Asymmetric speech coding for a digital cellular communications system

A system for providing enhanced quality digital cellular communications, comprising:

• a cellular transceiver for allowing a first user to communicate with a second user via a cellular communications system;
• a base station for relaying user communications between said cellular transceiver and another transceiver;
• and
• an asymmetric speech coder for providing speech coding of user communications between said cellular transceiver and said base station, said asymmetric speech coder comprising:
• speech decoder means for decoding downlink user communications coded with a speech code at a first rate, and
• speech coder means for coding uplink user communications with a speech code at a second rate that is higher than said first rate;
• wherein the second rate of said uplink speech coder results in enhanced quality audio communications while not impacting bandwidth consumption of the downlink.

A digital cellular communications system for providing enhanced audio quality of user communication, comprising:

• a base station for relaying user communications between a first user and a second user, wherein said first user is communicating via a cellular transceiver;
• an asymmetric communications channel for transferring user communications between said cellular transceiver and said base station, said asymmetric communications channel comprising:
• an uplink data path for transmitting user communications from said cellular transceiver to said base station at a first speech code rate,
• a downlink data path for transmitting user communications from said base station to said cellular transceiver at a second speech code rate, wherein said first speech code rate is higher than said second speech code rate;
• a downlink channel, employing a speech code at a first rate;
• an uplink channel, employing a speech code at a second rate higher than said first rate;
• means for employing a convolution code to said uplink channel, wherein a rate of said convolution code is selected to compensate for the difference between said first and second rates;
• and
• means for transmitting data on said uplink channel at an increased transmit power to compensate for said rate of said convolutional code.