A common objection to VoIP service for business is dropped calls. Any business owner or manager making telecom decisions may be attracted to the toll avoidance ability of VoIP and entranced by the extraordinary features VoIP can offer, but will stop short of picking the apple knowing that their business livelihood would be jeopardized should call quality suffer or dropped calls be a significant issue. Obviously this fear comes from popular opinion of VoIP derived from endless horror stories from past users. The truth is, VoIP quality is dependant largely on a couple of factors, QoS and the quality of the internet connection it is using. Bandwidth VoIP by Bandwidth.com addresses each aspect to deliver a truly business grade service that doesn’t suffer from dropped calls.
QoS is the telecom term for applying priority to voice packets. In a typical LAN, data packets are firing at the speed of light and the general architecture allows them through the pipe on a first come, first served basis. A VoIP conversation in this scenario is doomed in that one large file attachment or a stream of video from a website could swallow up all of the bandwidth on the circuit and leave the VoIP call helplessly dropped. QoS on the other hand, prioritizes the VoIP call so no matter how active the LAN is with data, enough bandwidth for the call will always be reserved until the call is terminated. Bandwidth VoIP differs from other services in that the CPE deployed backs up the “business grade†claim by facilitating QoS. Configuring and providing QoS is part of the service and a primary reason why it is dubbed Business Class and is backed by an SLA.
The second and probably the most important aspect of VoIP quality is the internet connection that the VoIP packet traverses in order to access the PSTN or terminating network. IP, simply put, is a series of routes from point A to point B. If the VoIP bandwidth is residential grade DSL or a over-subscribed local ISP connection, those packets may have to hop across several down stream router connections picking up packet loss and latency on each hop, then cross many treacherous public peering NAP’s in order to terminate to the network the VoIP switch is on. This type of environment will consistently drop calls and cause poor call quality.
