Editing G.726 (section)

{{short description|ITU-T Recommendation}}
{{Infobox technology standard
| title             = G.726
| long_name         = 40, 32, 24, 16&nbsp;kbit/s Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation (ADPCM) 
| image             = Pcm.svg 
| caption           = 
| status            = In force
| year_started      = 1990
| version           = (05/06)
| version_date      = May 2006
| preview           = 
| preview_date      = 
| organization      = [[ITU-T]]
| committee         = 
| base_standards    = [[G.721]]
| related_standards = 
| abbreviation      = 
| domain            = [[audio compression (data)|audio compression]]
| license           = Freely available 
| website           = https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-G.726
}}

'''G.726''' is an [[ITU-T]] [[ADPCM]] [[speech codec]] standard covering the transmission of voice at rates of 16, 24, 32, and 40&nbsp;[[kilobit|kbit]]/s. It was introduced to supersede both G.721, which covered ADPCM at 32&nbsp;kbit/s, and [[G.723]], which described ADPCM for 24 and 40&nbsp;kbit/s. G.726 also introduced a new 16&nbsp;kbit/s rate. The four [[bit rates]] associated with G.726 are often referred to by the bit size of a [[Sampling (signal processing)|sample]], which are 2, 3, 4, and 5-bits respectively. The corresponding wide-band codec based on the same technology is [[G.722]].

The most commonly used mode is 32&nbsp;kbit/s, which doubles the usable network capacity by using half the rate of [[G.711]]. It is primarily used on international [[Trunking|trunks]] in the [[Public switched telephone network|phone network]] and is the standard codec used in [[DECT]] wireless phone systems. The principal application of 24 and 16&nbsp;kbit/s channels is for overload channels carrying voice in [[DCME|digital circuit multiplication equipment]] (DCME). The principal application of 40&nbsp;kbit/s channels is to carry data modem signals in DCME, especially for [[modems]] operating at greater than 4800 bit/s.