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!)
