate solutions of the past. At that point, as my colleague Larry likes to say, the term “VoIP” will go away, and people will just be using “voice”.

Tags: codecs, Super-wideband, wideband

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