5 Ways to Ensure the Best VoIP Call Quality

5 Ways to Ensure the Best VoIP Call Quality

Call quality is one of the most common inquiries from customers who are thinking about switching from a landline service.  Saving money is important, but most customers want to ensure they are not sacrificing the quality of their conversations.  By being aware of these common problems, you can ensure you not only save money with VoIP, but also enjoy an exceptional user experience.

1.  You need some speed:  Bandwidth is obviously a very important part of VoIP service.  Without adequate upload and download speeds, voice packets cannot be digitized, encoded, or transmitted via the internet. TeleBlend service requires at least 120 Kbps in each direction for acceptable voice quality, but recommends at least 256 Kbps for a decent experience and speeds in excess of 400 Kbps will provide you with great audio quality.

2.  But there is more to it than just speed:  Bandwidth is obviously a very important aspect of VoIP, but there are other factors that can negatively affect your call quality and user experience.  Quality of service (QoS) measures the consistency of your data stream and it's ability to prioritize data flow and provide a certain performance level.  A QoS measure below 90% may result in a choppy connection or degradation of service quality.  To make sure your quality of service is sufficient run a Speed and VoIP test.

Here are the other metrics your internet service needs to meet in order to ensure your calls are crystal clear: 

• packet loss < 1%
• Jitter 5.0 or less,
• average round trip to server less than 90ms,
• packets out of order 0%
• packet discards < 1%
•  MOS of 3.9 or more

·         Contact your Internet service provider and request an assessment if you are experiencing call quality issues and the results of your speed test do not meet or exceed the metrics above. 

3.  Could it be the phone?  When it comes to call quality, the answer to this question can be yes.  Cordless phones are popular for good reason.  It's extremely convenient to walk around and multi-task while you talk to friends and family, and cordless phones provide this luxury.  However, corless phones can be known to cause call quality issues.  Problems like echoes are frequently caused acoustically when the phone receiver picks up the sounds coming from the phone's speaker. Turning down the volume on the phone usually resolves this issue.  It's also very important to ensure your cordless handset and phone bases are fully charged. 

4.  Have you tested the house wiring?  A lot customers use their house wiring to connect traditional telephones throughout their household.  Using the house wiring is an easy way to get the traditional feel of home phone service.  However, if your house wiring is not in great condition, it will cause service degradation.  If you are using house wiring and experiencing call quality issues, the first thing we recommend doing is connecting your telephone directly to the phone 1 port.  If the call quality improves, your house wiring is the culprit. 

5.  Give the gizmo some space:  Electronic equipment positioned too close to your gizmo can cause interference and dropped calls.  Electronic equipment includes routers and other network equipment.  TeleBlend recommends maintaining 3 feet of separation. 

There is no reason why your home phone service can't be crystal clear.  If you are thinking about purchasing a VoIP phone service or you're currently experiencing call quality issues, referencing this post can help you prevent, identify and resolve the problem so you can enjoy conversations with your friends and family.