Thomson made available the world’s first suite of wireless Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) devices – multiple play residential gateways and IP DECT phones - that integrate wideband audio functionality for an enhanced telephony experience.


Through wideband audio, operators and service providers can offer their users a vastly improved telephony experience. Near-CD quality sound covering the full range of frequencies audible to most people is immediately perceived by the end user insofar as the quality of the voice connection is much higher than that provided by traditional PSTN telephony. Furthermore, with such high audio quality, applications other than voice are possible, such as listening to music just streamed.

“Wideband audio delivers superior voice quality both compared to regular PSTN and standard IP phone calls. Integrating this feature raises the bar not only in terms of the sophistication of broadband service delivery platforms but also for voice services across the board”, explained Bruno Fabre, vice president in charge of Telecom activities at Thomson. “We believe that in 2007 wideband audio will be implemented in 30% of the wireless VoIP devices dedicated to both the residential and enterprise markets.”

The Technology Behind the Innovation

VoIP software on many PCs already delivers wideband audio quality hence a real phone provided by an operator is expected to offer the same quality at the very least. Thomson is the first to offer this functionality on wireless devices which allow users to access VoIP services without the need for a PC. Thanks to its advanced expertise in VoIP and codec development as well as its radio and acoustic know-how, Thomson is the first to launch this feature via DECT and Bluetooth® technologies.

Underpinned by the G.722 codec, a signal conversion process governing the compression of voice or audio signals, the wideband audio feature is supported for H.323 (teleconferencing protocol as specified by the ITU), MGCP (Media Gateway Control Protocol) or SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and is available both in European DECT as well as US DECT 6.0 standards.