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Let's assume for a moment that you're not stupid enough to confuse 200kBps (1.6Mbps) for 200kbps.

Opus is fine down to 8kbps. It fits over a cheap, shitty mid-20th century analogue telephone line with room to spare.

The ultra-narrow band stuff is very niche, and is consequently unlikely to have the broad impact you're imagining.

In contrast there is continue enthusiasm for these pointless midband codecs that are similar in performance to Opus but have the "advantage" that somebody gets $$$.




"Pointless" is relative here.

8kbps is enough - when you don't spare anything anything to bit correction. Maybe in those cases, somewhat okay analogue audio is enough (for example, in long-distance raditelephony). But having a very impressive digital codec raises the bar significantly, especially the last time someone bothered with this is someone in Nokia trying to fit 6kbps using what was now rudimentary phone chips.

Additionally, there are people in the world (including US) who are stuck using unreliable 28kbps lines. Having an option to do excellent audio and video is something that no-one seemed bothered to do.


That's 200kbps for a building with a few dozen people in it.




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