Maintaining consistent call quality can be a challenge with internet telephony given the number of factors impacting call performance.
But with a few best practices, it’s quite possible to monitor common VoIP problems and improve call quality. The key is understanding what impacts VoIP connectivity and audio performance behind the scenes.
In this article, we’ll unpack the primary culprits of subpar VoIP call quality and share some troubleshooting tips, so you steer clear of frustrating call problems and achieve clear connections for critical customer communications.
Read on to optimize call quality and ensure your business phone system performs at its best.
What Is VoIP?
Voice over Internet Protocol ( VoIP ) refers to making voice calls over the internet, rather than traditional phone lines.
With VoIP, analog audio signals are digitized and transmitted as data packets over IP networks. This allows for phone service to be provided over broadband connections instead of separate, dedicated phone lines.
VoIP is typically less expensive than traditional phone services and provides more flexibility as users can take their phone number anywhere they have a broadband connection.
What Impacts VoIP Call Quality
Call quality with VoIP depends on a fast and stable internet connection.
Factors like bandwidth, latency, network jitter , and packet loss can lead to issues with call clarity, echoes, delays, and dropped calls if the internet connection has reliability or speed issues.
Let’s take a look at some common factors affecting VoIP calls.
1. Internet connection speed and stability
Your internet connection’s speed and stability are crucial for good VoIP call quality.
VoIP calls require relatively low bandwidth, but any dips, lag, or congestion on your network can cause audio issues like choppy sound or dropped calls.
High-speed internet with at least 3-5 Mbps speeds is recommended for optimal performance.
2. Latency/delay
Latency refers to the time it takes for data packets to get from one point to another on the network. High latency causes a noticeable lag or delay, which can make conversations difficult.
Latency should ideally be under 150 milliseconds for high-quality VoIP calls. Geographic distance and internet traffic levels impact latency.
3. Jitter
Jitter happens when the delay between packet deliveries varies instead of remaining consistent.
Varied packet arrival times disrupt the steady audio stream. Jitter buffers help account for some network jitter, but excessive jitter still degrades call quality.
4. Packet loss
Packet loss occurs when data packets fail to reach their destination and get dropped from transmission. This can lead to choppy audio or missing syllables.
Packet loss of over 5% significantly reduces VoIP quality.
5. Codecs used
VoIP codecs digitally encode voice data to transmit over the internet. Low-bandwidth codecs like G.729 tend to produce lower audio quality.
Higher-quality wideband codecs like G.722 or Opus allow for fuller sound more like a traditional phone but at the cost of higher bandwidth needs.
Via GL Communications
6. Quality of Service (QoS) policies
QoS policies that don’t prioritize VoIP traffic on a network slow down data packets when competing against other traffic.
To greatly enhance reliability and audio consistency, tweak your QoS settings to prioritize VoIP traffic.
7. Distance
Long-distance calls, particularly international ones, can experience higher latency and jitter due to longer signal travel times. A VoIP provider with geographically distributed servers helps mitigate these issues.
How To Identify & Monitor VoIP Call Issues
Monitoring call quality is essential for any VoIP system implementation.
The first step is to set up tools that give visibility into call metrics and network health, like jitter, packet loss, mean opinion scores ( MOS ), and more across all calls.
Enable logging as well for individual devices. This tracks errors or events for troubleshooting.
You’ll also want to watch bandwidth utilization trends with network management software. Spikes or exhausted capacity could negatively impact calls.
Another tip is listening for customer complaints about choppy audio, garbled voices, echoes, or drops. These subjective assessments complement your objective metrics. When customers raise issues, you can cross-reference to identify causes.
From there, you can dig deeper into problem areas.
For example, frequent call setup failures indicate signaling problems in SIP or misconfigured devices.
One-way audio occurs when severe packet loss allows only one direction to get through.
Echo usually stems from impedance mismatches or device issues. Drops can arise from temporary network service degradation or timeouts.
The root causes will vary based on the symptoms.
Proactively sampling call quality through test calls at different locations and times can detect emerging problems early too.
Overall, a layered monitoring approach allows you to correlate metrics, device logs, infrastructure health, and customer feedback to rapidly identify and troubleshoot VoIP call quality problems.
