By all reasonable accounts, the move from traditional phone lines to VOIP (Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol) voice communication has thus far been driven by cost reductions or feature flexibility.

That is, people have moved to VOIP to save money or gain features. While audio quality was a concern that was always mentioned, it was relegated to being a secondary factor in the decision making process. As long as VOIP could deliver sound quality that was comparable to the quality of the voice communications delivered by an ordinary telephone, it was considered to be acceptable.

Unfortunately, that mode of thinking was an acknowledgement that while technology has advanced at breakneck speeds in almost every aspect of the modern work environment, telephone technology remains essentially the same the copper wire based system that it was in the 1930’s.

Now, with the advent of HD Voice (sometimes called Wideband Audio), a change appears to be on the horizon. VOIP is finally poised to offer, savings, features, AND an improvement in the audio quality of voice communication.

With HD Voice audio quality could become a major consideration in fueling the exponential growth in the VOIP market.

At the heart of the change is an increase in Frequency Response. Although technology has a bad reputation for talking over the heads of an audience, an explanation of frequency response can be made very easily and clearly.

Think of listening to music on an AM radio versus hearing the same song on an FM radio. Because of better frequency response – the ability to reproduce higher highs and lower lows – FM radio outperforms AM radio for musical reproduction.

The traditional copper-wired telephone, tied in to the public switched telephone network (PSTN), has frequency response that is even more limited than AM radio.

For the statistically minded, the Frequency response of AM Radio is 40Hz – 5,000Hz; Traditional telephone frequency response is 33hz – 3,300Hz; HD Voice is

30 hz – 7,200 hz; and FM radio is 30 to 15,000Hz. While HD voice doesn’t approach the toanl quality of FM radio, it surpasses that of AM radio and easily doubles the range available in the telephones we have known all our lives.

For most of the last 80 years, limited response was adequate. But now, as business becomes more global with speech patterns and dialects more diverse, better call quality is becoming an essential component in clear and effective voice communication.

For most of us, even in telephone conversations with someone who’s first language is English, it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish “B” from “P” or “F” from “S”. But, the standards need to be higher for conversations with multi-national clients and vendors, when the difficulties are magnified and the competitive stakes are much higher.

Whether we typically think in these terms or not, the telephone is the single most important productivity tool in any business environment. With HD Voice, a significant improvement is now available for that most basic of office tools.