In a world first, Nokia CEO and President Pekka Lundmark claims to have participated in the world’s first immersive voice and audio call over a cellular network. The Finland-based company calls the event a milestone as it is the biggest leap in live voice calling experience since the introduction of monophonic telephony.

Nokia successfully demonstrated IVAS technology in a real-time call, although this technology has not yet been implemented in mobile networks. This first live call used Nokia’s proprietary immersive voice technology to gain experience on a public 5G network.

What is immersive voice and audio calling?

Nokia claims that this call was enabled by the new Immersive Voice and Audio Services (IVAS) codec technology that is part of the upcoming 5G Advanced standard. The IVAS codec allows consumers to hear sound spatially in real time, rather than today’s monophonic smartphone voice call experience. This technology gives callers a three-dimensional sound experience, rather than compressing sound into a single channel.

Lundmark called Finland’s Ambassador for Digitalisation and New Technologies Stefan Lindström from Nokia’s campus in Espoo to demonstrate the unique acoustic dimensions achieved with the new IVAS technology.

After experiencing the call, Lindstrom said that the live immersive voice and audio experience enabled by IVAS improves the richness and quality of calls, and the three-dimensional sound experience makes the conversation more lifelike and engaging, bringing many new benefits to personal and professional communications. He added, “Immersive communication technology will also take XR and metaverse interactions to the next level.”

Lundmark further added, “We have demonstrated the future of voice calls. This groundbreaking audio technology immerses you in the caller’s environment, creating a spatially and comprehensively enhanced listening experience for voice and video calls, delivering significant benefits for enterprise and industrial applications.”

Currently, IVAS codec technology is used in apps like Netflix (NFLX), Apple Music (AAPL), and Disney Plus (DIS) to provide users with a true audio experience.