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New technology aimed at greatly improving the quality of cellphone calls is coming to Wisconsin, although consumers initially could be disappointed by limitations in the service.

On Friday, AT&T is scheduled to launch its version of high-definition voice service in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Minnesota, in areas where the company has 4G LTE coverage.

AT&T says the new technology makes the sound quality of phone calls noticeably clearer with fewer missed words and less background noise.

It should, for example, be easier for callers to distinguish between commonly misunderstood sounds such as 's' from 'f', 'm' from 'n', and 'p' from 't.'

HD Voice is an umbrella term for technology that expands the frequency range of audio signals, resulting in more natural sounds. It also uses noise cancellation so there's less background noise compared with standard voice calls. It's used on computers in voice-over-Internet services such as Skype.

The technology has been in development for years, but it hasn't been widely adopted by U.S. wireless carriers.

"It's a big change. This will deliver even better sound than a traditional (wired) land line," said Richard Doherty, who heads Envisioneering Group, a technology research firm based in Seaford, N.Y.

"The trick is that both sides of the conversation must have an HD phone," Doherty added.

New phone needed

There's an important catch, at least with the new AT&T service.

That carrier's customers who want HD Voice must buy a new phone, the Samsung S4 Mini, that the company is scheduled to introduce Friday. The service won't work on any other AT&T phone, including the iPhone 5, and it won't communicate in high definition with phones from other carriers.

"In the future, we expect that HD Voice will work between customers of other carriers. We're on the right path," the company said in a statement Tuesday.

More phones that can handle the technology are coming, according to AT&T.

"As more devices come out, HD Voice will continue to grow and expand," said David Ven Roy, Wisconsin sales director for AT&T.

Over time, the company will expand coverage to other states.

Sprint and T-Mobile also have high-definition voice service, and Sprint says its version is coming to Wisconsin this summer.

Sprint offers more than 45 phones that are HD Voice capable, including the iPhone 5. All of its smartphones launched this year are expected to have the technology.

Sprint expects to have approximately 20 million HD Voice capable devices in use by the end of 2014.

T-Mobile's HD Voice has been available nationwide for more than a year. The carrier says the service is compatible with its current lineup of smartphones, including the iPhone 5.

Verizon plans to launch HD Voice this year, but it hasn't specified a date or details. The company says it will have a "robust lineup" of smartphones capable of handling the service when it begins.

Limitations

With the possible limited exception of T-Mobile, the major carriers are not interconnected to exchange high-definition voice calls. And depending on where you make a call from, HD Voice may or may not be available.

Those limitations are likely to frustrate consumers because sometimes they will have clear sounding conversations and, many other times, the sound quality will be the old audio standard.

"It's a dirty little secret that none of the carriers are talking about. I think people are going to expect to get this HD Voice experience, and that they will be able to call everybody with it ... and that's just not going to happen," said Doug Mohney, editor-in-chief of HD Voice News, an online publication devoted to the technology.

No compatibility mandate

"To be fair to the carriers, the first thing they have to do is get the technology working on their own networks. But there's no FCC mandate that they must exchange HD Voice calls with other networks," he added.

While AT&T's new HD technology could improve sound quality, the launch of the service will be less than stellar if it only works on a single phone of all the handsets available, said Barry Orton, a telecommunications professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"The excitement about this is premature. It's not quite useless, but it's on the verge of it," Orton said.

For years, wireless voice calls have been transmitted on a limited frequency range of 300 Hz to to 3.4 kHz. The new technology greatly expands that range from 50 Hz to 7 kHZ, or higher, to enhance the sound quality.

Most smartphones sold in the last two years should be capable of handling high-definition voice, according to Doherty with Envisioneering Group, but that's no guarantee the carriers will enable the technology on those phones.

HD Voice could be useful for people with hearing issues who get frustrated with the quality of wireless calls.

"The first time you hear this, as I have done many dozens of times, it's a real ear opener. It's hard to go back to a normal cellphone afterward," Doherty said.

"I think it's going to please a lot of people. It's like comparing intercom-quality sound with studio-quality sound, and what you would get between a music performer's microphone and the audience."

Marquette University uses the technology in its campus phone system.

"When we put one of these phones in a conference room that hasn't had it before, invariably people say it really sounds good," said Dan Smith, deputy chief information officer at Marquette.

The technology is long overdue from the wireless carriers, according to telecom experts.

"Until now, they've spent all their time and energy adding the Internet, video, apps and games to phones. Now they're finally going back to try and fix the audio," Orton said.

"Cellphone providers kind of abandoned the original reason for getting a mobile phone," he added.

AT&T says there will be no additional charge to use its HD Voice service. In Wisconsin, the carrier's 4G LTE network includes metropolitan Milwaukee, Madison, the Fox Valley, Green Bay and La Crosse, among other areas. But many rural parts of the state aren't covered by the advanced network.

Likewise, Sprint says its HD Voice will only work on upgraded portions of its system.

Besides providing better audio, AT&T says its HD Voice service will allow for fast Internet speeds while talking on the phone. That's helpful for many people who use their cellphone as an Internet device, and for voice conversations, while traveling, said Thad Nation, executive director of Wired Wisconsin, a nonprofit group focused on telecom issues.

"I am one of those people who do both at the same time," Nation said.