Decline in Telephone Quality and Other Regressions in Technology

[PTK]

Most days I listen to news and current affairs programmes on BBC Radio 4 (other radio stations are available). It is not unusual for a conversation with a correspondent or someone in the news to be conducted by telephone.

I am dismayed by the number of times that such conversations are disrupted by poor quality sound. There may be interference or distortion, or the connection may break down altogether.

I am old enough to remember the 1960s, when telephone calls on the radio were of very poor quality at times. Then the quality improved, thanks to improvements in technology. In the past twenty years things seemed to have regressed, and it seems to have become normal for technical glitches to occur every day.

It seems to me that telephone communication technology has declined. This seems to be the case in some other fields of technology too. Does anyone agree?

 

[ouirdeaux]

Weirdly, I had the same thought earlier this morning listening to Radio 4. It may even have been the same correspondent.

I feel similar about the quality of images on digital TV.

 

[skyscraper101]

Yes 100%.

I actually had to hang up on a call with my Mum the other day because the quality was so poor I could barely make out what she was saying and this was over 5G.

I switched to FaceTime audio and it was clear as day.

 

[pesh]

Landline and mobile calls sound as shit as they always have. Data calls generally sound far better.
So no, telephone communication technology has massively improved.

 

[Storm Fox]

Back 10 years or so ago, landlines were limited to 64kbs at the inter-exchange level. Mobile was compressed even more. I've not been in Telecoms for a long time now, so as I left, inter-exchange voice was being replaced by VoIP (Voice over IP).

 

[Chilli.s]

I think that the Today program on R4 has to be a good summary of phone line quality, it sometimes seems that only 1 in 5 work without fault. Sound quality generally good but drop out and stuttering are common

 

[Puddy_Tat]

sorry, can't hear you. you're breaking up. what? hello?