Here's one for the digital experts: I do a lot of interviews in which
the other party is on a cell phone, and I think I've noticed a
difference over time in how they work.

If the call is conducted at a busy time of day, and there are clear
signs of bandwidth becoming limited, it used to be that there would be
a corresponding number of dropouts in the conversation. Lately (and I
call mostly the Chicago and Los Angeles areas) I've detected something
different: it sounds like they're just reducing the audio bitrate. It
starts to sound like it's coming from a cheap microphone.

Does anyone know?

--
Ed Huntress