An ITU standard for speech codecs that provides toll quality audio at 64 Kbps using two types of PCM modulation: A-Law (PCMA) and mu-Law (PCMU). The G.711 format has been the standard for digitizing voice by the telephone companies starting in the 1960s. However, newer algorithms have lowered the bit rate considerably, and respectable quality can be obtained at 16 Kbps and well below that, depending on the components in the system.
In order to allow connections to legacy telephone networks, the uncompressed G.711 format is a required codec for H.323 audio and videoconferencing. See
G. standards and
PCM.