It wasn’t that many years ago that both people and organizations craved higher and higher fidelity: 7.1 Dolby Digital sound, Ultra High Definition TV screens, and so on. Today though, mobile (and digital) is driving size in the other direction: smaller.

An unintended consequence, however, is that the fidelity of the user experience has also dramatically shifted downwards:

• Mobile phone operators are cramming ever more signal into the airwaves, resulting in ever-poorer voice quality.  (Despite the advent of 5G!)
• Watching video on mobile is also a low-resolution experience: the picture can be both jerky and fuzzy. And since the earbud experience in a noisy area is definitely not the home theater experience, the audio is equally lacking.
• Many organizations have moved to Voice Over IP (VOIP) phone systems.  While far cheaper than traditional phone systems, VOIP fidelity is 100% dependent on available internet bandwidth, and a perfectly paved internet pathway between the sender and receiver.  In many cases, this means a choppy and low fidelity connection.  With so many people working from home, this is even more prevalent.

As society moves more towards mobile, and organizations move more towards driving down costs, there is an inflection point that is too often missed: At what point does a low fidelity experience impact the brand?  Or said another way: is the investment in marketing and training being undermined by poor user experience caused by poor bandwidth?  And once again, as many people embrace work-from-home post-COVID, do the low bandwidth home internet connections – which create poorly lit, jerky Zoom meetings – impact the brand?

Sadly, the answer is yes, and it is going to get worse.  While it is difficult to get around this problem, there are some things that can be done to minimize the impact:

Mobile:

• Produce videos with a “mobile-first” mindset.
• Host videos in multiple resolutions (YouTube does this automatically), so if bandwidth allows, better fidelity is possible.
• Use the “most popular” cell phone operator within your geography.  There may be less compression if more bandwidth is available; also compression is worse when the two parties use two different operators.

VOIP:

• Ensure adequate internet bandwidth that is specifically segregated for VOIP phones.
• Purchase HD Voice phonesets for VOIP systems.
• Insist on voice quality service level agreements with the VOIP provider.

Work from home:

• For those with client/customer/member/candidate-facing roles, whether they be in sales, purchasing, HR, or accounting, make sure that they have adequate home internet bandwidth.

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