Tomorrow at the eComm Europe 2009 event, Brussels-based provider of international VoIP origination services and telephone numbers Voxbone will be officially announcing that its global phone number service iNum now supports high-definition voice calling between Skype (which now boasts over 521 million users worldwide) and dozens of VoIP networks.
Voxbone will be transcoding between Skype’s wideband SILK codec and the HD codec G.722, with support for additional codes planned for the future. In the end, Voxbone says it wants to turn the technology into the sound quality standard for VoIP and “eventually all telephony”.
For your background: iNum is short for “international Number”. Think of it as a geographically-independent phone number that lets you use the same number all around the word, instead of needing to switch to a new number from a new supplier in case you move to a new country or stay in one for a long period of time. Here’s a list of current providers.
iNum makes use of the +883 global country code newly created by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union). The startup received a first allocation of 100 million numbers from the organization last year.
Because iNum numbers can be dialed from PSTN phones (aka via the ‘plain old telephone system’) as well as IP endpoints, Voxbone’s move enables conference calls with attendees on conventional phones, who will hear within the PSTN’s audio constraints, and others with HD IP endpoints, who should enjoy a richer sound. Skype made its SILK super-wideband audio codec freely available last March.
We should note there is some industry criticism around the concept of ‘HD calling’, which at times gets billed as a fancy new term that doesn’t describe anything earth-shatteringly new or innovative and something which there is no demand for.
Any specialists who want to weigh in on this discussion?
Does anyone proofread these articles? I see so many typos!
Nice name for marketing. To me it sounds like there is a problem with Skype not being clear enough and HD would fix it. Very confusing for consumer.
Actually, thats exactly _not_ the problem.
Skype’s SILK is a _state_of_the_art_ codec,
used right it can adapt to make the best possible use of the available channel.
What Voxbone are offering is a ’standard’ way to designate a non-skype HD capable endpoint,
eg a conferencing service or an island of HD phones with a single ITSP or organization.
VOXbone allocates a number for and skype users can call it and _stay_ in HD . Likewise folks in one HD island can call to another HD island via the Voxbone numbers.
That’s the theory anyhow.
As Florian says, it isn’t at all clear that the other telcos will choose to route those voxbone numbers anytime soon.
HD calling is not an industry standard. Moreover have you tried calling one of those +883 number from your current provider (AT&T, Tmobile, VZW, Sprint)? It won’t work. +883 is not yet inter-connected with carriers. Only a few are supporting this new country code.
Why would you want a phone number that cannot be reached?
Indeed… why would you want a phone number that cannot be reached!
We really need to update the reach list…. stay tuned.
Respectfully, I disagree with your statement about HD Calling. Our service, http://www.hide...onferencing.com, was the first wideband (HD) conference calling service in the market. By leveraging Skype and other wideband-enabled desktop voice clients, we provide a much less painful conference calling experience. While you can still use regular POTS phones on these conf. calls you do NOT get the HD experience.
Research has shown there to be less fatigue, better comprehension and more productivity when participating in HD voice conference calls than traditioanl 3 khz PSTN calls
HD audio is a bit of misnomer with no standards in place. To have “true HD” you need not only have a wideband audio codec (often the easy part) but also other audio features that make the overall experience “HD” for the user.
These features are generally:
* Acoustic Echo Cancellation
* Adaptive Gain Control
* Packet Loss Concealment
All of the above are more of an art than a science as the issues are very inctricate and complex.
The problems come with people saying they offer HD audio but don’t properly address these features, which makes the users experience poor.
It is true that simply offering a higher sample rate does not necessarily improve quality. Only when matched with various DSP functionality can a HD conversation be made effective.
SILK v3 includes provision for packet loss concealment. When matched with a good microphone and transcoding offered within the iNum connectivity platform, quality HD conversations can be made between networks supporting a wide variety of disparate codecs. There is a future in high-definition ’same-room’ connectivity.
HD voice is one of those things you don’t know you need ’till you have had it and then it is taken away
In a mixed HD/LD conference call I tend to ignore the LD folks, they are just harder work to listen to!
In a normal person-to-person call it makes less difference.
Try joining of the VUC.me sessions to hear the difference.
Alternatively play with : http://tinyurl.com/mnm2we
(press the # key to switch between HD and LD)
Agreed. People are usually shocked at how good Skype sounds if both parties have a good mic/speaker setup. Then it’s annoying to go back to POTS.
Anyone that’s experienced a Skype-to-Skype call can attest to the hugely noticeable difference in audio quality between a wide-band call and a narrow-band (POTS) call. Try it. It’s like stereo vs. mono.
Everyone has sat through conference bridge calls. They’re crap. Skype conference calls sound awesome on my Mac.
so when will i be able to get an iNUM from skype? this would be great as i could than forward sip calls seamlessly and even add international DIDs without forwarding via the PSTN.
The iNum website says “One number, worldwide, for life!” Yet it appears that all iNum #’s are generated by third party partners, like Gizmo5. The number does not appear to be ‘portable’ in any way. It is associated to my account with a third party provider. So, I am at a loss as to how I can get a iNum that sticks with me for life and is not tied down to a specific VOIP provider…
Number portability means two things:
(a) carrying your number with you wherever you are in the world
(b) having the choice between providers
iNum provides (a) already… so I guess that just leaves (b)
@Jeff – indeed. portability between providers will be introduced in 2010
If it actually worked, I would pay through the nose for it. Having a phone-call to meet-up for lunch is one thing. Have you ever tried to do a long-distance relationship over the phone? POTS is terrible. Skype is a little better, though it has its own issues. I would easily shell out cash to get a higher fidelity experience. Likely, the same is true of many people who have long-distance family, a situation more and more common in our globalized world.
— Dave
Now that Phone.com supports HD Calls http://www.phon...press-releases/ a call from Skype to an iNum number provided by Phone.com to a Phone.com user that has a Polycom HD Phone, will be HD all the way (i.e is 500M people can actually call to that Phone.com user using HD). Since Skype and Polycom (in this case the two end points) handle HD Voice, Acoustic Echo Cancellation & Packet loss concealment, the call quality is superb.