[3GScottishUser]

Spent a while on the phone today making calls, all of them in Glasgow in 3G coverage. Pretty solid all along the M8 from the East End to Glasgow Airport.

What was interesting was the quality of the calls. They were very clear and one of my contacts thought I was on a landline such was the lack of noise or interference.

The Samsung Z500 has a very good speaker and microphone and this could be part of the answer why calls are so clear. The Vodafone network also seems to have been optimised for clear voice calls.

What have others found?

Have you noticed better qulaity on Vodafone's 3G network compared with others?

[3g-g]

I have to say I was asked a couple of times the other day if I was still on the line it was so quiet as I was making calls on Orange. I think most of us will find that the networks have invested heavily in noise reduction and echo cancelling to make your mobile a viable alternative to the land line.

Although, did you know, that the mobile networks are so quiet, more so than a landline, that they inject noise into speech so as the user is aware that the call is still active!

[whatleydude]

On a similar note - there have been times when I've been talking to my wife on the phone for a while and I've had to stop to ask if she's still there because the line is quiet when she's listening it sounds like its dead!

[3GScottishUser]

I noticed that yesterday. The silence really is silence - a bit eerie, still I suppose digital technology should perform like that. Interesting that the networks actually create some line noise, some more than others i suspect!!!

[Hands0n]

This is an issue that first came up when the Digital voice technologies came about. The total silence was soon seen to make people uncomfortable and therefore the engineers created the facility to inject "White Noise" into the periods of non-voice. How much to inject is usually configurable at some point in the network.

I suspect that the white noise injection is being performed within the network and not at the handset itself - hence the percieved different levels noticeable on different networks. I'm sure one of our network friends will be able to confirm/deny this.

My reference for this concept of injecting white noise goes back to the late 1970's (a product called Telemux - anyone remember that?) which was the first ever 4 x voice over 9.6kbps serial line multiplexor - as large as a household fridge it was! The DSPs didn't even exist then!! The voice quality it was dire at times. Within years the technology improved as DSPs came about and the rest is a history of miniaturisation and integration. But the injection of white noise persists today as we humans really cannot handle the total silence that is digital no-voice. We tend to think the call is broken and hang up!!

Edit: Blimey! Hark at me!! I'm beginning to sound like Tommy Cockles :)