echo in calls

Maybe the other party is using their PC speakers and the sound of your voice is coming back through their microphone.

Here's what MITEL has to say on the topic of ECHO with IP phones and their new SX-200 ICP pbx:

{QUOTING}

"With IP telephones, it is especially important to match impedance between trunk circuits in the SX-200 ICP and the Central Office (CO). The CO can provide trunks with impedance settings of 600 Ohms, Complex, Centrex, or DSL. The ASU Class Trunk circuit descriptor in CDE Form 13 provides matching settings. It also provides a setting called [Is this a long line C0.] Setting it to NO (the default) adds padding that helps to reduce echo when the db level of calls is high, as it would be if the SX-200 ICP is located very close to the C.O. or a signal repeater. Setting it to yes removes the padding."

{END QUOTE}

What this is telling us it that quite possibly your problem is too high of a transmit (speaking) level on your end. If there is a way to adjust or pad down your own transmit (send) level, that very well might fix it.

Of course it could also be "sidetone" coming back to you from the hybrid at the ISP. The delay you hear is the packet delay.

Regardless of the cause I agree it is very undesirable (and annoying). Unfortunately it is not that unusual with low-end or home-brew Internet-based IP phone solutions.

Echo in an IP phone environment generally stems from two possibilities:

1.) Analog hybrids (4 wire/2 wire conversion) 2.) Possible earpiece and mouthpiece audio coupling.

I'd verify that you're not somehow getting audio back into the mouthpiece by having volume levels unnecessarily high. Try another phone on the ATA as well. Failing that, call VoiceWing and let them know about the echo problem. If the echo is not caused by your phone, then they may need to adjust some settings on their gateway to the PSTN.

I have VoiceWing service as well, and have found their tech support to be pretty decent. So far, I've been very pleased with it. Initially, they had the audio gain on my ATA way too high. I called them and asked them to back it down. They took care of it while I was on the phone with them. That made a tremendous difference. I suspect that you're settings are quite hot, too. I'm guessing that compared to your normal house jack, the phone is much louder? Good Luck!