UK-based EE said it is the first mobile operator in the country to offer enhanced HD voice services on 4G networks or Wi-Fi calling, in a move which will improve the quality and reliability of voice calls.

EE, owned by BT, said it upgraded its network to enable the next-generation of voice services, with the new Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus (launching today, 22 September) being the first smartphones to benefit from the technology.

Further compatible smartphones will be added in the coming months.

3GPP compliant
EE explained enhanced HD voice will be available on its IP multimedia subsystem based services, which includes 4G calling (VoLTE) and Wi-Fi calling. The operator said it upgraded its network and, in particular, its IMS platform to support the latest 3GPP voice codec and get the best possible voice performance from the latest devices.

The company’s 4G calling technology is available on every 4G site and is used by more than 5 million customers in the country, connecting more than 300 million calls a month.

Max Taylor, MD of marketing at EE, talked up the benefits of EE’s network over its rivals in a statement.

“We already have 4G in more places than any other UK operator, and we have the fastest 4G speeds for streaming, downloading and sharing. Now we’re launching enhanced HD voice so that calls are of the highest quality and the most reliable they’ve ever been,” he said.

EE recently announced plans to upgrade more than 600 sites with “the latest 4G spectrum over the next months”. The sites will use refarmed 2G spectrum, which the company said will double the uplink data rate it can offer to 100Mb/s.