Mobile Phone Audio Quality

I have had far too many mobile phones to remember, from a brick sized monster back in the early 90s to a sleek Lumia Windows phone today and it is quite an amazing journey from a device that was purely used for the purpose that Alexander Graham Bell intended to one that are more like mini-computers.
What hasn't changed though is poor audio quality which is quite surprising when you consider the main purpose of telephones is to hold a conversation over them.
Trying to talk to someone on a smartphone can sometimes be like using two cans connected by a piece of string so while everything else about the mobile phone has got faster, and more powerful its primary function has stayed as spotty as it was when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were popular the first time around.  
I am sure that some boffin could explain how the mobile signal works and how things like the weather can effect it's microwaves resulting in us having to walk around twisting to all points of the compass to hold a conversation but can play whatever Civilisation knockoff some big boobed model is selling us uninterrupted.   
The mobile making companies seem to have gone down the profitable route of giving us shiny wonders which fit snugly in your hand or in the back pocket of your jeans but as regards to the original function, we are condemned to walking around in circles and from room to room listening to a muffled conversation from Virgin trying to get me to upgrade to a new mobile phone that has even more bells and whistles but will still be as difficult to listen to as a Best of Country & Western CD.