HD Voice Has Potential To Reverse Decline in Landlines

Deploying HD voice services on both landline and mobile systems would provide carriers with a service differentiator and a product with a price premium people are willing to pay for.

That's the opinion of VoIP industry expert Jeff Pulver, who says HD voice has the potential to reverse the trend of declining landline sales.

"People will start to purchase home lines again because it sounds so damn good," he told FierceVoIP.

Pulver is organizing the HD VoIP Summit, an event which will explore issues associated with the widespread deployment of HD VoIP.

It is being held in New York on 21 May and will include vendors demonstrating products and platforms, as well as discussions on the issues and challenges in transforming the existing communications infrastructure into one which supports HD.

"I believe HD voice holds the same promise for the telecom industry as format changes in the entertainment industry," he wrote on his blog.

"With enough interest, together we can trigger a replacement cycle like the one observed currently with HDTV."

Pulver said failure to change the communications infrastructure would put traditional communication networks at risk of becoming disintermediated as better sounding means of communication naturally evolve.

He said the purpose of the event is to bring together a leadership team, built around vision and change, and to bring together telecom catalysts to effect this change.