Is High Definition Call Quality the True Promise of VoIP?

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If you spoke to enough industry executives, most would tell you that the true promise of VoIP or IP communications, lies in the idea of unified communications and the integration of voice with business systems and processes. To date, neither has been a huge driver for the technology and for the majority, voice remains just as siloed today as it was twenty years ago. With the majority of VoIP users only taking advantage of a fraction of the technologies overall capabilities, what is it, at the end of the day, that is the true promise of VoIP, for the plain old end user?

It very well may be High Definition call quality.

First coined by Polycom over a year ago, today’s release by snom about their new high definition wideband codec technology prompted a thought about what, for the average user, might be the difference maker that leads to rapid uptake by this new wave of adoptors. As voice continues to remain siloed by the masses and pricing hitting the bottom, what really is their that VoIP can offer that given these two current facts, would compels someone to make the switch?

A better call experience.

As bandwidth continues to increase and as more service providers begin to support high definition voice calling, a better calling experience, with crisp and clear two audio will be the “killer” that VoIP has been looking for. Much like HD television, the vast delta between regular and HD will be so large that once one hears the difference, there will, like HD TV, be no substitute. Funny how all this time people have been trying to drive VoIP by touting unified communications or chepa pricing, when all they real had to do was provide a better call experience.