RSSVoIP Surpassing Standard Call Quality?
By Ed Oswald | Published September 22, 2006, 4:19 PM
Contradicting previous reports to the contrary, Internet and mobile test and measurement company Keynote Systems says that VoIP services outperform landline phone systems in call quality, although the technology still has some ground to make up in other areas such as audio delay.
Twelve VoIP providers were compared in the study including AT&T, Comcast, Lingo, Packet8, Skype, SunRocket, TimeWarner Cable, TrueVoice, Verizon, Vonage, Vonics and Windows Live Messenger. Performance of the services were measured in the New York City and San Francisco markets.
Keynote had studied the VoIP providers once before, releasing its findings in December of last year. The firm found that reliability had improved across the board, and among the top VoIP operators, service was more reliable that traditional phone service.
Additionally, leading operators also fared better in other areas, including audio responsiveness and audio clarity. However, Keynote said there was still room for improvement, as 10 of the 12 surveyed had a score less than that of a toll call over landlines.
Call quality on the average was the same as a GSM cellular phone call, and it was found that call delay increased during peak Internet usage times. This issue was more pronounced on DSL than it was on cable, although Keynote said this did not affect the actual voice quality of the call itself.
This is still a problem, the firm said. "This audio delay can cause callers to talk over each other, leading to conversational disruption and missed information, which can create frustration among users, especially in a business setting," it wrote.
The study was conducted by making nearly 125,000 calls over a one month period. Calls were placed from San Francisco and New York once every 30 minutes on every VoIP provider and network carrier combination.
Vonage is wonderful.
I pay $25 a month and my girlfriend can call her relatives in Washington state (we live in Maryland) for free. They never know it is a VoIP service.
As for delay - I don't detect any delay difference between that an my cell phone. That is to say there is a minor one where you can end up accidentally talking over each other, but my Cingular service and Vonage service seem to be about the same.
If that is the price to pay for coming into the digital age - where's my check book? :)
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I have Vonage and it stinks. It slows done my internet connection on my computer. But the most annoying this is every time I am on the phone all a sudden people can't hear me anymore. It's so bad that my friends and family refuse to talk to me through that phone and rather call my cell phone. I asked Vonage what I can do and they said there is nothing you can do to fix it. What a joke!
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My VoIP sucks at the moment. Damn server is down at least twice a day! Looks like the US services are much better, judging from this report. I wonder if the study focused more on business or home users?
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What is needed for voip is IP addressable phones that can be plugged into a router (just like a computer). I'm talking about something that only requires net access and anyone with any broadband access can use...regardless of ISP. The question should be in the technology and NOT the ISP. The idea of using a regular phone through the ISP is limiting and will place too many restrictions on use. In order for voip to be truly used to it's potential, it must be just as easy as networking another computer. I can use any computer, anywhere, at any time, through any ISP. Voip needs to be the same way.
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Err, you can use any computer through any ISP? That doesn't sound likely - unless you've got some fancy DSL services over there we don't. Could you explain a little better what you mean?
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Umm could you be more clear? I have 3 IP phones that just plug into my LAN (hub/router/any RJ45 wall point) and work with many providers. Each phone has it's own IP. I can bring the phone to anyone elses house with any ISP and it works like normal. In other words, VoIP phones already exist, at a premium cost though; in comparison to "regular" phones. As for providers such as Cable and Traditional phone services allowing the use of "regular" phones with their VoIP services; I believe it's a good idea for the mass adoption of packet switched networks. Do you expect the PSTN companies to upgrade every location to ethernet or something?
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Forgive me, I'm sorry. I guess I forgot that differant places in the world use differant things. Where I am, it's pretty much going to be a cable modem with a phone plug, Skype, or Vonage. I know there are others but these seem to be the biggest players at the moment. I would be interested to see something about what you have if you would please post some sort of link.
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There are four main ways to get a computer online. Through USB, ethernet, or a dialup modem (internal or external), or satelite (something like Verizon). Cable modems just like DSL modems would connect to the pc through ethernet or USB. What all this ends up meaning is that whatever your ISP is, a pc can be connected through them to get online. I can use any pc to get online anywhere through any ISP. Choosing AOL for my ISP does not mean I have to buy a special computer from AOL. I can use any pc to get on AOL.
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Perhaps I'm missing something here. My VoIP system has a small box which plugs into my router via ethernet cable. My regular cordless phone base then plugs into the same VoIP box. That's all. Doesn't matter whether the computers are on or not(I have five computers running off the same router-wired and wireless, on my home network). It doesn't matter if any of the computers are even connected to the router, for that matter.
By the same token, I could take my VoIP box and cordless phone anywhere I want, connect it to any other router on a high speed connection and I can make or receive my phone calls to my regular home phone number, wherever I am.
How much easier would a VoIP system need to be?
zenarcher
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Dude, you just described an Ojo.
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I'm talking about phones that plug into routers. I'm not talking about regular phones that plug into devices that plug into routers. What I'm talking about is something that no matter what happens, this phone could be plugged into a router and still work, just like you can still plug a win98se box to a router and still make it work. I'm talking about the fact that you can take a regular phone and use it anywhere with any service at any time and make it work without ever having to worry about a seperate device that might not work because the company that made it doesn't exist anymore.
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I'm not really sure if this is what you were referring to or not, but here's a link for some VoIP phome manufacturers, making several different types.
http://www.globalsources...ers/VoIP-Telephone.html
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I use Skype and Teamspeak mostly, and they sound just as good, if not better than a regular phone, as long as both users have a good, high-speed connection and properly set-up software and microphone. The problem arises when you try to talk to someone on dial-up, or they have a cheap and/or improperly set-up mic...that's where you get most of the echoing and delays.
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I to using skype and many times I have been realized the superior voice quality calls much better than any mobile service provider in Sri Lanka and indeed almost the same quality as the regular land line. I have broad band connection I am enjoying the VIOP calls. Few months back I had a chat with friends in India using skype it was amazing I feel that they were next to me. VOIP are lot more cheaper than the regular lines often during the peak hours almost not possible call other service provider and incase with mobiles like dialog almost impossible to call during off peak hours. VOIP removes these limitations and I hope the feature is VOIP. There are many places we don't have broad band internet access especially countries like Sri Lanka often waste money on useless war. I have used Erission hardware IP phones but unfortunatively it didn't offer proper voice quality standards. Despite of this VoIP is the way look forward.
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You can have Skype if you like it, but I would advise staying away from anything that has anything to do with KaZaa.
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and why would that be?
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I don't understand?????
Why would what be?
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I live in a fairly rural are of the Midwest and have used Packet8 VoIP telephone for over two years now. The audio quality is far superior to the local landline telephone service and way less expensive. Echo? I've not experinced that problem, at all. I have all the features I would have with landline service, but do not pay for any of the features as "extras." We have voicemail, call waiting, call forwarding, caller ID and numerous other features.
The only outage I've ever experienced is if the cable Internet connection goes down. Very rare...perhaps an hour total during the past year. In those rare instances, any incoming calls merely go to voicemail. The message remains with voicemail and the voicemail is sent to me as an attachment in email, upon arrival. This has been a real benefit in business calls for my wife, as often she's had to go back and find an incoming message for future reference. Same with the detailed incoming and outgoing call log. She can go to the website for our line and print out a detailed call record, to verify whether or not a call was made or received on a particular date and time.
Likewise, while not acutally supported by the VoIP service, we've never had a problem sending or receiving a fax with the VoIP line. Unlimited long distance to anywhere in the U.S. and Canada is nice, too.
I cannot think of one single reason why I would switch back to traditional phone service. My VoIP service just works. As for outages again, I've had more instances of power outages, where even traditional phone service would be dead, since we don't have anything but cordless phones in the house, anyway.
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Almost impossible to use any of the services offered on the Internet in Indonesia, Malaysia and other parts of Asia. Delay and echoing are the main problems. However landline/mobile VOIP services are quite popular here and in many cases cheaper as Skype or any other on the Internet. I feel this will continue and outcast those companies in a very short time to come, not able anymore to reach the Asian market. I use myself right now Quest Iconnect from my mobile phone and pay less as Skype, problem with Quest however is customer service and access to their services in overall. My mobile phone provider (XLCom Indonesia from TM Malaysia) offers luckely superb VOIP calls for less than 0.27425 US Dollar to most countries in the world.... I feel this will be soon the same in Europe, USA etc.?
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Quality: sure. That isn't hard.
Reliability: Still far away. I have a 7 year uptime (OS/2) for my $10K panasonic PBX/voicemail. Good luck getting near that on any VoIP equipment under $50K.
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They need to work on the echoing. Most of the time things work good, and when it works good it is as good as a decent cell fone in my experience. I use Skype--haven't tried the others, yet.
Doug
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