Speech coding has been an ongoing area of research for several decades, yet the level of activity and interest in this area has expanded dramatically in the last several years. important advances in algorithmic techniques for speech coding have recently emerged and excellent progress has been achieved in producing high quality speech at bit rates as low as 4.8 kb/s. although the complexity of the newer more sophisticated algorithms greatly exceeds that of older methods (such as adpcm), today's powerful programmable signal processor chips allow rapid technology transfer from research to product development and permit many new cost-effective applications of speech coding. in particular, low bit rate voice technology is converging with the needs of the rapidly evolving digital telecom munication networks. the ieee workshop on speech coding for telecommunications was held in vancouver, british columbia, canada, from september 5 to 8, 1989. the objective of the workshop was to provide a forum for discussion of recent developments and future directions in speech coding. the workshop attracted over 130 researchers from several countries and its technical program included 51 papers.