On Fri, 15 Jul 2016 10:54:13 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:

On Fri, 15 Jul 2016 11:40:47 -0400, Ed Huntress wrote:

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?

I don't, but cruddy audio + dropouts is worse than just cruddy audio, so
there'd certainly be pressure on the equipment manufacturers to make the
change.

AFAIC, cellular tech still isn't ready for prime time.

--
The ultimate result of shielding men from folly
is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer