Mobile phone firm Orange is the first UK network to use a technology that offers its customers higher quality voice calls.

Orange has run trials of the technology in the south west of England and now plans to introduce it across the country.

High Definition (HD) voice is said to provide a reduction in background noise as well as minimising the interference that is often heard on normal mobile phone calls.

The technology used is also known as Adaptive Multi Rate Wideband (AMR-WB) which has been adopted internationally as a standard for 3G mobile networks.

AMR-WB is what is known as a speech-codec. This means that software compresses a voice signal to maximise the amount of bandwidth on a network, simply allowing high quality calls.

With other countries currently using this technology, it is thought that it won’t be long before other UK networks follow in the footsteps of Orange.

The scheme, launched yesterday, rates mobile phone handsets on factors such as the ecological impact of raw materials used, the manufacturing process and the energy efficiency of each device.

Mobile phones are given a rating between zero and five, dependent on their environmental footprint, the packaging used, the longevity of the handset and how easy they are to recycle or re-use.

Major mobile phone manufacturers including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung have signed up to the scheme and O2 has said that 93% of the devices its customers use will be tested.

Controversially, Apple have requested to block its range of iPhones from the scheme.

Over the past few months the mobile phone industry has begun to focus on the green issues surrounding its image.

Consumer and business user interest in eco-friendly phones has significantly risen.

11.5% of people recently surveyed by O2 said that sustainability had a ‘strong influence’ on the handsets that they choose to purchase.

With the release of the universal charger that is required to meet energy efficiency standards, many mobile phone manufacturers are looking for ways in which to publicise their environmentally friendly models.

It is hoped that this scheme will allow consumers and business users alike to make informed decisions at the time of purchase more easily than before.

The average Briton spends almost half of their waking life using media and communications.

A recent report from regulator Ofcom suggests that people in the UK spend a staggering seven hours a day watching TV, surfing the net and using their mobile phones.

Interestingly though, by multi-tasking on several devices, the average person squeezes in the equivalent of nine hours of media and communications in any one day.

It is thought that this is largely due to the significant rise in mobile internet usage and smartphone devices over the past couple of years.

This shift in how technology is used has stopped people from being limited to just using technology at home or in the work place.

The report said that 13.5 million people currently use the internet on their phone. This figure has almost tripled since 2008, when the figure was just shy of 5.7 million.

In spite of these modern shifts, traditional media is still said to be popular, with 91% of people able to access radio services and fixed broadband internet use now reaching 73% in the UK.

Txtlocal, a mobile marketing company, have demonstrated how the mobile industry can benefit the environment by donating their services to help The Green Earth Appeal.

The Green Earth Appeal, in conjunction with Txtlocal, has introduced an initiative called the ‘Carbon Free Dining’ campaign, where diners have the opportunity to dine out whilst giving something back to the planet at the same time.

People are able to receive 50% off their food bill or benefit from 2 for 1 deals, in return for a text that costs £1.50. The revenue generated from the text messages is then used to plant a tree through a United Nations Partner, offsetting the carbon footprint that is built up during the production, transportation and preparation of the meal.

The trees are currently being planted in Africa, Asia and South America, helping to regenerate areas which have been severely affected by deforestation. The act of texting itself is considered to be environmentally friendly as it does not require paper and allows both businesses and consumers to communicate quickly and effectively.

In the future, it is hoped that more and more charities will be able to benefit from schemes like this.

According to a new study carried out by ABI Research, 3.8 billion mobile handsets will contain mobile web browsers by 2015.

This figure equates to more than 60% of the installed base of mobile handsets worldwide, doubling today’s penetration rate.

Currently, it appears that mobile browsers are evolving along two paths. Full internet browsers are highly sophisticated and are found in all smartphones and feature phones.

These devices are able to support this type of browser due to their advanced application processors, expanded memory capacity and adequate screen size.

Alternatively, the proxy based or compression browser is available, such as the Opera Mini. These browsers are able to move a percentage of the caching and processing from the phone to a nearby server, allowing the browser to run on lower cost processors and requiring as little as 4Mb of memory.

Because of this, these browsers are able to support the low cost phones that are on the market.

The research suggests that the installed base of full internet browsers will exceed that of proxy-based browsers in 2012 and by 2015, 3.8 billion mobile handsets will contain mobile web browsers.