I've spent a sizeable proportion of the past week taking part in phone conference calls - for my sins. It was during about the fifth that a thought struck me: when did we forget about voice quality?

THe humble office phone

With participants dialing in on hands-free devices, via VoIP services, and from mobile phones, the overall audio quality of your average business phone get-together can be pretty scratchy these days.

Network interference, latency, and background noise can often make it challenging to hear what the other party is actually saying. You might be able to connect from just about anywhere, but that doesn't mean that the resulting communication is going to be all that good.

It's as though, despite all the dramatic advances in communications technology during the past five years, we've forgotten all about quality of voice.

When you're involved in a call with multiple parties, it might just be worth reverting to an old, trustworthy desk phone for the duration. Your fellow participants will thank you.