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Are you using HD voice capability on calls? We're not asking if you have it in a device. We're asking if you use it on a call.

You have it. Great. You and everybody else. 'All the major cell phone manufacturers have licensed the AMR-WB codec, and they have put it in the firmware of some phones to make the ringtones sound better,' says VoIP strategist Michael Stanford (News - Alert), who adds 'but it is still almost never used for phone calls.'

Business wideband is used almost exclusively for in-house calls, Stanford says, since businesses still mainly use PSTN trunks, 'and even when they use VoIP trunks the trunking provider rarely supports wideband. And even if the trunking provider supports wideband, the chances are slim that at the remote end of the call the trunking provider, the PBX (News - Alert), and the phone, all support wideband.'

Stanford suggests there are four rays of hope:

'Broadcom has followed Polycom (News - Alert) and Skype in releasing its wideband voice codecs royalty-free,' he says explaining that this 'makes it easy for phone manufacturers to embed multiple codecs in their devices, increasing the chances that two endpoints can negotiate a common wideband codec and avoid transcoding.

That several VoIP service providers have gotten together to peer wideband VoIP traffic should allow wideband codecs between networks he says, and that several voice service providers are now promoting wideband as a differentiator is another positive sign.

And 'finally, wideband voice is getting more visibility at industry conferences. Jeff Pulver has initiated a series of conferences called HD Comm, and TMC (News - Alert) had an HD Voice track at the fall ITEXPO, and is having another at January’s ITEXPO in Miami,' he says.