Spirent Communications announced that it has launched a new Acoustic Verification System (AVS) to evaluate the sound quality of mobile devices, helping manufacturers save money by avoiding defective products.
“We see an exciting opportunity to help operators improve their forward and reverse logistics processes with AVS,” said Des Owens, General Manager of Spirent’s Service Experience business unit.
AVS helps the mobile forward logistics groups, tasked with getting phones from the manufacturers to the stores, make sure they’re offering the best products to their customers and avoid defective products reaching store shelves.
Reverse logistics departments, on the other hand, deal with returned products. There, AVS helps them determine which in-warranty devices are actually defective, as well as ensuring that only fully-functional devices get refurbished.
AVS has a bench-top form factor that makes it easy for technicians to examine a large number of devices quickly. Sampling a certain number of devices and finding they’re defective could mean there’s a problem with a certain model, for example.
One of the most common reasons for returns of devices within warranty like smartphones is “poor audio quality.” While audio quality may be subjective, defects can make it hard to make out what other people are saying during phone calls. Spirent’s AVS can determine if a customer really does have a problem. Owens said that that 60 percent of the returned devices Spirent tested had defects that only AVS could find.
The company said that a large Tier 1 operator in the U.S. was already deploying AVS.
While operators are trying to improve call quality with things like HD Voice, hardware is still hardware and hardware sometimes breaks. By reducing the number of defects and solving customer problems when they happen, carriers can develop greater trust from their customers, preventing them from going to competitors with more reliable phones.
Edited by
Alisen Downey 
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