Sprint Reaches Nationwide Footprint With HD Voice, But Intercarrier Capability Lags Behind
CHICAGO - Audio quality continues to be a key differentiator for Sprint, which announced Monday nationwide availability of its HD Voice service, following last week’s announcement of a high-res music sampler offer from music download company HDTracks. At a news conference at the Museum of Broadcast Communications to promote its Framily Plan and Spark enhanced LTE service, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse called HD Voice “the greatest improvement in the history of wireless voice.”
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Sprint HD Voice -- said to expand the vocal range of a cellphone call from four to seven octaves, while reducing background noise -- is now available nationwide and on 28 Sprint postpaid smartphones and 33 prepaid phones, said Hesse, saying sonic advances in digital voice technology for mobile phones have been “very slight” in recent years. With the rollout of HD Voice nationwide, some 16 million Sprint customers will be able to benefit from HD Voice, Hesse said, though company officials said HD Voice will reach its full potential only once there’s cross-carrier compatibility.
The industry is moving toward a standard for a generic HD Voice in a year or two, said Trevor Van Norman, director-device product marketing. Sprint has been especially aggressive with the technology and about 70-80 percent of Sprint’s SKUs are now HD Voice-compatible, he said.
Sprint also said Monday its 4G LTE service is available in 28 new markets, bringing its footprint to 471 cities. New 4G LTE markets include Cleveland, San Jose and Seattle, it said. It also rolled out its enhanced LTE Sprint Spark service to St. Louis, plus Greensboro and Winston-Salem, both in North Carolina, with plans to reach 100 million users by year-end. Sprint calls Spark “built for data” with average wireless speeds of 6-15 Mbps.
Hesse said Sprint is offering an HDTracks sampler of 24-bit/192-kHz high-res audio downloads the HTC One Harman Kardon phone that the company launched in the spring, along with the addition of FM tuners to “a lot of our devices,” allowing users to get local sports, news and emergency alerts. Audio has been an “awesome” category for Sprint, Van Norman said, saying Hesse is a “huge proponent of high-quality music.” A half dozen phones will be able to play downloads from the HDTracks sampler, including the LG G2, the Samsung Galaxy S5 Sport and the Harman Kardon-branded version of the HTC One, Hesse said.
Sprint also unveiled a fitness-oriented version of Samsung’s Galaxy S5 phone called the Galaxy S5 Sport, which integrates a mobile health platform called Sprint Fit Live that allows users to track and monitor workout activity, challenge Family Plan members and receive training and fitness articles. The Sport has a built-in heart rate monitor, barometer, compass, flashlight and stopwatch and includes three hard keys for access to functions while users are active, the company said. Customized audio coaching from MapMyFitness, from athletic gear company Under Armour, is included for a year with the phone for Family plan members and for three months for other subscribers. Hesse cited the Samsung fitness phone partnership and the Harman Kardon HTC One phone partnership it announced last spring as examples of the company’s commitment to “innovate” to provide customers with new products that improve their lives. The phone will be available on July 25 under a 24-month payment plan of $27.09 a month. Customers who buy the Galaxy Sport will get $50 off a Samsung Gear Fit fitness watch for a limited time, Sprint said.