“Telephones have remained unchanged for so long, most people have no idea what limitations they have lived with,” explains Dr. Michael Knieling, Executive VP of Marketing and Sales. “But VoIP also lays the groundwork for a revolution in the quality of voice we communicate with!”
The new snom klarVOICE handset works with the codec G.722.2 PSTN. This codec is able to shrink the bit rate of the voice channel down to 12.65 kbps, offering excellent quality. In standard narrowband VoIP calls, the voice signal is sampled at 8,000 Hz, resulting in an effective voice pass-band of about 200 to 3,300 Hz. The new wideband handset offers a doubled sample rate, providing an effective pass-band of 50 to 7,000 Hz.
According to the vendor the use of snom klarVOICE results in a much higher fidelity voice call, more akin to talking to someone in the same room rather than over a phone. snom klarVOICE will be available for purchase in June 2008.