America: Land of the crummy-sounding cell phone

Thirty years of experience have taught people to expect conversations over mobile phones to be low-fidelity affairs. But around the world people are quickly learning it doesn't have to be that way.

Today, the technology exists to make mobile phone calls sound not just good, but flat-out great. This month Uganda became the 22nd country in the world to offer users "high-definition" mobile phones. Ads around the capitol city of Kampala boast of a dramatic increase in voice quality. "Hear better, feel closer with these HD-enabled phones," reads one Ugandan ad. The global trend of rapidly improving voice quality may come as a surprise to America's 270 million cellular subscribers, who never see an ad for a high-definition phone. The reason: Not a single American company sells an HD cell phone. Not AT&T, not Verizon, not Sprint. No one.