Call quality problems - I can hear them - they cant hear me

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 15, 2009 Posts: 5

Hope someone can help, I've been having problems for a while now with the call quality of my vonage calls. I can always hear incoming or outgoing calls perfectly however people on the other end of the line, be they in the UK, USA, Europe etc, are always complaining they cant hear me and that I keep cutting in and out. Has anyone else had or heard of a similar problem as if I cant solve it Im gonna have to ditch vonage for skype or a BT international call package which will be very annoying espcially as I use it for a small business and a getting the number swtiched onto BT or changed altogether isnt something I'd really like to do.

I've contacted vonage and I went through everything they suggested to no avail, even upping the bandwidth setting. It seems to correct itself sometimes if I reset the vonage box so I'm wondering if its a cumulative time thing or because I've been downloading the previous evening and the heavy usage causes quality problems.

I also use a set of 4 dect BT Studio phones for vonage, I thought it could be the handset batteries, I've bought some new ones to test but they need to run in first, this is a last ditch effort though if the batteries dont work and no-one can suggest anything on here its goodbye vonage and hello something else I dont really want.

Hope someone can advise me on this as its driving me bonkers.
Rob
Confused

Posts: 292 · Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:49 am Post subject:

Have you had your internet connection checked?
When I was having those problems, there was a problem with my internet connection that caused my outgoing audio to drop occasionally.
Do a google search for VOIP speed test (the one on this site license has expired) and report back the results. It would help determine where your problem is.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 15, 2009 Posts: 5

Hi kdf, thanks for your help. My broadband speed is very slow since moving to the country which could be the issue:

VOIP Test results

Download speed 1070 Kbps
Upload speed 245 Kbps
D/load QOS 44 %
U/load QOS 34 %
RTT 98 ms
Max Delay 295 ms
Avg Delay 12 ms
Max Bandwidth 1920 Kbps
Route Speed 5349 Kbps
Forced Idle 0 %
Route Conc 1.7
Download test s
Upload test s

Unfortunately I can only get BT or talk talk on my line and my exchange gets the BT 21CN PSTN switchover in Q3 2009 but the 21CN WBC date is 31/03/2011 ! So i think I'm screwed speed wise till 2011, sigh. Not sure if the 21CN switchover will help my VOIP, probably not.

I've atcually just seen that I can get wireless broadband where I am, not sure what provider though, and at what cost, will def check it out in case I can get a better service.

Looking at the results does it look very bad for me?

Posts: 292 · Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:26 pm Post subject:

What type of internet do you have? (wireless, satellite, cable, etc)
Your upload speeds are quite slow but could be tolerable as long as there is nothing else going on with the network.
Upload speeds are important for your callers to hear you.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 15, 2009 Posts: 5

Its just BT broadband over copper wire in the UK, cant get cable, wireless is out as im not in a 3G area, satellite - not sure, but would be expensive I imagine. There's no llu unbundled exchange as its too small, I doubt it will ever be llu enabled as there's less than 200 homes/businesses on it.

The set up I have is a BT Home Hub connected by ethernet into a switch which then connect to 3 desktops and my vonage box by ethernet which in turn connects to my dect phones.

I try not to use the net when on the phone, but it seems to get worse the longer I leave the vonage box without resetting. The box is on my desktop tower which goes against Vonage's suggestion of a few feet away from appliances. I tested it a few feet away and it was still bad however perhaps it needed a reset and then needed to placed a few feet away and then tested for a few days. In fact I will try that out.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 15, 2009 Posts: 5

It seems that due to my low broadband speeds the vonage box needs an unplug and replugging every day to ensure good service. This seems to solve the problem. So it wasnt the location of the box to electrical equipment or the dect phone batteries.