Horse 1152 - I Just Want a Phone That Works

This is going to sound dumb, but in the almost 30 years that mobile phones have existed, how come no-one can make a better mobile phone?

Telephone quality from fixed land-lines, works out to be about a sampling rate of 11kHz at 8-bit and in mono. For all intents and purposes this created a warm sound in the earpiece, had a good range across the audio spectrum and could be easily understood by most people at the other end provided you spoke properly.

I guess this is the fault of hardware manufacturers, Messers Nokia, iPhone, Sagem etc and not the fault of the carriers. Whilst they're trying to jam cameras, MP3 capability, internets, texty and wordy things and apps into their phones, I think that they've lost sight of the first purpose of a mobile phone... TO BE A PHONE.

Companies like Telstra, Optus, Vodafone etc. are doing their level best to open up ever increasing bandwidth and data abilities across 3G, 4G, 85G with a bernaise sauce for all I care but the truth is that they're still being held back by the crud that passes off for handsets*. Why is it that on a landline I can speak to someone very easily, but on a mobile, they sound like they're in a nightclub made entirely of tinfoil, filled up with sludge and on Saturn?

Even if I get a second hand 1983 Toyota Corolla with a bad case of rust, and no radio because some evil little munchkin has flogged it, it isn't a problem because I know full well that I can drive it at 110 down the motorway and get where I'm going easily. I have a Westinghouse Microwave oven at home which dates from 1986. I know that I can put food into it and a few minutes later I'm going to have a yummy curry (even one which came from a tin!).
But if I shell out 700 bucks, why is it that I can't get a mobile phone which at least sounds halfway decent? Isn't that the point of mobile? To aid communication? Not to hear "graaaaa ch ch ch zeeet apple sauce and milk".

So you're on report Messers Nokia, iPhone and Sagem. Please try to do a better job next time.

*I remember the days when Telecom made their own handsets in house, they were/are brilliant. I hope that Telstra makes mobile phones in their own right. I'm sure they'd be 10000% better than the ones made by Messers Nokia, iPhone and Sagem.