system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do cell phones and radios still have such crappy audio quality?
gpt
Lower-quality audio doesn't require as much bandwidth (like an audiobook recorded at 32 kilobits per second rather than 128 kbps or greater, such as we use for music).  Unlike a web page or a Youtube video, conversation needs to go in both directions in *real time* without significant lag.  The cell phone companies may well be sacrificing sound quality for increased redundancy (and therefore, reliability) in the packets of voice data going each way.

And to be fair, even sound quality on corded phones remains underwhelming.