Follow Us:
28

Bell and Virgin Mobile rollout HD Voice

By on January 24, 2012 at 7:44pm in Bell Mobility News, Mobile News, Virgin Mobile News


Almost a year to the date WIND Mobile implemented HD Voice to their customers, this reportedly brought a “better quality, clearer voice service experience”. Today, both Bell and Virgin have rolled out HD Voice to their HSPA+ customers – this is available for free on select handsets. For Bell, currently the HD Voice compatible phones are the Nokia C6, Nokia C6-01, HTC Sensation and the HTC Incredible S. For Virgin Mobile, those who have the HTC Sensation and HTC Incredible S will experience HD Voice.

A few notes though: HD Voice will only work when “the call is made by and received by HD Voice compatible phones”, plus will only work when you’re in a coverage area, once you step out HD Voice will not work – but will default to regular voice. According to the Virgin Mobile internal doc we received it states that “HD Voice is not available in Manitoba or Saskatchewan”, but the Bell internal doc states that “Callers within Saskatchewan will not have access to HD Voice at launch”, plus that callers within “Extended” 4G HSPA+ coverage will also not have HD Voice at launch – most likely to do with their limited agreements with MTS and SaskTel.

As to what specifically you can expect from HD Voice on Bell or Virgin: clear call quality, richer overall sound quality, significant reduction in background noise and ease in recognizing voices when multiple peeps are talking.

Let us know if you can notice a difference.

(Thanks tipsters!)

Related posts:

  1. Bell offically takes over Virgin, goodnight Solo Mobile
  2. Bell and Virgin Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant upgrade to OS 2.3 now available
  3. Bell takes over Virgin for $142 million, the end of Solo Mobile?
  4. Virgin Mobile will also launch the HTC Sensation 4G

Discussion

28 comments for “Bell and Virgin Mobile rollout HD Voice”

  1. Absolutely, craptastic, gimmicky bs.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 18 Thumb down 27

    Posted by I forgot my meds | January 24, 2012, 7:49 pm
    Reply to this comment

    • The difference is notable between the standard gsm audio codec and the new one. Don’

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 11 Thumb down 1

      Posted by Accophox | January 24, 2012, 7:51 pm

    • *Don’t diss it if you’ve never tried it.

      (Sorry, I derped and hit the tab key while typing… and pressed submit with my next keystroke. ;.; Why you no have edit post…)

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 12 Thumb down 0

      Posted by Accophox | January 24, 2012, 7:52 pm

    • Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 22

      Posted by ToniCipriani | January 24, 2012, 8:01 pm

    • Just wait couple of days for HD Voice Recovery Fee (HDVRF) to be introduced.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 37 Thumb down 3

      Posted by TomatoGuy | January 24, 2012, 8:46 pm

  2. Funny how few phones actually support this feature.
    As a side note, the Sensation 4G is available for $99 on a voice-only 3 year plan with Bell. While I believe the Incredible S is $0 on a 3 year voice-only with Virgin.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 1

    Posted by Rich | January 24, 2012, 7:52 pm
    Reply to this comment

  3. Why isnt this a standard??

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 37 Thumb down 0

    Posted by ELNY | January 24, 2012, 7:52 pm
    Reply to this comment

    • This could have been one way that land-line companies could’ve stayed in the game – bringing new technologies to the table, e.g., higher-quality codecs, video phones, integration to TV sets, etc..

      Instead, they sat on their monopolistic asses just raking in $30/month from every household for years…

      The consumer land-line business is as good as dead in a few decades, and serves them right.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0

      Posted by ImTherious | January 25, 2012, 11:55 am

  4. Sooo, their rolling out a new feature for old phones? what about the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S2? If newer phones don’t support this feature, where is the future of HD Voice heading? HTC only?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 11 Thumb down 3

    Posted by Dan | January 24, 2012, 7:57 pm
    Reply to this comment

  5. It is a standard, its called AMR-Wideband…

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 13 Thumb down 0

    Posted by A | January 24, 2012, 7:58 pm
    Reply to this comment

  6. Absolute gimmic. And Bell/Virgin will likely hype this like its some game changing technology. Virgin/Bell has 2 out of they’re elevendy billion random phones that support this.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 12

    Posted by T-Hubbz | January 24, 2012, 8:01 pm
    Reply to this comment

  7. Doesn’t really matter right now, I even have one of those phones and doubt I’ll call someone else using them. But if they add a lot more phones (most/all of them) then it will be fantastic.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 0

    Posted by GrimConch | January 24, 2012, 8:09 pm
    Reply to this comment

  8. Super phones, now HD voice, what next?
    Stop fooling people and give us good service. It’s amazing how all those marketing people work together to try and con the consumers. Your sales guys will say ‘this phone gives you HD voice and we won’t charge you for it’ making as if you getting a privilege or something.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 9 Thumb down 5

    Posted by Friko | January 24, 2012, 8:13 pm
    Reply to this comment

  9. Yay, Solo does not support HD voice!

    i wish WIND would promote HD voice and compatible smartphones more often. :-)

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 7 Thumb down 5

    Posted by Alex Perrier | January 24, 2012, 8:14 pm
    Reply to this comment

  10. It’s not a gimmick as call quality in phones suck and can really be improved by using a wideband codec.

    However, given that so few phones supports it, it’s not very useful.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 9 Thumb down 0

    Posted by bob | January 24, 2012, 8:18 pm
    Reply to this comment

  11. Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 11 Thumb down 21

    Posted by Anonymous | January 24, 2012, 8:53 pm
    Reply to this comment

    • Since when is Wind even close to be a nationwide carrier?

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 29 Thumb down 10

      Posted by bob | January 24, 2012, 8:59 pm

    • Oh and we get some info from the wind squad. Wind did indeed speak about it, have it in 1 phone and promptly did nothing with it. We still had the 1/2 duplex echo issues on wind. But lets give credit where credit is due. Wind talked about it first! But they did nothing with it. No doubt a carrier with a real network can and will do better. Funny my Rogers calls seem to be perfect, I wonder if they have HD voice?!

      Real networks for real people… just go to the wind forums and see the problems people are having. No call centers now in the future in Canada.. French option being farmed out to Algeria. Windsor? quashed!

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 7

      Posted by Rocco StiffReddi | January 25, 2012, 3:06 am

  12. Don’t compare Bell with Winds network

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 9 Thumb down 1

    Posted by H | January 24, 2012, 10:57 pm
    Reply to this comment

  13. Ugh, the Sensation and Incredible S aren’t that great… well I guess it might be for some users out there… I guess it only works on HTC phones plus that one Nokia?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 5

    Posted by EmperumanV | January 24, 2012, 11:49 pm
    Reply to this comment

    • Wind had an alcatel model that supported it. Wind doesn’t really promote which ones have support or not any more though.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 0

      Posted by Accophox | January 25, 2012, 12:11 am

  14. Its useless until more phones strt supporting the feture. I hve heard the difference, it is there, but its useless s of now.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0

    Posted by Matt | January 25, 2012, 12:48 am
    Reply to this comment

  15. “better quality”? Un-f-ing beleivable, you would think better quality for such a basic feature would come included with the already high fees. Amazing balls these corperations have. I’m so reaching my limit with all these scams trying to figure out how to get more and more out of my pocket.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 4

    Posted by Domingo | January 25, 2012, 6:34 am
    Reply to this comment

    • read the article again, its free, but you have to have the right phone

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 0

      Posted by 2pacs tshirt | January 25, 2012, 7:52 am

  16. I love being from SASK, we get screwed all the time.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 1

    Posted by boojay | January 25, 2012, 7:54 am
    Reply to this comment

  17. you guys are comical.

    by some of your logic: ‘Free = Bad’

    WEEEOOOO WEEEOOO SOMEONE CALL THE HYPERBOLE POLICE

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 0

    Posted by Rich | January 25, 2012, 8:16 am
    Reply to this comment

  18. Called virgin today they haven’t heard about this new feature. Wonder when its officially rolling out. Its not on their website yet.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0

    Posted by ak29 | January 25, 2012, 10:01 am
    Reply to this comment

  19. Doesn’t the Nexus S and the Galaxy Nexus support AMR-WB format? This should allow these phones to also support HD Voice calling.

    Can someone please confirm?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0

    Posted by Tony Thomas | February 18, 2012, 11:48 am
    Reply to this comment

Post a comment