Background Noise is a Bit Excessive

Posts: 448

On our Vonage line, no matter if we are calling local or long distance, there is background noise-- a wooshing sound like rushing air, similar to an overseas call, or long distance calls of 30 years ago. It's not so loud as to interfere with the conversation, but after two decades of almost perfectly silent PSTN service, the background noise is loud enough to be really annoying... annoying enough that I reach for our PSTN landline when making local calls just so I don't have to listen to my phone blowing in my ear.

Remember the Sprint commercials in the 80s, about lines being so quiet you could hear a pin drop? That is definitely NOT the case with our Vonage line.

Elsewhere on this forum I've read posts saying the service is extremely quiet with virtually no background noise.

In other places, I've read Vonage injects "comfort noise" so users don't start thinking their line is dead. If this is the case, Vonage is shooting itself in the foot (IMO) by artifically making the service substandard when compared to PSTN-- and that is NOT something you want when trying to compete against The Establishment.

Do any of you experience the background noise I'm talking about, or is there perhaps something wrong with our adapter?

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 28, 2004 Posts: 18

thus far, the rare background noise I have experienced has been so low, its almost unnoticeable.. also as noted has happened rarely...
and for me, 'cause I have a fuzzy landline...its been somewhat a step up in quality......

Posts: 433 · Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2004 1:44 am Post subject:

Try another telephone, I found one of my cordless telephones had "air" noise and other did not.

Just a thought, and open to discussion.

Posts: 20 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 30, 2004 Posts: 20

I too am experiencing what I think is the same thing you are. I first noticed it when I picked up my cordless phone that is attached to my Vonage line. It was kind of an airy sound. I thought well, maybe the volume is up too high, so I turned down the volume and it seemed to be better. When I pick up my corded phone that is on my Vonage line, I hear the same sound, however the volume on that phone is already in the lowest position. So there isn't really anything I can do. I'm guessing that the Vonage line has more power than POTS line, and the phones aren't meant to deal with such high power, so it comes across as too loud or an air blowing sound. I suppose it'll just take some getting used to.

Posts: 448 · Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2004 5:01 pm Post subject:

houuser wrote:

Try another telephone, I found one of my cordless telephones had "air" noise and other did not.

Unfortunately, it happens on all of our phones, both corded and cordless.

adamwsh wrote:

I'm guessing that the Vonage line has more power than POTS line, and the phones aren't meant to deal with such high power, so it comes across as too loud or an air blowing sound.

On the hardwired phones, the keypad lights are barely lit when plugged into the Vonage adapter, so I'm assuming the voltage is lower.

I'm hoping that (a) it is true that Vonage injects "comfort noise", and (b) they come to their senses and get rid of it. Sprint spent billions building their "so silent you can hear a pin drop" network in the 80s, as did other carriers. I can't believe Vonage would intentionally degrade quality when they're trying to lure customers away from the telcos (if it's true about comfort noise).

I admit it, I'm spoiled by 20 years of noise-free phone service. I love Vonage for free long distance (more than pays for itself each month) but the intollerable background air-noise is why I still keep a PSTN line for local calls.

Like any new technology-gone-mainstream, I'm eagerly awaiting improvements which will almost certainly be driven by consumer demand.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 07, 2004 Posts: 1

I'm getting this same background noise. At first I thought it was my PC fan but it occurs on my wireless phone in a quiet room too. Would be nice to know we could filter this out. If it is a comfort noise it would be nice if we could turn this on/off under account preference. Smile

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2004 4:56 pm Post subject:

here's a thread that may help:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,12050107~mode=flat

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 09, 2004 Posts: 1

Hello All, I have had Vonage for like 3 days now, and I was getting some noise also, its so vague but its still irritating, I find myself listening more for the sound than the conversation. What I did was change the band saver to 50K (middle) and now the sound is gone, when I moved it back and waited like 2 hours it was back, so maybe you all sound try changing your quality setting.....see how it works out for you.

Posts: 433 · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 12:49 am Post subject:

Rumor has it, the noise is from the Vonage ATA. The Motorola and the Cisco did not have the problem. The Linksys and the RP do.

Posts: 22 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 02, 2004 Posts: 22

houuser wrote:

Rumor has it, the noise is from the Vonage ATA. The Motorola and the Cisco did not have the problem. The Linksys and the RP do.

MAYBE it's with SOME Linksys' ATAs.
I finally got a Vonage rep to admit they are getting noise reports. He claims it affects only(?) a few hundred Linksys ATAs.
He is overnighting me a replacement.
Maybe it will fix my instance but to be serious I am not confident it will but will be objective.
J