AT&T hasn't been terribly vocal about its plans to roll out HD Voice support on its network, with the only tidbit of information coming a couple of months ago when a public relations rep for the big blue carrier teased that AT&T was planning to support HD Voice later in 2013. The good news for AT&T customers is that those plans have been backed up today by AT&T SVP Kris Rinne. AllThingsD reports that, while speaking today at the VentureBeat Mobile Summit, Rinne confirmed that her AT&T intends to roll out HD Voice support on its network later this year. "HD Voice is part of our voice over LTE strategy," Rinne explained.
In addition to HD Voice, AT&T plans to begin work on LTE Advanced later this year. The service is a step up from regular LTE and allows for less interference as well as the ability to bond together data traffic from a carrier's different frequencies in order to boost capacity. No other details on AT&T's LTE Advanced plans were given by Rinne.
HD Voice hasn't really seen much in the way of widespread consumer adoption yet. Sprint hasn't had much to say when it comes to HD Voice support since it debuted the HD Voice-capable HTC EVO 4G LTE last year, and Verizon recently revealed that it doesn't plan on adding HD Voice support to its network until 2014. T-Mobile has been the biggest backer of HD Voice by far, announcing at CES 2013 that it had added HD Voice support to its network. As part of its iPhone 5 introduction last month, T-Mobile also confirmed that its version of Apple's latest smartphone will support HD Voice on its network, making it the only U.S. carrier to offer an HD Voice-enabled iPhone 5.
While things are still a bit up in the air when it comes to AT&T's HD Voice rollout, it's good to hear that the carrier intends to begin rolling it out later this year. Actually using a phone to make voice calls may not be as popular as it once was, but these things that we obsess over are still phones, and these shiny new 4G LTE networks that U.S. carriers are rolling out can provide callers with improved voice quality along with the faster data speeds that everyone loves. Are you interested in HD Voice?
Via AllThingsD
