VOIP - worthwhile or stick with landline in semi-rural area

**abaddonxi** · 21st June 2011, 10:58 PM

Originally Posted by incisor

i get sick to death of speaking to people on crap voip lines

as an aside

it amazes me that people in business think so little of the customers and so much of their own wallets that they subject potential customers to it. i find it hard to believe it doesn't cost them more in lost custom than it did for the phone line in the first place.

the internode man pretty much nailed it

My sister did just that, and I thought exactly the same thing, why not spend the money for guaranteed quality?

I find VOIP calls start to get echoey after about 25mins - assume the provider is telling me I've spent my 10c and it's time to hang up and call back.

And recently I've found calling landlines from my mobile - Telstra - get echoes from the getgo. Called, complained, said that it was happening on both iphones, so maybe a Telstra problem. The phone person wanted to reset one of the phones to see what was going on, but wasn't really sure what data would be lost...

**incisor** · 22nd June 2011, 07:58 AM

like all compression, the bigger the stream the more issues with the codec, the longer the stream the less time between lost packets on a stream.

once it drops one packet it is in a whole world of hurt attempting to make up ground.

voip generally uses UDP packets to transmit the data which means there is no guarantee your data will even make it where it is supposed to go...

and security, what security

**Chucaro** · 22nd June 2011, 08:08 AM

Interesting comments, in 5 years that I have been using only Voip for communications I never have the problems above mentioned.
The only problem was at the beginning when I have 512/256 speed line which did not allowed to navegate the internet and using Voip at the same time.
Now @ 1500 speed we can have a conference in Skype and use Voip at the same time.
The only negative aspect about Voip is that if the provider or the modem fails you do not know if some one is trying to contact you until you try to make a call.

**p38arover** · 22nd June 2011, 08:18 AM

There have been a number of times when I've had to give up on trying to make VoIP calls - especially to NZ. The quality has been so bad as to make it unusable.

The problem is that one doesn't know where the fault lies.

My end is on Optus broadband cable so it doesn't touch the Telstra copper network at this end.

richard4u2 · 22nd June 2011, 08:20 AM

people who have voip and dont have a problem with it , that may be true , you may think because you are talking okay but when you are on the recieving end of that call the reception is crap

**abaddonxi** · 22nd June 2011, 08:28 AM

Originally Posted by richard4u2

i would not have voip in a blue fit

nothing worse then having a conversation with someone and only hearing every second word . i have telstra nextg $20 per month and an hour free per day to any number in oz and that includes video calls . internet is also wireless nextg with the ultimate modem and i use a 6dbh? aerial , i am not a big internet user there is more to life then downloading movies

Might be good if every second word they say is ****.

**incisor** · 22nd June 2011, 08:28 AM

UDP is fine until it hits a congested link, as you have experienced.

**djam1** · 26th June 2011, 12:54 PM

Have been using VOIP for the last few years without issue.
You do need sufficient bandwidth to successfully use it, the only quality issues I have had are with SKYPE on my IPhone using Next G.
Certainly don't think my call quality has been bad enough to be offensive to others.
My deep hatred for Telstra may override that though lol

**Basil135** · 5th July 2011, 11:52 AM

We have used VoIP at work for the last 5 years or so with no problems.

As we make a lot of interstate phone calls, our system is set up so that the calls stay on our network, until they reach the state we are calling, and then jump to the PSTN. This means we are only paying for a local call.

That said, would I have it at home? No. Well, not until the NBN comes in. I like copper, and have no intention of getting rid of my old, plug in phone any time soon.

Call quality depends on several factors, including bandwidth & the compression used by the carrier. More bandwidth + lower compression = better call quality.

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