Views on VoIP providers call quality

bcorden

I'm in a business and we are setting up a new VoIP PBX system and we've to pick a VoIP Provider?

I'm just wondering if anyone has views on who might provide a service with a reliable call quality.

We've fairly fast broadband so I don't see that being a problem.

Thanks

Mr. G

I'd recommend Digiweb. You get 24/7 phone support to their operations centre if anything goes wrong and there's no monthly fee. I have a mobile number also which sort-of sold it really. I can't fault them. Never had any major issues.

For VoIP to be reliable, it needs to be setup correctly also (QoS etc). The reason some experience bad quality calls is because its likely their setup is wrong.

The best advice I can give is to shop around and trial out providers. Don't just sign up to one, have a backup provider just in case. And check for any contracts.

domeld

Mr. G why digiweb? Why not Goldfish?

Mr. G

domeld wrote: »

Mr. G why digiweb? Why not Goldfish?

They're good too. Goldfish use Digiweb.

Simply because the OP said he was setting up a pbx. The quality with Digiweb would be the same if not better.

whadafook

Fast broadband isn't the solution you. For business users a provider who offers a VoIP connection with QoS would be the best option. You need to ensure that both inbound and outbound calls have good call quality. It sends a bad message to customers if you have a fixed line call with crappy call quality

Mr. G

If the speeds aren't sufficient, then the quality of the call would be non existant.

domeld

1 Mb upload and g729 will be enough for most small and medium business in Ireland. With g729 quality is not good as with g711.

FSL

domeld wrote: »

1 Mb upload and g729 will be enough for most small and medium business in Ireland. With g729 quality is not good as with g711.

The speed is insignificant compared to the pause pattern.

For example a speed test showing 1Mb could quite easily be 10Mb for 10ms followed by a 90ms of nothing.

An erratic pattern of high speeds and long pauses makes VOIP calls impossible.

whadafook

Mr. G wrote: »

If the speeds aren't sufficient, then the quality of the call would be non existant.

Agreed but if your voice carrier isn't providing QoS you can run into issues regardless of speed

The majority of Irish business are located in urban areas with at least a reasonable DSL service which should be enough to run a PBX that would have taken couple of basic rate ISDN lines on a traditional PBX

When you get into FRA or PRA equivalent you need to explore options with committed upload speeds to support higher call traffic

SpaceTime

If you can get FTTC (E-fibre, Vodafone Fibre, Digweb Fibre etc) or UPC, you will find VoIP is a lot nicer to use as there's a much improved upload speed.

A lot of ADSL services have very slow upload compared with about 10mbit/s up with FTTC or cable.

SpaceTime

If you can get FTTC (E-fibre, Vodafone Fibre, Digweb Fibre etc) or UPC, you will find VoIP is a lot nicer to use as there's a much improved upload speed.

A lot of ADSL services have very slow upload compared with about 10mbit/s up with FTTC or cable.

Those services really aren't very expensive.

Mr. G

SpaceTime wrote: »

If you can get FTTC (E-fibre, Vodafone Fibre, Digweb Fibre etc) or UPC, you will find VoIP is a lot nicer to use as there's a much improved upload speed.

A lot of ADSL services have very slow upload compared with about 10mbit/s up with FTTC or cable.

Those services really aren't very expensive.

I agree, although in terms of call quality there is not much in the difference. It is important that QoS is set up correctly. It would ring faster, facilitate HD calls etc., but comparing it to a landline there is no difference between a 12Mb/1Mb DSL stable connection and a landline.

SpaceTime

That and FTTC tends to provide more stability and better pings than ADSL or ADSL2+ because the line's much shorter and the equipment involved is probably a lot higher tech and newer.

You've at most 700m or so of twisted pair to a cabinet and it's IP over fibre from there on.

UPC's service is generally head and shoulders above anything else if you're in an area capable of supporting 200mbit/s

I wouldn't bother with ADSL2+ anymore if you've FTTC or cable available though. For the relatively small difference in price, there's no point in having slow speeds.

There are still some eircom exchanges providing ADSL 'classic' on 1, 3 and 7 Mbit/s packages that they don't advertise on their websites at all. Those are back hauled over relatively slow ATM connections instead of the NGN which is all-IP based. That kind of connection's generally a disaster with VoIP or anything that requires stability and reasonably low pings as speeds drop at peak times due to congestion.

A very large % of long ADSL2+ lines don't support 1mbit/s up either. They tend to hover around 600kbps or so and that can be problematic for VoIP especially if those channels being used for upload are unstable.

If you're on the edge of an exchange's footprint, you'd be mad not to go for fibre to cabinet if it's available as you'll dramatically cut your line length.

For small business / medium businesses FTTC connections should mean being able to run quite large VoIP setups over a single, relatively cheap connection though which is a huge improvement over ADSL.

Mr. G

I get what your saying. Pings are important also, hence why satillite is not suitable for VoIP.