Two men talk on a can phone.

Sometimes talking on a cellphone can sound like you're talking into a tin can. (iStockphoto.com)


By Julia Buckley

In its January 2010 issue, Consumer Reports takes a solid look at cell phones and cell phone service. Technicians tested dozens of phones and found something rather surprising: not one of the phones received an excellent or very good rating for voice quality.

"That's right. One area that has not improved one bit is voice quality," senior Electronics Editor Michael Gikas tells NPR's Robert Siegel.

"Apparently it's not high on the priority list of the carriers or phone makers," said Gikas. "Voice quality for them is if you can hear the other person at the other [end] that's a success. So they end up with adequate service."

No matter the phone or the service, voice quality seems to be not all that important these days. According to Consumer Reports, voice quality was not even a huge concern for thousands of readers surveyed by the magazine. Instead, it's all about apps and streaming and surfing the web. It's about checking mail and texting and using GPS. It's about ease of use and battery life and the camera.

In short, it's about revenue streams for the companies.

"If you want anything to do with the web, that's another $30 a month guaranteed. Another $20 a month for unlimited messaging," says Gikas. "They don't get anything for voice quality."

Gikas adds that phones that use the Verizon network sound a little better than the AT&T and T-Mobile network.

I just wish that somewhere in there was a concern for how we sound, since we are talking about phones after all. Sometimes, I just wish we could back to the landline days of the Sprint slogan, "you can hear a pin drop."

3:26 - December 29, 2009

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