Ericsson and T-Mobile boost mobile voice quality through AMR Wideband technology

October 24, 2006, Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and T-Mobile International have successfully trialed AMR Wideband among consumers in Germany, proving the potential of this technology thanks to a significant improvement in voice quality and the consequent end-user satisfaction.

This was the first AMR (Adaptive Multi Rate) Wideband trial in a commercial network and consumer response was researched by the Ericsson Consumer & Enterprise Lab together with the German market research company GfK.

The report shows clearly the positive reaction of the consumers, with more than 70 percent of the participants experiencing significant improvement in the voice quality.

Ericsson Consumer & Enterprise Lab studies show that higher call quality improves subscriber satisfaction and can contribute significantly to increased MoU (Minutes of Use) in mobile networks.

Klaus-Juergen Krath, Vice President RAN Engineering, T-Mobile International, says: “TMO is absolutely committed to constantly improving the user experience for our customers and AMR Wideband offers a voice quality as yet unknown in telephony. The early customer trial delivers valuable feedback, which can be used in a future implementation phase.”

Fredrik Alatalo, Vice President Mobile Core, Ericsson, says: “Consumer understanding is key for the development of successful products. We are happy to support our customers with state-of-the-art technology trials and at the same time, provide them with valuable information about consumer behavior.”

Ericsson AMR Wideband is a new GSM/WCDMA standardized speech codec designed to enhance voice quality and clarity in mobile networks to noticeably higher levels than today’s ISDN fixed telephony, even in whispered conversations or environments with high background noise.

AMR-Wideband also enables improved operator services, such as enhanced personalized ringback tones and multi-party conferences.

AMR-Wideband is the latest speech-compression standard algorithm and offers substantially better voice quality because of doubled voice bandwidth without extra radio and transmission requirements.

The trial was run for four weeks, earlier this summer, with 150 consumers involved in Cologne and Hamburg.

Ericsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband Internet communications through its continuous technology leadership. Providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries, Ericsson is helping to create the most powerful communication companies in the world.

Read more at: www.ericsson.com

NOTE TO EDITORS:
Find more information about AMR Wideband and improved speech samples taken from the trial at:
www.ericsson.com/technology/tech_articles/amr-wb.shtml

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