PRE-PROCESSING AND ENCODING OF AUDIO SIGNALS TRANSMITTED OVER A COMMUNICATION NETWORK TO A SUBSCRIBER TERMINAL

A method of pre-processing an audio signal transmitted to a user terminal via a communication network and an apparatus using the method are provided. The method of pre-processing the audio signal may prevent deterioration of a sound quality of the audio signal transmitted to the user terminal by pre-processing the audio signal, and by enabling a codec module, encoding the audio signal, to determine the audio signal as a speech signal. The method of pre-processing may include separating the audio signal into channels, measuring the channel energy for each of the channels, selecting a specific channel energy, and amplifying the specific channel energy. The method may include encoding an audio signal using a speech codec and/or decoding an encoded audio signal using the speech codec.