This application for patent describes an invention toward achieving potentially hundred- to thousand-fold enhancement in the efficiency of the utilization of frequency-bandwidth for digital transmission of speech. This invention is based on the observation that human speech can be assumed to be composed of a series of contiguous fundamental `phonic elements` ("phonoms") that could be judiciously used toward developing an extremely low bit-rate digital coding of the speech signals. A generic example of a simple implementation of this invention--the basic equipment and associated device(s), methodologies and technologies--for ultr-low bit-rate voice-telecommunications over any transmission channel is also presented. The present invention is universally applicable to any language of the world, and to voice-telecommunications employing various media and service-applications including, but not limited to, land-line copper-wire networks, satellite telephony, satellite radio, fiber-optical cables, terrestrial wireless, voice over Internet Protocols (VoIP), and similar media and services.