

Scott Adams: Wireless Voice Calls are Obsolete - cwan
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/wireless_voice_calls_are_obsolete/

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artmageddon
Firstly, let's truncate this list:

1\. Either one of you have a weak signal.

2\. Either one of you are using an earpiece or headset.

3\. The other person has a cell phone (delay problem).

4\. Either one of you are multitasking and can't think.

5\. Either one of you are in a noisy environment, such as Earth.

6\. Either one of you get another call you have to take.

7\. Either one of you have a dying battery.

8\. Either one of you have a phone that drops calls for no good reason.

9\. Either one of you are in a restaurant and isn't a jerk.

10\. There is a child within 100 yards of either of you.

While each of these gripes are very legitimate, I don't think that they
indicate the bell tolling for the end of wireless voice calling. It's very
obvious that they both have their uses.

Voice calls work best when the environment is well suited for it: quiet place,
clear signal, and lots of time/minutes to use. SMS is better for very short
exchanges, keeping a record of conversations, or when your signal is
unreliable(i.e. the other guy knows exactly what I said or doesn't, shouting
through static doesn't help), or when speaking on a cell phone simply isn't
appropriate(i.e. library).

Sorry Scott, but I have to disagree.

------
pak
A lot of the voice quality problems can be attributed to forcing cellphones to
route through the PSTN[1] which is 8bit u-law 8kHz audio. That's a huge
stretch from CD-quality audio--it used to be presumed the minimum required for
voice to be understandable, and besides the u-law encoding, it's uncompressed.
You would get much better audio quality by recording voice at a higher
sampling rate and encoding it as a 64kbps MP3, which is the same bitrate as
the PSTN and trivial for cellphone hardware to do; however, cellphones have to
be able to call landlines and other cellphones, and the common point of
connectivity (and so the lowest common denominator) is the PSTN. VoIP can use
even better audio compression algorithms that result in audio quality far
superior to anything you'd hear through the PSTN. For instance, this is why
many reviewers of FaceTime report that activating it makes the audio quality
of their call noticeably better, on top of all the niceties of the video
stream.

It's not just humans that have trouble hearing at 8kHz 8-bit u-law--voice
transcription software is remarkably more accurate when using a microphone on
a computer recording at 44kHz 16-bit compared to over the phone. This is part
of the reason, for instance, Google Voice transcription is nowhere near as
effective as Dragon Naturally Speaking on your laptop, and never will be.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_switched_telephone_netwo...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_switched_telephone_network)

~~~
metageek
It's not just the μ-law backend, though; it's also the codecs used on the
cellphone network. For example, 3G GSM supports AMR-WB, which is apparently
fairly good quality, but the carriers don't have to enable it. Some European
carriers use it; but they have actual competition. I'm pretty sure AT&T, for
one, limits their network to AMR, at half the bitrate.

FaceTime can do better because Apple is bypassing the carrier network
altogether.

~~~
pak
I think FaceTime is VoIP; I was attempting to support the claim I made about
VoIP.

------
T_S_
"For important calls, I use a land line that serves as my fax line. If I
receive a call on my cellphone, I try to keep it short, or I call back from my
fax line."

Why aren't faxes obsolete? Over 10 years since President Clinton e-signed the
e-signature law into place. About 150 years since the first e-signature (over
telegraph). Seems like an opportunity missed here.

~~~
wazoox
They certainly are obsolete. I'm nearly 40 and I managed to send no more than
2 faxes in my whole professional life. I don't seem to having done it once in
the past 8 years.

~~~
danpker
They're definitely not obsolete, at least outside of technology companies.
Many businesses use a fax machine on a daily basis to send documents and order
forms, as it's much easier than scanning things and then emailing them.

------
wccrawford
"In my life, voice calls using cellphones fail more often than they succeed"

Well, thank God I don't live in the desolate wasteland that he does. I haven't
had a problem with voice calls in years.

~~~
jsm386
Try making a call on an iPhone in Midtown Manhattan, which is hardly a
'desolate wasteland'

~~~
vetinari
Midtown Manhattan may have capacity problems, too many callers and not enough
towers. But dropping calls in Queens at 7 AM, now that is too much (no iPhone,
I might add, but good old Nokia, that has seen its first dropped call there.
But yes, roaming in AT&T network).

------
ugh
Weak signal seems very much like an American problem.

------
twymer
"The worst offenders are the people in cars who don't have satellite radio, or
books on tape, and they're just calling to make their drive less boring."

This, of course, triggers about half the list. Noisy environment, makes phones
drop calls, sporadic week signals, and of course the other person is now
multitasking.

The loss of these would be the perk of cell phone bans for drivers.

------
bcl
I hate phone calls, unless they are pre-arranged. Send me an email so you
don't interrupt my train of thought.

~~~
billybob
So either turn off your phone, or glance at it and don't answer. Or find a way
to filter calls.

My simple little Nokia flip phone lets me define ringing profiles. So my "bed"
profile only rings for certain people. A "work" profile could do the same
thing. Surely smart phones have at least that much filtering power.

------
kenjackson
I haven't had a dropped call in years (on Sprint).

The problem with text messages is that you can't actually have a conversation.
For example I just had a conversation with a friend of mine about the MIT
network flow algorithm. Given the rapid and back and forth, the call lasted
about 15 minutes. A text stream of the same content would have taken days. The
real result is likely that one of us would probably have decided to simply
stop responding.

~~~
Splines
I was on Sprint for several years before picking up an iPhone 3G, and it's
frustrating has heck. I rarely had a dropped call on my Sprint dumb-phone. In
fact, it was so rare that when a call _did_ drop, it was a memorable
occurrence (at least for a few days). Now, dropped calls on my iPhone are a
daily occurrence and a crap-tax to owning such a device.

------
swernli
So funny, and so true: "When I get a text alert, it always makes me happy,
even before I read the message. When my phone rings, I think, Uh-oh, what
fresh hell is this?"

------
kloncks
The biggest reason I hate voice calls is that they're random and surprising. I
like to be ready for them. Texting, email, instant messages let me reply to
them when I can or when I'd like to get to them.

Also, rather than say texting is better, as a CrackBerry user I'll call out
BlackBerry Messenger as a much better alternative.

------
atomical
Some of the richest most productive calls I have ever made have been landline
to landline. Talking cell to cell can be atrocious when you factor in delay,
reception, and input issues but I would take those any day over trying to type
on a tiny keyboard. It's a waste of time. Occasionally I use aim to send texts
but to me that's more like messaging than texting.

------
pragmatic
He must be on AT&T.

I don't have these problems.

~~~
SilianRail
I was on Verizon for 5 years and never had any of these problems...then BAM
got the iPhone and everything for voice calls went to shit.

------
Tichy
Just hold it differently!

Edit: I guess I have to explain. Probability that a celebrity has an iPhone 4:
99%. iPhone 4 has known reception problems if you hold it wrong. Scott Adams
complains about bad reception on his mobile phone. Therefore it seems probable
that if he would hold it differently (or get a better phone), his complaints
would be moot.

~~~
artmageddon
There are many other phones out there besides the iPhone 4 that have signal
problems. Is Scott Adams famous? Sure-but that doesn't necessarily mean he's
an Apple follower. If his article mentioned anything about the iPhone, it
still wouldn't negate the points about other callers, low battery, ambient
noise, etc.

~~~
metageek
The article _does_ mention the iPhone; it says he has one. A quick search also
shows that (a) when the iPad was introduced, he thought it was a useless in-
between product; (b) he now owns one, and loves it. So, maybe not a follower,
but definitely a repeat customer.

<http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/the_amazingness_of_instant/>

