HD Voice services have been commercially launched in 75 countries, said Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA). GSA via its latest issue of the Mobile HD voice: Global Update report found that 116 mobile operators have rolled out the service, marking a 30% increased compared to last year.
According to GSA, the mobile HD voice which uses the Adaptive Multi Rate Wideband (W-AMR) technology enables high-quality voice calls on handsets supporting the HD Voice feature. The service enables subscribers to use data connection to make voice calls and enjoy the same quality they are used to on traditional voice services. GSA's report found that mobile operators leveraged 2G/GSM, 3G/HSPA and LTE networks to offer this service, with those using 3G/HSPA making up the most numbers at 105, followed by 11 HD voice operators using 4G/LTE and 10 using 2G/GSM.
GSA also said that another 71 operators are investing in VoLTE studies, trials or deployments, including 11 that have commercially launched HD voice service and expects the number of HD voice launches on VoLTE to reach 19 by end-2014 and then double in 2015. According to GSA, at present, 92 smartphones support VoLTE including brands such as Asus, Huawei, LG, Pantech, Samsung and Sony Mobile as well as the newly-announced Apple iPhone 6 & 6 Plus.
"29 countries have at least two mobile HD voice operators. Interconnection between competing networks for end-to-end HD voice calling is a priority."
- Alan Hadden, President of GSA
