In what could be regarded as it Christmas present to Nigerians, leading telco, Airtel Nigeria, has announced the roll-out of High Definition (HD) Voice Service, a network innovation that allows customers to experience exceptional voice quality across 3.75G locations in the country. With the deployment, Airtel becomes the first mobile operator in Nigeria to launch HD Voice service in the country. The HD voice service will complement the operator’s HD data service, enabling telecoms consumers to enjoy a rich telephony experience.

HD Voice enables mobile operators to clearly differentiate their service offering with high quality voice calls on mobile networks. With HD, customers can talk normally and be heard clearly, without having to raise their voice, even in noisy environments.

Airtel says the service will enable more Nigerians enjoy a more fulfilling Christmas celebration and enter the New Year in grand style as they connect to unite with friends, family members and loved ones across the country.

Speaking on the network innovation, the Chief Operating Officer, Deepak Srivastava said Airtel is committed to improving the quality and coverage of its network and also building the most robust network infrastructure in Nigeria.

A statement issued on behalf of Airtel by its publicists, Blueflower, quoted Srivastava as saying: “We will keep raising the level of our investment in Nigeria. Today, we have the largest and widest 3.75G coverage in the country and we have recorded several milestones in network quality improvement and general customer experience.

“Only recently, we recorded huge success in our 4G Trial test in Lagos and now we have deployed HD Voice service across key 3.75G locations in the country. Indeed, this demonstrates our commitment to Nigerians, testifying to our corporate vision of becoming the most loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians.”

HD Voice, or wideband audio, refers to the next-generation of voice quality for telephony. HD Voice more accurately reproduces the human voice with a wider frequency range. The result is significantly more natural sounding speech and a wider range of sounds promoting audio clarity and clear conversation.

With HD Voice, consumers can perceive the difference and the general sentiment is that the experience is more of “being in the same room” with the person on the other end of the phone line.

Customers with smartphones that support HD functionality can straight away experience the magic. Some of the handsets supporting HD functions are the relatively newer models of Samsung, Blackberry, Iphone 5, HTC, Sony, Nokia among others.

•Photo: Airtel Nigeria’s Chief Operating Officer, Deepak Srivastava.