Noise Still A Challenge With CDMA Networks

HIGHLIGHTS

CDMA has opened the door to a new generation of mobile communications products and services. However, CDMA networks are still subject to acoustic echo and ambient noise when customers make calls.

Amplification from a user's handset microphone can actually intensify background noise, exacerbating the problem and further degrading voice quality for both parties on the call. Worse, the background noise does more than degrade voice quality – it impacts network capacity.

In CDMA networks, when signals travel between different networks, voice levels can be encoded too high or too low in an attempt to deliver optimal listening, but often leads to increased frustration by the caller. By eliminating background noise and leveling voice volume, a subscriber's call experience is enhanced significantly.

Ditech Networks' Voice Quality Assurance product improves overall voice quality by reducing or eliminating background noise and acoustic echo, and by improving speech clarity with features such as Enhanced Voice Intelligibility and bidirectional noise cancellation.

In live CDMA network trials, where subscribers were asked to make and evaluate large numbers of phone calls, Voice Quality Assurance significantly improved voice quality by an average of 0.5 MOS, with the potential to move a significant number of calls out of the Churn Zone. (The Churn Zone is the percentage of calls whose voice quality falls below the industry minimum MOS, or the minimum score set by the carrier.)

Additionally, Ditech provides a powerful solution to measure impairments that are directly linked to customer dissatisfaction, and presents these findings in the form of a MOS value. Called Experience Intelligence, it is the industry's first solution that measures impairments that are external to the network.

These products are deployed on our carrier-grade, high density platforms based on what type of network is being supported.