How can I get near perfect data quality for calls?

[Hal65]

I'm using AIS 4G on my phone (with CSIPSimple as the VOIP app). It's good but people can tell that I'm using VOIP due to the slight choppiness. For receiving calls to a US number on the other side of the world its darn good though. But when people are calling me locally, they can sense that I'm not where my area code states.

 

Is there an even better option? I'm thinking of springing for a 50mb down/5mb up plan from True (upload seems to be the problem area)

[trd]

VOIP uses a very small bandwidth so a very fast connection won't help. I've found there's no real difference in terms of choppiness of audio on Skype between my 3G phone and my 100Mb/s fibre optic connection.

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, Hal65 said:

Is there an even better option? I'm thinking of springing for a 50mb down/5mb up plan from True (upload seems to be the problem area)

 

As mentioned, in my experience the problem is not bandwidth but latency and jitter between you and your SIP provider.

 

I'm not aware that there is much that can be done about either apart from looking for a provider that is closer, and even then it may not make much difference.

[carlyai]

I take it you only use this facility at home?

If you only use it from your home mobile phone, then signal fading between your phone antenna and your telecom provider antenna could be an influencing factor.

You can buy a directional antenna for your home that can give you a greater signal strength. (technically if I can remember, I think the aerial gain is 6 db).

 

You have to have a mobile phone with a little antenna connector on it to connect to your aerial cable.

A few years ago before we got fibre, I used one of these set ups.

Not saying it will work with your set up.

 

Sent from my SM-J700F using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Monomial]

I disagree that a better internet connection will not improve quality. It depends entirely on where the jitter and packet loss is coming from. Mobile signals are notoriously bad for VoIP due to bursty behavior. You may find a significant improvement on a broadband line. Or you may find it doesn't help at all. But it is definitely worth trying. You don't need huge bandwidth though. That won't do anything for you. The cheapest broadband service will work just as well as the 50Mbit one, although going to fiber instead of copper DSL may make a difference so you want to consider the physical delivery medium.

 

One thing you do need to do is look to see if there is any configuration setting you can use to increase the jitter buffer. Configuring a VoIP system is always a tradeoff between latency jitter tolerance. And when you are going overseas, you need a much larger jitter buffer than you do domestically. The longer latencies and more router hops means the jitter in your packet arrival times goes way up. Understand that increasing your jitter buffer will also increase the latency in your call, so you want to keep it as short as possible while still minimizing dropouts.

 

Be aware though, there is absolutely no way people are not going to know you are overseas. Even if you can solve the dropouts due to packet loss and jitter, and you eliminate the burst packet loss by going to a fixed line instead of mobile, the latency is a dead giveaway. And that is a pesky speed of light issue that will not go away no matter what you might try and do.

 

Edited July 21, 2017 by Monomial

[gandalf12]

17 hours ago, KittenKong said:

 

As mentioned, in my experience the problem is not bandwidth but latency and jitter between you and your SIP provider.

 

I'm not aware that there is much that can be done about either apart from looking for a provider that is closer, and even then it may not make much difference.

Normal practice is for latency over 30 mSec echo suppressors need to be fitted

[revelstone]

The only effective way to improve your quality is 

 

• Get a high quality SIP provider who is located close to you with very low latency (low ping time). DIDLogic might be a good choice for Thailand
• Get a business internet link, as the traffic on these links is usually prioritised over consumer traffic, so jitter is better
• Implement QoS on your home router
• Use a hard-wired (ethernet) SIP phone instead of a device that uses Wifi

 

It may be that the cost of this ends up being higher than you want to pay (particularly the business internet link). 

Edited July 22, 2017 by revelstone

[mtls2005]

Without understanding your application, your equipment and networking capabilities it is challenging to trouble-shoot.

 

Reliable, dependable fixed-line broadband would be better than mobile data.

 

Dedicated VoIP hardware, via ethernet would be better.

 

I have AIS fiber (home: 100/10), an oBi200 VoIP ATA with a standard POTs handset running three free Google Voice numbers. I encounter no issues with jitter, delay, choppiness, drop-outs. Call completion is 100% and call quality is excellent - I've never had an issue with people commenting on my location - given how horrible mobile phone service can be in the U.S.. My U.S. number gets passed, callers in the U.S. can call fine. For those friends using LINE in the U.S. I have to say that voice calls using LINE are quite amazing.

 

I do run GV, and Talkatone, on my Android devices and those work acceptably on home WiFi. I rarely use these apps on 4G.

 

All the illegal boiler-rooms here use VoIP and it doesn't seem to impact their profitability.

 

 

Edited July 24, 2017 by mtls2005

[MJKT2014]

2 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

All the illegal boiler-rooms here use VoIP and it doesn't seem to impact their profitability.

+1. My first thoughts when reading the subject title.