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truerock's profile

Teacher

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24 Messages

Thursday, December 22nd, 2016 2:49 AM

HD Voice for iPhone 5

Can I add HD Voice capability to an iPhone  5 by getting a new SIM card for it?

When the iPhone 5 was first announced by Apple it noted that the iPhone 5 was HD Voice capable.  The problem was that AT&T did not have HD Voice at that time.

 

I want to make my iPhone 5 HD Voice capable so I can use AT&T Call Protect.

 

Thanks

Community Support

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230.4K Messages

7 years ago

Hello, @truerock!

 

Thank you for your patience with the HD voice feature. I would love to go over the available options.

 

With an iPhone 5, replacing the SIM card will not get HD voice capabilities for your phone, I do apologize for this. AT&T is still working on getting this feature available to you, as quickly as possible.

 

I hope this information helps!

 

Jordan, AT&T Community Specialist

Teacher

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24 Messages

7 years ago

Thanks Jordan,

 

Yes, I put a new AT&T SIM card in my iPhone 5 and it still does not have AT&T HD Voice.  Apparently AT&T would need to push a "network provider" update out to Apple iPhone 5 to get AT&T HD Voice to work because AT&T was working on setting up HD Voice when the iPhone 5 was first being sold by AT&T.

 

From what I know, Apple iPhone 4s and older does not have HD Voice capability.

ACE - Expert

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64.7K Messages

7 years ago

@truerock I think you misunderstood Jordan's answer. I'm pretty sure HD Voice is not available for the iPhone 5. Only iPhone 6, 6s, 7 and SE models are HD Voice compatible. 

Teacher

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24 Messages

7 years ago

Sandblaster,

Jordan said, "AT&T is still working on getting this feature available to you, as quickly as possible.".

So, I'm just taking what he says at face value.

 

The iPhone 5 is AT&T HD Voice capable - but, it came out before AT&T had rolled out its HD Voice system.  So, I would guess there is a little bit of a disconnect and that a network provider update would need to be sent out by AT&T.

 

When AT&T came out with 4G data network, AT&T sent out an update to some of my family's iPhones.  Same thing with AT&T LTE.  So, I'm guessing Jordan meant what he wrote.

 

I got this info from the Apple News app that said it would also require the lates AT&T SIM.  I need to track that news item link down.

Professor

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1.1K Messages

7 years ago

@truerock,

 

The iPhone 5 supports wideband audio, which is where the "HD Voice" term came from.

 

AT&T doesn't support HD Voice on anything other than LTE (VoLTE). The only iPhones that support VoLTE are the iPhone 6 and above (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203078).

 

I believe the only carriers who support HD Voice without VoLTE are T-Mobile and Sprint.

 

 

I wasn't able to find any documents suggesting AT&T might expand HD Voice to non VoLTE calls.

 

The way to achieve HD Voice on AT&T would be to get an HD Voice (AT&T HD Voice that is) compatible phone such as the iPhone 6 or newer or a supported, carrier branded Android phone such as the Samsung Galaxy S7.

Employee

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3.5K Messages

7 years ago

HD Voice on AT&T requires a VOLTE capable device. Anything under iPhone 6 is not VOLTE as far as I know.

ACE - Sage

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116.4K Messages

7 years ago

@truerock  Try "DU caller".  I have non ATT phones which are also not HD voice compatible on ATT.  

DU caller works the same, well actually it works better.  

 

Teacher

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24 Messages

7 years ago

VOLTE is transmitted over LTE frequency bands 2, 4 and 17.  Those LTE bands are supported by iPhone 5.

AT&T and the other US network providers are struggling with ironing out interoperability and other issues with the VOLTE CoDecs.  I'll make a wild guess and say perhaps AT&T will roll out its VOLTE CoDec to iPhone 5 (and any LTE capable AT&T supported smartphone) after AT&T feels like it has the CoDec technology issues completely worked out.

 

Obviously anyone can write an app to send voice from an iPhone 5 over the AT&T LTE network to another LTE capable iPhone running the same CoDec.  Its actually quite easy to do that.  Its the interoperability issues that make the implementation a challenging task.  Real-time streaming involves tricky QOS issues.

Professor

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1.1K Messages

7 years ago

@David606 that's my understanding as well. And I can't imagine AT&T choosing to activate HD Voice on the older networks. I think the only reason T-Mobile did it back then on their HSPA network was to try to compete.and say they had it when the others didn't.

Employee

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3.5K Messages

7 years ago

This is the thing about the iPhone 5 and the belief it works with HD Voice/VOLTE. It features this:

 

https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/MDM9615

 

This Qualcomm chip supports VOLTE but it's not enabled on these older iPhones.

 

If you want my opinion (and I know no one does) but there won't be any kind of rollouts for anything as old as the iPhone 5 or 5S/5C in regards to stuff like this. If it's not VOLTE out of the box then it's just not going to get patched in later. Remember, cellular carriers are businesses and selling people new phones is a big part of that. Now, this is my opinion here so do not take this as AT&T's stance or view but not allowing non-branded devices to use VOLTE is just as much a tech issue as it is a revenue and income one.

 

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