[trome]

Cell phones definitely have caused a notable drop in audio quality. Massive carriers like Verizon for example felt they could compress calls quite heavily, destroying audio quality in the process.

VoLTE could improve the situation, if we could get the HD audio to actually make it off the cell carrier's network. Currently, no US Cell Carrier does so tho.

[PaulHoule]

In Europe, the coming of cell phones brought lower phone bills and better service. I spent 1998 and 1999 in the former East Germany and found it was a mistake to get a landline from Deusche Telecom and I should have just gotten a "handy" instead but I grew up in a country that had a regulated monopoly telecom (AT&T) as opposed to a government- or post-office- run phone company. In Europe, cell phones brought competition and lower prices.

In the US, on the other hand, phone bills went up as cell phones came in, and the quality of the service went way down.

[narrowrail]

When I got my first cell phone at the end of ’96, I paid $40/mo with 1000min on VoiceStream (now owned by TMobile). There were no long distance charges. Meanwhile, my friends were paying $60/mo to what is now CenturyLink (Qwest at the time) plus long distance charges.

I realize it’s anecdotal, but I think phone service got ~30% cheaper at minimum (much more when including long distance). If you remember at the end of the 90’s, the telco’s were running crazy amounts of long distance advertisements (i.e. 10-10-220) knowing full well that gravy train was coming to an end.