Developments on the AI front are combining with capabilities that have emerged under 5G to make plain old voice exciting again, after years of being the poor relation to data and streaming. Mobile operators were themselves partly to blame, being slow to innovate and reluctant to give up excessive tariffs, while third party messaging apps such as WhatsApp and services that began as voice over IP (VoIP) like Skype, came in over the top to cream off much of the voice business. Being subject only to marginal data costs these became popular for voice communication and conferencing both among friends and for business. Another factor was that while mobile services were initially just about circuit switched voice for their first…