The gap in voice quality between a telephone call and meeting in-person has not decreased since the 1930's. This fact is no less surprising than had a iPhone dropped from the sky as the Bell Laboratories researchers made the decisions establishing 300Hz to 3300Hz as the network frequency response 80 years ago. It does not seem unreasonable to wonder why voice networks remain constrained by a technology decision made a decade before the invention of the transistor.
Telephone voice quality impairments have the same effect as a hearing impairment. Telephone network voice quality limitations are telephone hearing disabilities. The typical telephone connection gives callers the same hearing impairment as the one suffered by the typical 70 year old construction worker in the loss of the frequencies above 4000Hz associated with consonant sounds. Even the retired construction worker will hear more of the frequencies below 500Hz, essential for recognizing voices and establishing an emotional connection, than people using telephones.
Asserting telephone call quality is "good enough" falls into the same denial category as the refusal to wear a hearing aid. A telephone conversation serves the exact same purpose as a conversation in-person. Hearing and voice quality impairments destroy the ability to communicate - understanding. The proliferation of the word "what?"
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