User attribute distribution for network/peer assisted speech coding

Systems, methods and apparatuses are described herein for distributing user attribute information about users of a communications system to communication terminals, which use the user attribute information to configure a speech codec to operate in a speaker-dependent manner during a communication session, thereby improving speech coding efficiency. In a network-assisted model, the user attribute information is stored on the communications network and selectively transmitted to the communication terminals while in a peer-assisted model, the user attribute information is derived by and transferred between communication terminals.