Monday,
August 23
VoiceAge Announces
the Conclusion of a Joint Patent Pool for AMR
Wideband Plus Technology
Montreal, Canada
– August 23, 2004. VoiceAge Corporation
is pleased to announce the conclusion of a joint
patent pool for the AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate)
Wideband Plus codec, a candidate in 3GPP audio
coding standardization, with Ericsson and Nokia.
The creation of this patent pool will accelerate
market development by providing users of the
AMR-WB+ codec with simplified access to the
technology.
AMR-WB+ delivers high-quality music, voice-over-music,
and voice-between-music, making it perfectly
suited to low-bit-rate mixed-content audio applications
such as 3GPP Packet-Switched Streaming (PSS),
Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS), and Multimedia
Broadcast/Multimedia Service (MBMS).
This breakthrough audio codec combines audio
coding technology with unrivaled speech coding
technology. To secure broad-based acceptance
of PSS, MMS, and MBMS services, service providers
must meet subscribers’ expectations of
high-quality audio at a fair price. AMR-WB+
provides the best quality in mobile environments
for mixed content: speech and audio (music and
other audio).
An additional benefit to subscribers, and therefore
to service providers, is the low decoder complexity,
which is directly related to implementability
on low-cost mass market devices and the battery
life of the mobile handset.
“The 3GPP PSS/MMS selection exercise for
low rate audio codecs demonstrated that AMR-WB+
provides unmatched quality for low bit rate
usage and better performance, for any content,
than any other codec available in the 3GPP Release
5 specifications” says Laurent Amar, President
of VoiceAge.
The patent pool has put in place an essentiality
evaluation process and determination of patents
that are essential to AMR-WB+ for these three
major contributors, in order to provide users
with convenient, fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory
access to a portfolio of essential worldwide
patents under a single license agreement. Other
patent owners wishing to join the pool are welcome
to submit their patents for evaluation.
If a license is signed before December 31, 2004,
the licensee will benefit from reduced rates
up to 50% discount for the term of the license.
For more information on licensing terms and
conditions, please contact VoiceAge or visit
our website.
About AMR-WB+
AMR-WB+ utilizes a hybrid of two technologies:
ACELP® and TCX, respectively Algebraic Code
Excited Linear Prediction® and Transform
Coded Excitation. The AMR-WB+ codec has a wide
bit-rate range, from 6-40 Kbps. Mono rates are
scalable from 8-48 Kbps, and stereo rates are
scalable from10-50 Kbps.
About VoiceAge
VoiceAge is pleased to undertake the mandate
of License Administrator on behalf of the AMR-WB+
Patent Pool. We have direct, hands-on experience
as the inventor and owner of the ACELP®
proprietary portfolio of more than 300 granted
patents and patent applications in the area
of voice compression and low bit rate audio.
Our expertise and practical experience also
extend to the process of technology standardization.
VoiceAge plays a key role in setting industry
standards as an active member of several standards
bodies including ITU-T, ETSI/3GPP, and 3GPP2.
For more information please contact:
Josée Benoit
VoiceAge Corporation
Tel: +1 514 737 4940, ext. 274
E-mail: josee.benoit@voiceage.com
Any product features,
specifications or statements in this document
that are not historical facts are forward-looking
and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual
product features, specifications or forward-looking
statements are subject to change.
