( CNN ) -- Smartphone makers have long touted the appeal of their high-definition display screens . Soon they 'll be able to add high-definition sound to the mix , too . `` HD Voice , '' also known as wideband audio , is a technology designed to make a caller 's voice , and other noises , sound on phone calls as close as possible to how they do in person . On Monday , AT & T Senior Vice President Kris Rinne confirmed that the company plans to roll out HD Voice later this year , making it the latest major player officially adopting a mobile feature that , unlike many in recent years , actually has to do with making phone calls . `` HD Voice is part of our voice-over-LTE strategy , '' said Rinne , speaking at the VentureBeat Mobile Summit in Sausalito , California , speaking of the next generation of cellular phone networks . In January , T-Mobile announced HD Voice was available on a handful of phones including the Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One S. The carrier also said last month it will have HD Voice on the iPhone 5 , to be rolled out on T-Mobile 's networks in the U.S. for the first time later this month . Verizon has said it plans to implement the technology in 2014 and Sprint has said it plans to make HD Voice an option on the Sprint-exclusive HTC Evo 4G LTE . Mobile carriers now have the ability to improve sound quality by transmitting it over their 4G LTE networks , as opposed to the more limited telephone lines of the past . In simple terms , the human voice has a much wider frequency range than traditional phone connections have the bandwidth to handle . As a result , sounds that are too high or too low get compressed to fit . Wideband audio is , as its name suggests , wider than traditional voiceband . It 's not as broad as the entire range of the human voice , but it 's closer . It might take a while before our on-the-go conversations are pin-drop clear , though . For HD Voice to work , both phones need to be equipped to capture and transmit the higher-quality sound . And , at least initially , they 'll need to be on the same network , though the carriers are working to expand that . Wireless carriers have been rolling it out elsewhere for a couple of years , but only now is the technology beginning to be offered nationally in the United States . When Apple unveiled the iPhone 5 in September , the company announced that the phone is equipped for HD Voice and that 20 carriers around the globe would have the ability to offer it . But while it 's widely available in parts of Europe and elsewhere , the United States has been slow to catch up . Folks who have had a chance to test the feature have been impressed . PCMag 's Sascha Segan tested out AT & T 's version at the Consumer Electronics Show in January and called it `` really striking . '' `` Background noise just drops out . The bustle of noises in a coffee shop ? Gone . Airport PA announcements ? Zapped , '' Segan wrote . `` Even in a quiet room , voices become much , much richer ; I wo n't sound like a nasal Gollum any more . `` It 's really lovely . ... But I 've seen this demo a bunch of times before . I 've seen this demo for two years . Someone needs to actually launch the service . ''
HD Voice , which increases voice - calling clarity , is coming to more U.S. networks . Feature expands the range of sound transmitted by phones . AT & T announced its plans to launch HD Voice later this year . T - Mobile , Verizon and Sprint are also looking at the new technology .