Swedish vendor Ericsson said Tuesday it has made the first steps in improving the quality of mobile voice calls to a level above that currently achieved in fixed networks.

During a field trial in Cologne and Hamburg, Germany, in partnership with T-Mobile, Ericsson tested its AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate) Wideband standardised voice codec. The codec is ultimately intended to allow hifi quality mobile voice calls.

A total of 150 T-Mobile customers participated in the trial, with over 70 per cent of participants stating that the voice quality of their mobile phone calls were improved by the technology, said Ericsson.

T-Mobile and Ericsson said they intend to coordinate with other mobile providers and suppliers in order to bring AMR Wideband technology to market in 2008.