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VoIP call quality falls - Survey

VoIP call quality has taken a nosedive over the last 18 months, with nearly 20 percent of VoIP callers experiencing unacceptable voice quality, according to a survey done by Brix Networks. The results come from Brix Networks' TestYourVoIP.com site, a free VoIP quality-testing portal. Brix claims that nearly one million VoIP phone tests have been conducted at the site since its March, 2004 launch.

Brix claims that from late 2004 through mid-2006, the tests done at the site have shown a consistent decrease in overall voice quality as calculated via the Mean Opinion Score (MOS). MOS is an a measurement of conversational voice quality that rates calls on a scale from one (bad) to five (excellent). Test calls with a MOS of 3.6 or better are usually regarded as being satisfactory, and those below it as unsatisfactory. Only 81 percent of VoIP calls tested on the site were rated at 3.6 or better, the company says.

How accurate are the results? Without a third party to analyze them, it's difficult to know. Brix, though, sells IP and VoIP testing solutions, and the company does have a vested interest in touting any results that show poor VoIP quality. On the other hand, anyone who has made a VoIP call knows only too well the sometimes erratic nature of call quality.

- By Networking Pipeline Staff

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Reply to
KnowingAbout.com
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And in order to let them test your VOIP, they get in to your computer to make the call? No thanks.

"TestYourVoIP.com will make a call from wherever you are to one of our U.S. or international test locations and report the results for free. It'll only take about 20 seconds if you have Java installed."

I test my VOIP every time I make or receive a call, and mine is 100% perfect. I continually read Broadband Reports on VOIP and have not read about any such nonsense. I am suspicious about the motives in re-publishing or plagerizing that report.

Lena

Reply to
Lena

How do you do that, Lena ?

Reply to
FTR

Blame the poor and cheap ISPs. From my location in Germany, I'm getting a MOS of 4,2 to Sydney, 4,3 to San Jose and 4,4 to all other destinations. I'm finding it odd though, that the delay to Sydney (>300ms routed via New York, Sacramento, CA and back to Ashburn, VA) does not have a greater impact on the calculated MOS.

Tor

Reply to
Tor-Einar Jarnbjo

What is a MOS, how do you measure it? For a non-engineer it is difficult to understand this

- Frank

Reply to
FTR

Mean Opinion Score. It's a measurement for line quality, commonly based on personal evaluation, but TestYourVoIP is using an automated process (probably taking packet loss, delay and jitter in consideration) for calculating it. 4.4 is the best MOS technically possible for a regular phone call:

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Tor

Reply to
Tor-Einar Jarnbjo

"Mean Opinion Score. It's a measurement for line quality, commonly based on personal evaluation,.." I'm mean and opinionated, and I personally evaluate every call as it sounds in my ears. That's what's important to me.

Lena

Reply to
Lena

Thanks! The MOS is the 'I hear you five' from the old radio telephone days in the military. I didn't know the term.

Now that we know that 4.4 is the highest level that you get with VoIP what is the level of a goog analogue landline?

I must admit that with Skype PC-PC calls here in Europe you get an excellent voice quality, sometimes even better than traditional landline. When you use SkypeOut for PC-landline the sound quality drops so considerably that I can't use SkypeOut for business calls: the worst is that the beginning of words are often cut. Also the transmitted voice frequency is limited. You can even hear the loss of quality. So, this is why I ask: when comparing VoIP services which one provide an acceptabmle quality when the call terminates on a landline?

However, as someone who works with stats everyday: using a mean for skewed data as the MOS does is a procedure that is just - bad. Any student that proposes this is a stats course would get 0/5 points.

- ft

Reply to
FTR

sipgate is currently doing very poor andyet my scores are high andwith sipgate it is painfull

Reply to
kyron

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