Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark has made history by conducting the world’s first phone call using new “immersive audio and video” technology, significantly enhancing call quality with three-dimensional sound. This advancement, unveiled on Monday, promises to make voice interactions more lifelike and detailed.
“We have demonstrated the future of voice calls,” said Lundmark, who was also present during the first 2G call in 1991.Current smartphone calls use monophonic audio, which compresses and flattens sound. In contrast, Nokia’s new technology introduces 3D audio, allowing callers to hear conversations as if they were physically present with the other person.
“This is the biggest leap forward in the live voice calling experience since the introduction of monophonic telephony audio,” stated Jenni Lukander, president of Nokia Technologies.
The groundbreaking call was made using a regular smartphone over a public 5G network, with Lundmark speaking to Stefan Lindström, Finland’s Ambassador of Digitalisation and New Technologies.
“This technology is now becoming standardized,” Lukander added. “Network providers, chipset manufacturers, and handset makers can begin integrating it into their products.”
Beyond personal calls, this immersive technology has applications in conference calls, enabling participants’ voices to be spatially separated based on their locations. “A vast majority of smartphones already have the necessary two microphones to implement this technology, which can transmit spatial characteristics in real time,” explained Jyri Huopaniemi, head of audio research at Nokia Technologies.
This innovation is part of the upcoming 5G Advanced standard, with Nokia aiming for licensing opportunities to make this technology widely available in the coming years.