Tata Communications Launches HD Voice-Compatible Network

Tata Communications, a provider of "a new world of communications," today launched its latest service – international HD voice termination. This service enables mobile network operators (MNO) to route international HD calls by way of end-to-end IP and without transcoding, providing the full HD experience to those HD customers calling HD-compatible lines.

This announcement is the latest from Tata, which has been busy so far this year expanding its services. For example, the company introduced the Virtual Private Roaming Hub, which consolidates roaming operations, and the LTE Roaming Service, which streamlines roaming for 4G networks, in February.

It later turned to Allot Communications to provide cloud-hosted policy services to its MNO customers.

The launch of international HD voice termination, meanwhile, enables a broad community of HD destinations through Tata's network, which is connected to 210 MNOs via IP voice interconnect. Of these operators, 26 are HD ready, while another four are in the process of deploying HD voice.

As its name suggests, HD voice provides a clearer calling experience with significantly reduced background noise. This can lead to longer calls and increased revenue for MNOs. As such, HD voice is expected to become a key factor in allowing MNOs to increase customer satisfaction, while reducing churn on premium international calling.

The improved calling experience HD voice provides also provides operators with a competitive advantage over OTT providers when it comes to quality of service.

"Our focus on improving voice quality through innovations such as HD voice has led to 28-percent year-on-year volume growth from key retail service providers (MNO and OTT)," said Michel Guyot, president of Global Voice Solutions at Tata Communications. "We will leverage our community of IP-connected MNOs to quickly enable HD voice calls between the widest possible range of destinations, maximising the benefits of premium call quality for our partners and their end users."

Tata Communications' introduction of HD voice is part of its strategy to capitalize on new technology innovations with better inter-provider mobile service delivery and management.