France Telecom's Orange Launches World's First HD Voice Service in Moldova

"The service will provide customers with a significantly improved quality of service when making calls. Unlike other mobile technologies such as multimedia capabilities, this is the first time since the 1990s that mobile voice technologies have been subject to a significant evolution," Orange said in a statement on its website.

It added that the launch of HD sound service is the second step in Orange’s HD voice strategy, following on from the launch of a high-definition voice service for VoIP calls in 2006.

“Orange plans to rapidly extend the range of HD voice-compatible mobile handsets across Europe. The Group plans to introduce HD voice services to the UK and Belgium markets by the end of 2010 and believes that these handsets will represent the majority of the 3G handsets sold within five years,” the company said.

Orange will also continue its plans to roll out HD VoIP in other European markets such as Poland and Spain. The first mobile handset integrating HD voice capability that will be launched by Orange Moldova is the Nokia 6720c, it added.

Orange, present in Moldova since 1998, is the largest of the country’s four mobile operators. It had 1.77 million subscribers in the country of four million people at the end of June.