This Recommendation provides audio performance requirements and test methods for loudspeaking and hands-free telephones capable of transmitting an audio bandwidth extending beyond the conventional telephony bandwidth of 300 to 3400 Hz@ to a bandwidth of approximately 100 Hz to 8000 Hz. Such telephones are known as wideband audio telephones@ and will make use of digital encoding schemes such as in [ITU-T G.722]. IP terminals may support other coding algorithms. Wideband audio telephones are expected to be used in new services such as high quality audio conferencing@ videoconferencing and multimedia applications. The requirements listed in this Recommendation are primarily applicable to telephones using G.722 encoding at 64 kbit/s@ but should also be used as the basis of requirements for other wideband audio encoding schemes. This is still under study in ITU-T Study Group 12. General information on hands-free terminals@ which includes switching characteristics@ can be found in [ITU-T P.340] and information on acoustic echo controllers in [ITU-T G.167]. For loudspeaking telephones which do not provide full hands-free operation@ the relevant parts of this Recommendation may be used. Conventional telephone band (300 Hz-3400 Hz) digital hands-free telephones using encoding according to [ITU-T G.711] and [ITU-T G.726] are covered by [ITU-T P.342]. Audio performance requirements for wideband headset terminals are included in [ITU T P.311]. Specifications for car mounted wideband hands-free terminals are included in [ITU-T P.1110]. Transmission characteristics for narrow-band cordless and mobile digital terminals are included in [ITU-T P.313].