Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Test Results from over 14,000 test calls placed by Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000
to Western European and North American destinations from July 2005 to July 2006

Montreal, Canada (Monday, August 28th, 2006) — VoIP phone service now sounds better and connects faster than the standard public-switched phone network (PSTN), according to data collected over the last 12 months by Minacom’s standards-based, single-ended service quality test system. Results show that VoIP service quality increased steadily over the last year, with an average Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of 4.2, compared to 3.9 for the PSTN - MOS is a scale commonly used to describe speech quality, ranging from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). Based on a MOS threshold of 3.6, only 1 out of 50 calls in North America were considered to be unacceptable - 1 in 10 worldwide - while greater than 85% of VoIP calls exceeded average PSTN quality over the same period. Detailed results show that VoIP service bettered PSTN quality worldwide, and improved in all regions over the course of the survey. In addition to superior sound quality, calls over VoIP connected quicker overall - 8.2 seconds on average, compared to 8.9 seconds for those placed over the PSTN. Regionally, the PSTN was faster to connect for calls placed to North America (4.3 seconds vs. 5.7 for VoIP), while international calls connected faster with VoIP (8.7 vs. 10.4 seconds for PSTN). Linear regression indicates that VoIP is closing the gap, connecting 2 seconds faster in July 2006 than a year earlier.

A recent Internet Phone quality study by Brix Networks indicated that 1 in 5 calls were classified as unacceptable, and that call quality was steadily declining. As this study may have created the impression that VoIP service is not capable of delivering PSTN-grade phone service, Minacom felt it should be clarified for both those in the VoIP industry, and individuals and enterprises considering VoIP service, that this report evaluated computer-to-computer (PC-PC) Internet phone service, similar to those offered by Skype™, Google™ Talk, MSN™ and Yahoo™ Messenger. The quality and service reliability of these applications does not compare to that of the VoIP phone services offered by telcos, cable operators, and broadband VoIP providers who carefully deploy, monitor and manage the quality of their services. PC-PC VoIP quality is subject to many diverse impairments, including firewall settings, computer performance, antivirus installations, high-compression codecs, and Internet bandwidth shared with gaming, file downloads, web surfing and email. By contrast, VoIP offered by service providers is switched using telecom grade equipment, uses lower-compression codecs, and is prioritized over regular Internet traffic using sophisticated, standards-based multimedia telephone adapters (MTAs), maintained and monitored by the operator.

Minacom’s tests were conducted over PSTN, managed broadband and cable VoIP lines, the same services offered to residential and enterprise customers by phone, cable and hosted VoIP providers. Each month, Minacom’s PowerProbe® 6000 service level test probe places hundreds of calls from Minacom’s QoS labs in Montreal, Canada, to public destinations worldwide over PSTN, broadband VoIP, cable VoIP, DSL, FTTP and wireless networks, publishing the results in the Minacom QoS Benchmark Reports, a free email newsletter now in its fourth year of circulation. The results shown in this current study are based on the data published in these reports over a one year period from July 2005 to July 2006. Minacom’s QoS Benchmark Reports are used by the ITU Quality of Service Development Group in studies summarizing global phone quality, published annually to carriers worldwide for the consistency and accuracy of the measurements reported. Minacom’s Public Termination Inventory (PTI) database, used by the DirectQuality® R7 web-based test-OSS to automate the calls, contains over 200,000 far-end public numbers in 230 countries and administrative regions worldwide.

The human ear is an analog device, and sound is an analog signal, so it is important to include analog signal analysis when evaluating speech quality. Minacom’s DirectQuality R7 test system uses an award-winning combination of ITU and industry standard algorithms to calculate listening quality MOS using both analog and IP measurements. MOS scores based only on IP packet statistics do not capture the effects of echo cancellers in network equipment and telephone adapters, noise introduced by copper wiring, or issues with call volume and delay. Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000 IVR Test Agent measures a wide range of analog and IP impairments, including noise, echo, delay, packet loss, call volume, jitter and loss, as well as a complete array of connectivity metrics including Post Dial Delay (PDD), Answer Seizure Ratio (ASR), and Dial-Tone Delay (DTD). Minacom’s single-ended testing technology is used by multi-billion minute/year carriers worldwide to perform automated least-cost routing, validate partner carriers, monitor VoIP service quality and assure IP Peering SLAs.

“Carriers are becoming increasingly educated about MOS scoring and want to know where MOS scores are coming from.” commented Frost and Sullivan Telecom Industry Manager & Analyst, Jessy Cavazos, adding, “There are numerous products in the market that only look at the packet metrics. Hence, many carriers are starting to see degradation they should not see, or not seeing degradation they should see. False service quality alarms result in unproductive troubleshooting efforts by service providers, whereas unidentified quality issues ultimately leads to dissatisfied customers. That is why Minacom uses three different technology sources for MOS scoring instead of only one, so as to capture all possible service issues with the highest degree of accuracy available."
Press release

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Test Results from over 14,000 test calls placed by Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000
to Western European and North American destinations from July 2005 to July 2006

Montreal, Canada (Monday, August 28th, 2006) — VoIP phone service now sounds better and connects faster than the standard public-switched phone network (PSTN), according to data collected over the last 12 months by Minacom’s standards-based, single-ended service quality test system. Results show that VoIP service quality increased steadily over the last year, with an average Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of 4.2, compared to 3.9 for the PSTN - MOS is a scale commonly used to describe speech quality, ranging from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). Based on a MOS threshold of 3.6, only 1 out of 50 calls in North America were considered to be unacceptable - 1 in 10 worldwide - while greater than 85% of VoIP calls exceeded average PSTN quality over the same period. Detailed results show that VoIP service bettered PSTN quality worldwide, and improved in all regions over the course of the survey. In addition to superior sound quality, calls over VoIP connected quicker overall - 8.2 seconds on average, compared to 8.9 seconds for those placed over the PSTN. Regionally, the PSTN was faster to connect for calls placed to North America (4.3 seconds vs. 5.7 for VoIP), while international calls connected faster with VoIP (8.7 vs. 10.4 seconds for PSTN). Linear regression indicates that VoIP is closing the gap, connecting 2 seconds faster in July 2006 than a year earlier.

A recent Internet Phone quality study by Brix Networks indicated that 1 in 5 calls were classified as unacceptable, and that call quality was steadily declining. As this study may have created the impression that VoIP service is not capable of delivering PSTN-grade phone service, Minacom felt it should be clarified for both those in the VoIP industry, and individuals and enterprises considering VoIP service, that this report evaluated computer-to-computer (PC-PC) Internet phone service, similar to those offered by Skype™, Google™ Talk, MSN™ and Yahoo™ Messenger. The quality and service reliability of these applications does not compare to that of the VoIP phone services offered by telcos, cable operators, and broadband VoIP providers who carefully deploy, monitor and manage the quality of their services. PC-PC VoIP quality is subject to many diverse impairments, including firewall settings, computer performance, antivirus installations, high-compression codecs, and Internet bandwidth shared with gaming, file downloads, web surfing and email. By contrast, VoIP offered by service providers is switched using telecom grade equipment, uses lower-compression codecs, and is prioritized over regular Internet traffic using sophisticated, standards-based multimedia telephone adapters (MTAs), maintained and monitored by the operator.

Minacom’s tests were conducted over PSTN, managed broadband and cable VoIP lines, the same services offered to residential and enterprise customers by phone, cable and hosted VoIP providers. Each month, Minacom’s PowerProbe® 6000 service level test probe places hundreds of calls from Minacom’s QoS labs in Montreal, Canada, to public destinations worldwide over PSTN, broadband VoIP, cable VoIP, DSL, FTTP and wireless networks, publishing the results in the Minacom QoS Benchmark Reports, a free email newsletter now in its fourth year of circulation. The results shown in this current study are based on the data published in these reports over a one year period from July 2005 to July 2006. Minacom’s QoS Benchmark Reports are used by the ITU Quality of Service Development Group in studies summarizing global phone quality, published annually to carriers worldwide for the consistency and accuracy of the measurements reported. Minacom’s Public Termination Inventory (PTI) database, used by the DirectQuality® R7 web-based test-OSS to automate the calls, contains over 200,000 far-end public numbers in 230 countries and administrative regions worldwide.

The human ear is an analog device, and sound is an analog signal, so it is important to include analog signal analysis when evaluating speech quality. Minacom’s DirectQuality R7 test system uses an award-winning combination of ITU and industry standard algorithms to calculate listening quality MOS using both analog and IP measurements. MOS scores based only on IP packet statistics do not capture the effects of echo cancellers in network equipment and telephone adapters, noise introduced by copper wiring, or issues with call volume and delay. Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000 IVR Test Agent measures a wide range of analog and IP impairments, including noise, echo, delay, packet loss, call volume, jitter and loss, as well as a complete array of connectivity metrics including Post Dial Delay (PDD), Answer Seizure Ratio (ASR), and Dial-Tone Delay (DTD). Minacom’s single-ended testing technology is used by multi-billion minute/year carriers worldwide to perform automated least-cost routing, validate partner carriers, monitor VoIP service quality and assure IP Peering SLAs.

“Carriers are becoming increasingly educated about MOS scoring and want to know where MOS scores are coming from.” commented Frost and Sullivan Telecom Industry Manager & Analyst, Jessy Cavazos, adding, “There are numerous products in the market that only look at the packet metrics. Hence, many carriers are starting to see degradation they should not see, or not seeing degradation they should see. False service quality alarms result in unproductive troubleshooting efforts by service providers, whereas unidentified quality issues ultimately leads to dissatisfied customers. That is why Minacom uses three different technology sources for MOS scoring instead of only one, so as to capture all possible service issues with the highest degree of accuracy available."
Press release

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Test Results from over 14,000 test calls placed by Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000
to Western European and North American destinations from July 2005 to July 2006

Montreal, Canada (Monday, August 28th, 2006) — VoIP phone service now sounds better and connects faster than the standard public-switched phone network (PSTN), according to data collected over the last 12 months by Minacom’s standards-based, single-ended service quality test system. Results show that VoIP service quality increased steadily over the last year, with an average Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of 4.2, compared to 3.9 for the PSTN - MOS is a scale commonly used to describe speech quality, ranging from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). Based on a MOS threshold of 3.6, only 1 out of 50 calls in North America were considered to be unacceptable - 1 in 10 worldwide - while greater than 85% of VoIP calls exceeded average PSTN quality over the same period. Detailed results show that VoIP service bettered PSTN quality worldwide, and improved in all regions over the course of the survey. In addition to superior sound quality, calls over VoIP connected quicker overall - 8.2 seconds on average, compared to 8.9 seconds for those placed over the PSTN. Regionally, the PSTN was faster to connect for calls placed to North America (4.3 seconds vs. 5.7 for VoIP), while international calls connected faster with VoIP (8.7 vs. 10.4 seconds for PSTN). Linear regression indicates that VoIP is closing the gap, connecting 2 seconds faster in July 2006 than a year earlier.

A recent Internet Phone quality study by Brix Networks indicated that 1 in 5 calls were classified as unacceptable, and that call quality was steadily declining. As this study may have created the impression that VoIP service is not capable of delivering PSTN-grade phone service, Minacom felt it should be clarified for both those in the VoIP industry, and individuals and enterprises considering VoIP service, that this report evaluated computer-to-computer (PC-PC) Internet phone service, similar to those offered by Skype™, Google™ Talk, MSN™ and Yahoo™ Messenger. The quality and service reliability of these applications does not compare to that of the VoIP phone services offered by telcos, cable operators, and broadband VoIP providers who carefully deploy, monitor and manage the quality of their services. PC-PC VoIP quality is subject to many diverse impairments, including firewall settings, computer performance, antivirus installations, high-compression codecs, and Internet bandwidth shared with gaming, file downloads, web surfing and email. By contrast, VoIP offered by service providers is switched using telecom grade equipment, uses lower-compression codecs, and is prioritized over regular Internet traffic using sophisticated, standards-based multimedia telephone adapters (MTAs), maintained and monitored by the operator.

Minacom’s tests were conducted over PSTN, managed broadband and cable VoIP lines, the same services offered to residential and enterprise customers by phone, cable and hosted VoIP providers. Each month, Minacom’s PowerProbe® 6000 service level test probe places hundreds of calls from Minacom’s QoS labs in Montreal, Canada, to public destinations worldwide over PSTN, broadband VoIP, cable VoIP, DSL, FTTP and wireless networks, publishing the results in the Minacom QoS Benchmark Reports, a free email newsletter now in its fourth year of circulation. The results shown in this current study are based on the data published in these reports over a one year period from July 2005 to July 2006. Minacom’s QoS Benchmark Reports are used by the ITU Quality of Service Development Group in studies summarizing global phone quality, published annually to carriers worldwide for the consistency and accuracy of the measurements reported. Minacom’s Public Termination Inventory (PTI) database, used by the DirectQuality® R7 web-based test-OSS to automate the calls, contains over 200,000 far-end public numbers in 230 countries and administrative regions worldwide.

The human ear is an analog device, and sound is an analog signal, so it is important to include analog signal analysis when evaluating speech quality. Minacom’s DirectQuality R7 test system uses an award-winning combination of ITU and industry standard algorithms to calculate listening quality MOS using both analog and IP measurements. MOS scores based only on IP packet statistics do not capture the effects of echo cancellers in network equipment and telephone adapters, noise introduced by copper wiring, or issues with call volume and delay. Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000 IVR Test Agent measures a wide range of analog and IP impairments, including noise, echo, delay, packet loss, call volume, jitter and loss, as well as a complete array of connectivity metrics including Post Dial Delay (PDD), Answer Seizure Ratio (ASR), and Dial-Tone Delay (DTD). Minacom’s single-ended testing technology is used by multi-billion minute/year carriers worldwide to perform automated least-cost routing, validate partner carriers, monitor VoIP service quality and assure IP Peering SLAs.

“Carriers are becoming increasingly educated about MOS scoring and want to know where MOS scores are coming from.” commented Frost and Sullivan Telecom Industry Manager & Analyst, Jessy Cavazos, adding, “There are numerous products in the market that only look at the packet metrics. Hence, many carriers are starting to see degradation they should not see, or not seeing degradation they should see. False service quality alarms result in unproductive troubleshooting efforts by service providers, whereas unidentified quality issues ultimately leads to dissatisfied customers. That is why Minacom uses three different technology sources for MOS scoring instead of only one, so as to capture all possible service issues with the highest degree of accuracy available."
Press release

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Test Results from over 14,000 test calls placed by Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000
to Western European and North American destinations from July 2005 to July 2006

Montreal, Canada (Monday, August 28th, 2006) — VoIP phone service now sounds better and connects faster than the standard public-switched phone network (PSTN), according to data collected over the last 12 months by Minacom’s standards-based, single-ended service quality test system. Results show that VoIP service quality increased steadily over the last year, with an average Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of 4.2, compared to 3.9 for the PSTN - MOS is a scale commonly used to describe speech quality, ranging from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). Based on a MOS threshold of 3.6, only 1 out of 50 calls in North America were considered to be unacceptable - 1 in 10 worldwide - while greater than 85% of VoIP calls exceeded average PSTN quality over the same period. Detailed results show that VoIP service bettered PSTN quality worldwide, and improved in all regions over the course of the survey. In addition to superior sound quality, calls over VoIP connected quicker overall - 8.2 seconds on average, compared to 8.9 seconds for those placed over the PSTN. Regionally, the PSTN was faster to connect for calls placed to North America (4.3 seconds vs. 5.7 for VoIP), while international calls connected faster with VoIP (8.7 vs. 10.4 seconds for PSTN). Linear regression indicates that VoIP is closing the gap, connecting 2 seconds faster in July 2006 than a year earlier.

A recent Internet Phone quality study by Brix Networks indicated that 1 in 5 calls were classified as unacceptable, and that call quality was steadily declining. As this study may have created the impression that VoIP service is not capable of delivering PSTN-grade phone service, Minacom felt it should be clarified for both those in the VoIP industry, and individuals and enterprises considering VoIP service, that this report evaluated computer-to-computer (PC-PC) Internet phone service, similar to those offered by Skype™, Google™ Talk, MSN™ and Yahoo™ Messenger. The quality and service reliability of these applications does not compare to that of the VoIP phone services offered by telcos, cable operators, and broadband VoIP providers who carefully deploy, monitor and manage the quality of their services. PC-PC VoIP quality is subject to many diverse impairments, including firewall settings, computer performance, antivirus installations, high-compression codecs, and Internet bandwidth shared with gaming, file downloads, web surfing and email. By contrast, VoIP offered by service providers is switched using telecom grade equipment, uses lower-compression codecs, and is prioritized over regular Internet traffic using sophisticated, standards-based multimedia telephone adapters (MTAs), maintained and monitored by the operator.

Minacom’s tests were conducted over PSTN, managed broadband and cable VoIP lines, the same services offered to residential and enterprise customers by phone, cable and hosted VoIP providers. Each month, Minacom’s PowerProbe® 6000 service level test probe places hundreds of calls from Minacom’s QoS labs in Montreal, Canada, to public destinations worldwide over PSTN, broadband VoIP, cable VoIP, DSL, FTTP and wireless networks, publishing the results in the Minacom QoS Benchmark Reports, a free email newsletter now in its fourth year of circulation. The results shown in this current study are based on the data published in these reports over a one year period from July 2005 to July 2006. Minacom’s QoS Benchmark Reports are used by the ITU Quality of Service Development Group in studies summarizing global phone quality, published annually to carriers worldwide for the consistency and accuracy of the measurements reported. Minacom’s Public Termination Inventory (PTI) database, used by the DirectQuality® R7 web-based test-OSS to automate the calls, contains over 200,000 far-end public numbers in 230 countries and administrative regions worldwide.

The human ear is an analog device, and sound is an analog signal, so it is important to include analog signal analysis when evaluating speech quality. Minacom’s DirectQuality R7 test system uses an award-winning combination of ITU and industry standard algorithms to calculate listening quality MOS using both analog and IP measurements. MOS scores based only on IP packet statistics do not capture the effects of echo cancellers in network equipment and telephone adapters, noise introduced by copper wiring, or issues with call volume and delay. Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000 IVR Test Agent measures a wide range of analog and IP impairments, including noise, echo, delay, packet loss, call volume, jitter and loss, as well as a complete array of connectivity metrics including Post Dial Delay (PDD), Answer Seizure Ratio (ASR), and Dial-Tone Delay (DTD). Minacom’s single-ended testing technology is used by multi-billion minute/year carriers worldwide to perform automated least-cost routing, validate partner carriers, monitor VoIP service quality and assure IP Peering SLAs.

“Carriers are becoming increasingly educated about MOS scoring and want to know where MOS scores are coming from.” commented Frost and Sullivan Telecom Industry Manager & Analyst, Jessy Cavazos, adding, “There are numerous products in the market that only look at the packet metrics. Hence, many carriers are starting to see degradation they should not see, or not seeing degradation they should see. False service quality alarms result in unproductive troubleshooting efforts by service providers, whereas unidentified quality issues ultimately leads to dissatisfied customers. That is why Minacom uses three different technology sources for MOS scoring instead of only one, so as to capture all possible service issues with the highest degree of accuracy available."
Press release

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Test Results from over 14,000 test calls placed by Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000
to Western European and North American destinations from July 2005 to July 2006

Montreal, Canada (Monday, August 28th, 2006) — VoIP phone service now sounds better and connects faster than the standard public-switched phone network (PSTN), according to data collected over the last 12 months by Minacom’s standards-based, single-ended service quality test system. Results show that VoIP service quality increased steadily over the last year, with an average Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of 4.2, compared to 3.9 for the PSTN - MOS is a scale commonly used to describe speech quality, ranging from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). Based on a MOS threshold of 3.6, only 1 out of 50 calls in North America were considered to be unacceptable - 1 in 10 worldwide - while greater than 85% of VoIP calls exceeded average PSTN quality over the same period. Detailed results show that VoIP service bettered PSTN quality worldwide, and improved in all regions over the course of the survey. In addition to superior sound quality, calls over VoIP connected quicker overall - 8.2 seconds on average, compared to 8.9 seconds for those placed over the PSTN. Regionally, the PSTN was faster to connect for calls placed to North America (4.3 seconds vs. 5.7 for VoIP), while international calls connected faster with VoIP (8.7 vs. 10.4 seconds for PSTN). Linear regression indicates that VoIP is closing the gap, connecting 2 seconds faster in July 2006 than a year earlier.

A recent Internet Phone quality study by Brix Networks indicated that 1 in 5 calls were classified as unacceptable, and that call quality was steadily declining. As this study may have created the impression that VoIP service is not capable of delivering PSTN-grade phone service, Minacom felt it should be clarified for both those in the VoIP industry, and individuals and enterprises considering VoIP service, that this report evaluated computer-to-computer (PC-PC) Internet phone service, similar to those offered by Skype™, Google™ Talk, MSN™ and Yahoo™ Messenger. The quality and service reliability of these applications does not compare to that of the VoIP phone services offered by telcos, cable operators, and broadband VoIP providers who carefully deploy, monitor and manage the quality of their services. PC-PC VoIP quality is subject to many diverse impairments, including firewall settings, computer performance, antivirus installations, high-compression codecs, and Internet bandwidth shared with gaming, file downloads, web surfing and email. By contrast, VoIP offered by service providers is switched using telecom grade equipment, uses lower-compression codecs, and is prioritized over regular Internet traffic using sophisticated, standards-based multimedia telephone adapters (MTAs), maintained and monitored by the operator.

Minacom’s tests were conducted over PSTN, managed broadband and cable VoIP lines, the same services offered to residential and enterprise customers by phone, cable and hosted VoIP providers. Each month, Minacom’s PowerProbe® 6000 service level test probe places hundreds of calls from Minacom’s QoS labs in Montreal, Canada, to public destinations worldwide over PSTN, broadband VoIP, cable VoIP, DSL, FTTP and wireless networks, publishing the results in the Minacom QoS Benchmark Reports, a free email newsletter now in its fourth year of circulation. The results shown in this current study are based on the data published in these reports over a one year period from July 2005 to July 2006. Minacom’s QoS Benchmark Reports are used by the ITU Quality of Service Development Group in studies summarizing global phone quality, published annually to carriers worldwide for the consistency and accuracy of the measurements reported. Minacom’s Public Termination Inventory (PTI) database, used by the DirectQuality® R7 web-based test-OSS to automate the calls, contains over 200,000 far-end public numbers in 230 countries and administrative regions worldwide.

The human ear is an analog device, and sound is an analog signal, so it is important to include analog signal analysis when evaluating speech quality. Minacom’s DirectQuality R7 test system uses an award-winning combination of ITU and industry standard algorithms to calculate listening quality MOS using both analog and IP measurements. MOS scores based only on IP packet statistics do not capture the effects of echo cancellers in network equipment and telephone adapters, noise introduced by copper wiring, or issues with call volume and delay. Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000 IVR Test Agent measures a wide range of analog and IP impairments, including noise, echo, delay, packet loss, call volume, jitter and loss, as well as a complete array of connectivity metrics including Post Dial Delay (PDD), Answer Seizure Ratio (ASR), and Dial-Tone Delay (DTD). Minacom’s single-ended testing technology is used by multi-billion minute/year carriers worldwide to perform automated least-cost routing, validate partner carriers, monitor VoIP service quality and assure IP Peering SLAs.

“Carriers are becoming increasingly educated about MOS scoring and want to know where MOS scores are coming from.” commented Frost and Sullivan Telecom Industry Manager & Analyst, Jessy Cavazos, adding, “There are numerous products in the market that only look at the packet metrics. Hence, many carriers are starting to see degradation they should not see, or not seeing degradation they should see. False service quality alarms result in unproductive troubleshooting efforts by service providers, whereas unidentified quality issues ultimately leads to dissatisfied customers. That is why Minacom uses three different technology sources for MOS scoring instead of only one, so as to capture all possible service issues with the highest degree of accuracy available."
Press release

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Test Results from over 14,000 test calls placed by Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000
to Western European and North American destinations from July 2005 to July 2006

Montreal, Canada (Monday, August 28th, 2006) — VoIP phone service now sounds better and connects faster than the standard public-switched phone network (PSTN), according to data collected over the last 12 months by Minacom’s standards-based, single-ended service quality test system. Results show that VoIP service quality increased steadily over the last year, with an average Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of 4.2, compared to 3.9 for the PSTN - MOS is a scale commonly used to describe speech quality, ranging from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). Based on a MOS threshold of 3.6, only 1 out of 50 calls in North America were considered to be unacceptable - 1 in 10 worldwide - while greater than 85% of VoIP calls exceeded average PSTN quality over the same period. Detailed results show that VoIP service bettered PSTN quality worldwide, and improved in all regions over the course of the survey. In addition to superior sound quality, calls over VoIP connected quicker overall - 8.2 seconds on average, compared to 8.9 seconds for those placed over the PSTN. Regionally, the PSTN was faster to connect for calls placed to North America (4.3 seconds vs. 5.7 for VoIP), while international calls connected faster with VoIP (8.7 vs. 10.4 seconds for PSTN). Linear regression indicates that VoIP is closing the gap, connecting 2 seconds faster in July 2006 than a year earlier.

A recent Internet Phone quality study by Brix Networks indicated that 1 in 5 calls were classified as unacceptable, and that call quality was steadily declining. As this study may have created the impression that VoIP service is not capable of delivering PSTN-grade phone service, Minacom felt it should be clarified for both those in the VoIP industry, and individuals and enterprises considering VoIP service, that this report evaluated computer-to-computer (PC-PC) Internet phone service, similar to those offered by Skype™, Google™ Talk, MSN™ and Yahoo™ Messenger. The quality and service reliability of these applications does not compare to that of the VoIP phone services offered by telcos, cable operators, and broadband VoIP providers who carefully deploy, monitor and manage the quality of their services. PC-PC VoIP quality is subject to many diverse impairments, including firewall settings, computer performance, antivirus installations, high-compression codecs, and Internet bandwidth shared with gaming, file downloads, web surfing and email. By contrast, VoIP offered by service providers is switched using telecom grade equipment, uses lower-compression codecs, and is prioritized over regular Internet traffic using sophisticated, standards-based multimedia telephone adapters (MTAs), maintained and monitored by the operator.

Minacom’s tests were conducted over PSTN, managed broadband and cable VoIP lines, the same services offered to residential and enterprise customers by phone, cable and hosted VoIP providers. Each month, Minacom’s PowerProbe® 6000 service level test probe places hundreds of calls from Minacom’s QoS labs in Montreal, Canada, to public destinations worldwide over PSTN, broadband VoIP, cable VoIP, DSL, FTTP and wireless networks, publishing the results in the Minacom QoS Benchmark Reports, a free email newsletter now in its fourth year of circulation. The results shown in this current study are based on the data published in these reports over a one year period from July 2005 to July 2006. Minacom’s QoS Benchmark Reports are used by the ITU Quality of Service Development Group in studies summarizing global phone quality, published annually to carriers worldwide for the consistency and accuracy of the measurements reported. Minacom’s Public Termination Inventory (PTI) database, used by the DirectQuality® R7 web-based test-OSS to automate the calls, contains over 200,000 far-end public numbers in 230 countries and administrative regions worldwide.

The human ear is an analog device, and sound is an analog signal, so it is important to include analog signal analysis when evaluating speech quality. Minacom’s DirectQuality R7 test system uses an award-winning combination of ITU and industry standard algorithms to calculate listening quality MOS using both analog and IP measurements. MOS scores based only on IP packet statistics do not capture the effects of echo cancellers in network equipment and telephone adapters, noise introduced by copper wiring, or issues with call volume and delay. Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000 IVR Test Agent measures a wide range of analog and IP impairments, including noise, echo, delay, packet loss, call volume, jitter and loss, as well as a complete array of connectivity metrics including Post Dial Delay (PDD), Answer Seizure Ratio (ASR), and Dial-Tone Delay (DTD). Minacom’s single-ended testing technology is used by multi-billion minute/year carriers worldwide to perform automated least-cost routing, validate partner carriers, monitor VoIP service quality and assure IP Peering SLAs.

“Carriers are becoming increasingly educated about MOS scoring and want to know where MOS scores are coming from.” commented Frost and Sullivan Telecom Industry Manager & Analyst, Jessy Cavazos, adding, “There are numerous products in the market that only look at the packet metrics. Hence, many carriers are starting to see degradation they should not see, or not seeing degradation they should see. False service quality alarms result in unproductive troubleshooting efforts by service providers, whereas unidentified quality issues ultimately leads to dissatisfied customers. That is why Minacom uses three different technology sources for MOS scoring instead of only one, so as to capture all possible service issues with the highest degree of accuracy available."
Press release

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Test Results from over 14,000 test calls placed by Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000
to Western European and North American destinations from July 2005 to July 2006

Montreal, Canada (Monday, August 28th, 2006) — VoIP phone service now sounds better and connects faster than the standard public-switched phone network (PSTN), according to data collected over the last 12 months by Minacom’s standards-based, single-ended service quality test system. Results show that VoIP service quality increased steadily over the last year, with an average Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of 4.2, compared to 3.9 for the PSTN - MOS is a scale commonly used to describe speech quality, ranging from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). Based on a MOS threshold of 3.6, only 1 out of 50 calls in North America were considered to be unacceptable - 1 in 10 worldwide - while greater than 85% of VoIP calls exceeded average PSTN quality over the same period. Detailed results show that VoIP service bettered PSTN quality worldwide, and improved in all regions over the course of the survey. In addition to superior sound quality, calls over VoIP connected quicker overall - 8.2 seconds on average, compared to 8.9 seconds for those placed over the PSTN. Regionally, the PSTN was faster to connect for calls placed to North America (4.3 seconds vs. 5.7 for VoIP), while international calls connected faster with VoIP (8.7 vs. 10.4 seconds for PSTN). Linear regression indicates that VoIP is closing the gap, connecting 2 seconds faster in July 2006 than a year earlier.

A recent Internet Phone quality study by Brix Networks indicated that 1 in 5 calls were classified as unacceptable, and that call quality was steadily declining. As this study may have created the impression that VoIP service is not capable of delivering PSTN-grade phone service, Minacom felt it should be clarified for both those in the VoIP industry, and individuals and enterprises considering VoIP service, that this report evaluated computer-to-computer (PC-PC) Internet phone service, similar to those offered by Skype™, Google™ Talk, MSN™ and Yahoo™ Messenger. The quality and service reliability of these applications does not compare to that of the VoIP phone services offered by telcos, cable operators, and broadband VoIP providers who carefully deploy, monitor and manage the quality of their services. PC-PC VoIP quality is subject to many diverse impairments, including firewall settings, computer performance, antivirus installations, high-compression codecs, and Internet bandwidth shared with gaming, file downloads, web surfing and email. By contrast, VoIP offered by service providers is switched using telecom grade equipment, uses lower-compression codecs, and is prioritized over regular Internet traffic using sophisticated, standards-based multimedia telephone adapters (MTAs), maintained and monitored by the operator.

Minacom’s tests were conducted over PSTN, managed broadband and cable VoIP lines, the same services offered to residential and enterprise customers by phone, cable and hosted VoIP providers. Each month, Minacom’s PowerProbe® 6000 service level test probe places hundreds of calls from Minacom’s QoS labs in Montreal, Canada, to public destinations worldwide over PSTN, broadband VoIP, cable VoIP, DSL, FTTP and wireless networks, publishing the results in the Minacom QoS Benchmark Reports, a free email newsletter now in its fourth year of circulation. The results shown in this current study are based on the data published in these reports over a one year period from July 2005 to July 2006. Minacom’s QoS Benchmark Reports are used by the ITU Quality of Service Development Group in studies summarizing global phone quality, published annually to carriers worldwide for the consistency and accuracy of the measurements reported. Minacom’s Public Termination Inventory (PTI) database, used by the DirectQuality® R7 web-based test-OSS to automate the calls, contains over 200,000 far-end public numbers in 230 countries and administrative regions worldwide.

The human ear is an analog device, and sound is an analog signal, so it is important to include analog signal analysis when evaluating speech quality. Minacom’s DirectQuality R7 test system uses an award-winning combination of ITU and industry standard algorithms to calculate listening quality MOS using both analog and IP measurements. MOS scores based only on IP packet statistics do not capture the effects of echo cancellers in network equipment and telephone adapters, noise introduced by copper wiring, or issues with call volume and delay. Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000 IVR Test Agent measures a wide range of analog and IP impairments, including noise, echo, delay, packet loss, call volume, jitter and loss, as well as a complete array of connectivity metrics including Post Dial Delay (PDD), Answer Seizure Ratio (ASR), and Dial-Tone Delay (DTD). Minacom’s single-ended testing technology is used by multi-billion minute/year carriers worldwide to perform automated least-cost routing, validate partner carriers, monitor VoIP service quality and assure IP Peering SLAs.

“Carriers are becoming increasingly educated about MOS scoring and want to know where MOS scores are coming from.” commented Frost and Sullivan Telecom Industry Manager & Analyst, Jessy Cavazos, adding, “There are numerous products in the market that only look at the packet metrics. Hence, many carriers are starting to see degradation they should not see, or not seeing degradation they should see. False service quality alarms result in unproductive troubleshooting efforts by service providers, whereas unidentified quality issues ultimately leads to dissatisfied customers. That is why Minacom uses three different technology sources for MOS scoring instead of only one, so as to capture all possible service issues with the highest degree of accuracy available."
Press release

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Test Results from over 14,000 test calls placed by Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000
to Western European and North American destinations from July 2005 to July 2006

Montreal, Canada (Monday, August 28th, 2006) — VoIP phone service now sounds better and connects faster than the standard public-switched phone network (PSTN), according to data collected over the last 12 months by Minacom’s standards-based, single-ended service quality test system. Results show that VoIP service quality increased steadily over the last year, with an average Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of 4.2, compared to 3.9 for the PSTN - MOS is a scale commonly used to describe speech quality, ranging from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). Based on a MOS threshold of 3.6, only 1 out of 50 calls in North America were considered to be unacceptable - 1 in 10 worldwide - while greater than 85% of VoIP calls exceeded average PSTN quality over the same period. Detailed results show that VoIP service bettered PSTN quality worldwide, and improved in all regions over the course of the survey. In addition to superior sound quality, calls over VoIP connected quicker overall - 8.2 seconds on average, compared to 8.9 seconds for those placed over the PSTN. Regionally, the PSTN was faster to connect for calls placed to North America (4.3 seconds vs. 5.7 for VoIP), while international calls connected faster with VoIP (8.7 vs. 10.4 seconds for PSTN). Linear regression indicates that VoIP is closing the gap, connecting 2 seconds faster in July 2006 than a year earlier.

A recent Internet Phone quality study by Brix Networks indicated that 1 in 5 calls were classified as unacceptable, and that call quality was steadily declining. As this study may have created the impression that VoIP service is not capable of delivering PSTN-grade phone service, Minacom felt it should be clarified for both those in the VoIP industry, and individuals and enterprises considering VoIP service, that this report evaluated computer-to-computer (PC-PC) Internet phone service, similar to those offered by Skype™, Google™ Talk, MSN™ and Yahoo™ Messenger. The quality and service reliability of these applications does not compare to that of the VoIP phone services offered by telcos, cable operators, and broadband VoIP providers who carefully deploy, monitor and manage the quality of their services. PC-PC VoIP quality is subject to many diverse impairments, including firewall settings, computer performance, antivirus installations, high-compression codecs, and Internet bandwidth shared with gaming, file downloads, web surfing and email. By contrast, VoIP offered by service providers is switched using telecom grade equipment, uses lower-compression codecs, and is prioritized over regular Internet traffic using sophisticated, standards-based multimedia telephone adapters (MTAs), maintained and monitored by the operator.

Minacom’s tests were conducted over PSTN, managed broadband and cable VoIP lines, the same services offered to residential and enterprise customers by phone, cable and hosted VoIP providers. Each month, Minacom’s PowerProbe® 6000 service level test probe places hundreds of calls from Minacom’s QoS labs in Montreal, Canada, to public destinations worldwide over PSTN, broadband VoIP, cable VoIP, DSL, FTTP and wireless networks, publishing the results in the Minacom QoS Benchmark Reports, a free email newsletter now in its fourth year of circulation. The results shown in this current study are based on the data published in these reports over a one year period from July 2005 to July 2006. Minacom’s QoS Benchmark Reports are used by the ITU Quality of Service Development Group in studies summarizing global phone quality, published annually to carriers worldwide for the consistency and accuracy of the measurements reported. Minacom’s Public Termination Inventory (PTI) database, used by the DirectQuality® R7 web-based test-OSS to automate the calls, contains over 200,000 far-end public numbers in 230 countries and administrative regions worldwide.

The human ear is an analog device, and sound is an analog signal, so it is important to include analog signal analysis when evaluating speech quality. Minacom’s DirectQuality R7 test system uses an award-winning combination of ITU and industry standard algorithms to calculate listening quality MOS using both analog and IP measurements. MOS scores based only on IP packet statistics do not capture the effects of echo cancellers in network equipment and telephone adapters, noise introduced by copper wiring, or issues with call volume and delay. Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000 IVR Test Agent measures a wide range of analog and IP impairments, including noise, echo, delay, packet loss, call volume, jitter and loss, as well as a complete array of connectivity metrics including Post Dial Delay (PDD), Answer Seizure Ratio (ASR), and Dial-Tone Delay (DTD). Minacom’s single-ended testing technology is used by multi-billion minute/year carriers worldwide to perform automated least-cost routing, validate partner carriers, monitor VoIP service quality and assure IP Peering SLAs.

“Carriers are becoming increasingly educated about MOS scoring and want to know where MOS scores are coming from.” commented Frost and Sullivan Telecom Industry Manager & Analyst, Jessy Cavazos, adding, “There are numerous products in the market that only look at the packet metrics. Hence, many carriers are starting to see degradation they should not see, or not seeing degradation they should see. False service quality alarms result in unproductive troubleshooting efforts by service providers, whereas unidentified quality issues ultimately leads to dissatisfied customers. That is why Minacom uses three different technology sources for MOS scoring instead of only one, so as to capture all possible service issues with the highest degree of accuracy available."
Press release

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Test Results from over 14,000 test calls placed by Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000
to Western European and North American destinations from July 2005 to July 2006

Montreal, Canada (Monday, August 28th, 2006) — VoIP phone service now sounds better and connects faster than the standard public-switched phone network (PSTN), according to data collected over the last 12 months by Minacom’s standards-based, single-ended service quality test system. Results show that VoIP service quality increased steadily over the last year, with an average Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of 4.2, compared to 3.9 for the PSTN - MOS is a scale commonly used to describe speech quality, ranging from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). Based on a MOS threshold of 3.6, only 1 out of 50 calls in North America were considered to be unacceptable - 1 in 10 worldwide - while greater than 85% of VoIP calls exceeded average PSTN quality over the same period. Detailed results show that VoIP service bettered PSTN quality worldwide, and improved in all regions over the course of the survey. In addition to superior sound quality, calls over VoIP connected quicker overall - 8.2 seconds on average, compared to 8.9 seconds for those placed over the PSTN. Regionally, the PSTN was faster to connect for calls placed to North America (4.3 seconds vs. 5.7 for VoIP), while international calls connected faster with VoIP (8.7 vs. 10.4 seconds for PSTN). Linear regression indicates that VoIP is closing the gap, connecting 2 seconds faster in July 2006 than a year earlier.

A recent Internet Phone quality study by Brix Networks indicated that 1 in 5 calls were classified as unacceptable, and that call quality was steadily declining. As this study may have created the impression that VoIP service is not capable of delivering PSTN-grade phone service, Minacom felt it should be clarified for both those in the VoIP industry, and individuals and enterprises considering VoIP service, that this report evaluated computer-to-computer (PC-PC) Internet phone service, similar to those offered by Skype™, Google™ Talk, MSN™ and Yahoo™ Messenger. The quality and service reliability of these applications does not compare to that of the VoIP phone services offered by telcos, cable operators, and broadband VoIP providers who carefully deploy, monitor and manage the quality of their services. PC-PC VoIP quality is subject to many diverse impairments, including firewall settings, computer performance, antivirus installations, high-compression codecs, and Internet bandwidth shared with gaming, file downloads, web surfing and email. By contrast, VoIP offered by service providers is switched using telecom grade equipment, uses lower-compression codecs, and is prioritized over regular Internet traffic using sophisticated, standards-based multimedia telephone adapters (MTAs), maintained and monitored by the operator.

Minacom’s tests were conducted over PSTN, managed broadband and cable VoIP lines, the same services offered to residential and enterprise customers by phone, cable and hosted VoIP providers. Each month, Minacom’s PowerProbe® 6000 service level test probe places hundreds of calls from Minacom’s QoS labs in Montreal, Canada, to public destinations worldwide over PSTN, broadband VoIP, cable VoIP, DSL, FTTP and wireless networks, publishing the results in the Minacom QoS Benchmark Reports, a free email newsletter now in its fourth year of circulation. The results shown in this current study are based on the data published in these reports over a one year period from July 2005 to July 2006. Minacom’s QoS Benchmark Reports are used by the ITU Quality of Service Development Group in studies summarizing global phone quality, published annually to carriers worldwide for the consistency and accuracy of the measurements reported. Minacom’s Public Termination Inventory (PTI) database, used by the DirectQuality® R7 web-based test-OSS to automate the calls, contains over 200,000 far-end public numbers in 230 countries and administrative regions worldwide.

The human ear is an analog device, and sound is an analog signal, so it is important to include analog signal analysis when evaluating speech quality. Minacom’s DirectQuality R7 test system uses an award-winning combination of ITU and industry standard algorithms to calculate listening quality MOS using both analog and IP measurements. MOS scores based only on IP packet statistics do not capture the effects of echo cancellers in network equipment and telephone adapters, noise introduced by copper wiring, or issues with call volume and delay. Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000 IVR Test Agent measures a wide range of analog and IP impairments, including noise, echo, delay, packet loss, call volume, jitter and loss, as well as a complete array of connectivity metrics including Post Dial Delay (PDD), Answer Seizure Ratio (ASR), and Dial-Tone Delay (DTD). Minacom’s single-ended testing technology is used by multi-billion minute/year carriers worldwide to perform automated least-cost routing, validate partner carriers, monitor VoIP service quality and assure IP Peering SLAs.

“Carriers are becoming increasingly educated about MOS scoring and want to know where MOS scores are coming from.” commented Frost and Sullivan Telecom Industry Manager & Analyst, Jessy Cavazos, adding, “There are numerous products in the market that only look at the packet metrics. Hence, many carriers are starting to see degradation they should not see, or not seeing degradation they should see. False service quality alarms result in unproductive troubleshooting efforts by service providers, whereas unidentified quality issues ultimately leads to dissatisfied customers. That is why Minacom uses three different technology sources for MOS scoring instead of only one, so as to capture all possible service issues with the highest degree of accuracy available."
Press release

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Test Results from over 14,000 test calls placed by Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000
to Western European and North American destinations from July 2005 to July 2006

Montreal, Canada (Monday, August 28th, 2006) — VoIP phone service now sounds better and connects faster than the standard public-switched phone network (PSTN), according to data collected over the last 12 months by Minacom’s standards-based, single-ended service quality test system. Results show that VoIP service quality increased steadily over the last year, with an average Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of 4.2, compared to 3.9 for the PSTN - MOS is a scale commonly used to describe speech quality, ranging from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). Based on a MOS threshold of 3.6, only 1 out of 50 calls in North America were considered to be unacceptable - 1 in 10 worldwide - while greater than 85% of VoIP calls exceeded average PSTN quality over the same period. Detailed results show that VoIP service bettered PSTN quality worldwide, and improved in all regions over the course of the survey. In addition to superior sound quality, calls over VoIP connected quicker overall - 8.2 seconds on average, compared to 8.9 seconds for those placed over the PSTN. Regionally, the PSTN was faster to connect for calls placed to North America (4.3 seconds vs. 5.7 for VoIP), while international calls connected faster with VoIP (8.7 vs. 10.4 seconds for PSTN). Linear regression indicates that VoIP is closing the gap, connecting 2 seconds faster in July 2006 than a year earlier.

A recent Internet Phone quality study by Brix Networks indicated that 1 in 5 calls were classified as unacceptable, and that call quality was steadily declining. As this study may have created the impression that VoIP service is not capable of delivering PSTN-grade phone service, Minacom felt it should be clarified for both those in the VoIP industry, and individuals and enterprises considering VoIP service, that this report evaluated computer-to-computer (PC-PC) Internet phone service, similar to those offered by Skype™, Google™ Talk, MSN™ and Yahoo™ Messenger. The quality and service reliability of these applications does not compare to that of the VoIP phone services offered by telcos, cable operators, and broadband VoIP providers who carefully deploy, monitor and manage the quality of their services. PC-PC VoIP quality is subject to many diverse impairments, including firewall settings, computer performance, antivirus installations, high-compression codecs, and Internet bandwidth shared with gaming, file downloads, web surfing and email. By contrast, VoIP offered by service providers is switched using telecom grade equipment, uses lower-compression codecs, and is prioritized over regular Internet traffic using sophisticated, standards-based multimedia telephone adapters (MTAs), maintained and monitored by the operator.

Minacom’s tests were conducted over PSTN, managed broadband and cable VoIP lines, the same services offered to residential and enterprise customers by phone, cable and hosted VoIP providers. Each month, Minacom’s PowerProbe® 6000 service level test probe places hundreds of calls from Minacom’s QoS labs in Montreal, Canada, to public destinations worldwide over PSTN, broadband VoIP, cable VoIP, DSL, FTTP and wireless networks, publishing the results in the Minacom QoS Benchmark Reports, a free email newsletter now in its fourth year of circulation. The results shown in this current study are based on the data published in these reports over a one year period from July 2005 to July 2006. Minacom’s QoS Benchmark Reports are used by the ITU Quality of Service Development Group in studies summarizing global phone quality, published annually to carriers worldwide for the consistency and accuracy of the measurements reported. Minacom’s Public Termination Inventory (PTI) database, used by the DirectQuality® R7 web-based test-OSS to automate the calls, contains over 200,000 far-end public numbers in 230 countries and administrative regions worldwide.

The human ear is an analog device, and sound is an analog signal, so it is important to include analog signal analysis when evaluating speech quality. Minacom’s DirectQuality R7 test system uses an award-winning combination of ITU and industry standard algorithms to calculate listening quality MOS using both analog and IP measurements. MOS scores based only on IP packet statistics do not capture the effects of echo cancellers in network equipment and telephone adapters, noise introduced by copper wiring, or issues with call volume and delay. Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000 IVR Test Agent measures a wide range of analog and IP impairments, including noise, echo, delay, packet loss, call volume, jitter and loss, as well as a complete array of connectivity metrics including Post Dial Delay (PDD), Answer Seizure Ratio (ASR), and Dial-Tone Delay (DTD). Minacom’s single-ended testing technology is used by multi-billion minute/year carriers worldwide to perform automated least-cost routing, validate partner carriers, monitor VoIP service quality and assure IP Peering SLAs.

“Carriers are becoming increasingly educated about MOS scoring and want to know where MOS scores are coming from.” commented Frost and Sullivan Telecom Industry Manager & Analyst, Jessy Cavazos, adding, “There are numerous products in the market that only look at the packet metrics. Hence, many carriers are starting to see degradation they should not see, or not seeing degradation they should see. False service quality alarms result in unproductive troubleshooting efforts by service providers, whereas unidentified quality issues ultimately leads to dissatisfied customers. That is why Minacom uses three different technology sources for MOS scoring instead of only one, so as to capture all possible service issues with the highest degree of accuracy available."
Press release

Source: voipcentral.org

In the month of July this year, Brix Networks has reported that nearly 20 percent of all VoIP calls had unacceptable quality. Following the report, the companies are developing new technologies to eradicate the age-old VoIP problem.

According to this source, Canadian VoIP outfit Nortel Networks has come up with a managed VoIP service system that monitors IP telephony networks 24 hours for enriched voice quality and network operation.

Called as Managed VoIP Service with Proactive Voice Quality Management, the newest system facilitates real-time monitoring of voice quality from network to handsets and detects traverse of unwanted traffics in a network.

The Nortel Monitoring System troubleshoots when call quality falls below the standard via techniques like trace routes. It provides solutions to ease the problem.

It is now available at Nortels North America Network Management Center in Raleigh, New York.

Source: voipcentral.org

For the last 15 days, I have been reading the intellectual comments on the finding of the Brix Networks report that tentatively mentioned that VoIP call quality is constantly deteriorating. Figuratively, all most 77 percent of the VoIP calls made by May 2006 were quite unacceptable.

The report has led further research around the VoIP world so that necessary steps would be taken to improve call quality. Finding the cause is perhaps the first step towards solution.

Therefore, NetworkWorlds hard work to find out the factors that affect call quality assumes much significant for the voice world. I have referred NetworkWorlds post on Factors that affect VoIP call quality to add some fact on my previous write-ups on VoIP call quality.

Factors behind the poor VoIP call quality

The first factor is the VoIP CODEC (Coder/Decoder) that is used to turn sound waves into digital packet. It makes VoIP packet to be transmitted through a digital transmission line and then decoded into sound. The CODEC also condenses the packet to get utmost effectiveness from the network.

NetworkWorld says,

How well the CODEC converts speech to digital packets (and back again) is a possible factor which can effect call quality.

Loss or Discard of VoIP packet can be another factor for the poor VoIP call quality. The packet discard is likely to loss a lot of speech when VoIP is highly compressed by the CODEC. The NetworkWorld explains, The more highly compressed the voice packet, the greater the amount of conversation lost when a packet is discarded.

Another factor is the distance between the calling parties. The greater the distance between the caller and receiver, the degree of latency is high.

Jitter as we know is an abrupt and unwanted variation of one or more signal characteristics can be yet another cause for poor VoIP call quality

Read