It occurred to me that there's another compelling reason to improve the fidelity of our phone calls: fewer cell phone-related accidents on the road.

While I'm too lazy to find even an article on Wikipedia to back this claim up, I will assert that the amount of cognitive power required to understand an audio recording is inversely proportional to the quality of that recording. In other words, people have to use more of their brainpower to understand a poorly made recording than to understand a high quality recording.

If we take this to be true, it becomes clear that improving the fidelity of phone calls would reduce the number of cell phone-related driving accidents. The real danger posed by cell phone use while driving is not the physical distraction of fumbling for the phone or awkwardly holding the device against one's ear. In fact, studies — which I will conveniently not link to here — have shown that drivers using a hands free kit are no less distracted while driving than drivers who simply hold the phone to their ear. It's the cognitive distraction that causes problems. And, part of the reason that cell phone conversations are more of a cognitive distraction than, say, speaking to someone in the passenger seat, is the fact that drivers' brains must devote more of their cognitive power to understanding a low fidelity phone call than to understanding someone's un-garbled voice in the next seat over.

That said, I don't know whether improving the fidelity of cell phone calls would remove enough of the cognitive load placed on the brain by making the phone call to make driving-whilst-phoning safe. So it still might make more sense to ban cell phone use among drivers. But, at the very least, I have another reason to whine about the lamentable fidelity of phone calls.