Blue Face + (International) Call Quality

turbot

Hello,

So I've transferred to BlueFace based on the reccomendations of this group.

I have a fast Dell Precision 370 / p4-3.2Ghz / 2gigs Ram / 2x250 Sata drives, connecting through a netgear rangemax mimo router, and mimo card in my PC, with a 54mb connection with good to very good quality. My broadband account is an NTL Max account, and this was set up just 3 weeks ago.

My experience of Blueface, has been frustrating.

Support responsiveness has been very good (for Ireland) yet the issues faced have yet to be resolved.

My initial experiences were good; calls to the UK and Ireland worked well and continue to work well enough, as have some calls to the USA.

However, now it seems the call quality to the UK and Ireland is fine, albeit not perfect, and calls to the US varies from barely acceptable to completely useless. The level of jitter can be extraordinary, even using the G729 algorithm. The second thing that seems to happen too regularly, is when I dial a USA number, it tells me the number does not exist, and then three dials later, it connects me.

I'm only using a softphone (upgraded to xten eyebeam) to avail of other codecs.

Does anyone have any suggestions to get this to work reliably and with good call quality? Also, of the Blueface users here, who regularly calls international numbers and what are your experiences?

TempestSabre

I don't do many calls to the US. But I have found that I do get dropped calls and it can take a number of redials to to reach a number. Also sometimes people reach my number, and it doesn't go to voice mail. Thats with all calls not just international. I'd say it happens about 5-10% of the time.

probe

turbot wrote:

Hello,

So I've transferred to BlueFace based on the reccomendations of this group.

Does anyone have any suggestions to get this to work reliably and with good call quality? Also, of the Blueface users here, who regularly calls international numbers and what are your experiences?

1) Get a proper VoIP phone - they generally offer better sound quality compared with soft phones and even ATAs.

2) If that doesn't work change your ISP.

3) If that doesn't work try smart076.ie in place of blueface.

You should be able to get as good as ISDN phone quality with a decent internet connection and VoIP phone instrument.

probe

spartacus93

Get an ATA, should be way way better than any Soft phone.

dam099

probe wrote:

1) Get a proper VoIP phone - they generally offer better sound quality compared with soft phones and even ATAs.

2) If that doesn't work change your ISP.

3) If that doesn't work try smart076.ie in place of blueface.

You should be able to get as good as ISDN phone quality with a decent internet connection and VoIP phone instrument.

probe

I'd reverse the order of 2 and 3 there, changing ISP before trying out another VOIP provider is a bit extreme, it would be cheaper and easier to try out smart076.ie first and if it has problems too consider changing ISP.

lzbones

I use freespeech.ie and find the quality of US calls excellent. I agree try another VOIP provider first. Anyone else have experience with different providers destinations ?? I would imagine the quality of smarts service would also be very good as they would surely be switching their VOIP calls the same was as all their other traffic.

WillieFlynn

turbot wrote:

However, now it seems the call quality to the UK and Ireland is fine, albeit not perfect, and calls to the US varies from barely acceptable to completely useless.

I make a lot of calls to the US using blueface over the last year and have always had good quality.

I would suggest changing to useing an ATA rather than a softphone.

probe

dam099 wrote:

I'd reverse the order of 2 and 3 there, changing ISP before trying out another VOIP provider is a bit extreme, it would be cheaper and easier to try out smart076.ie first and if it has problems too consider changing ISP.

Sure it is simple to try smart076.ie (free trial with EUR 1 of calls that takes ages to spend because of the absence of minimum call charges a la eircom and the per fraction of a second billing). However it is more likely to be your ISP being at fault (assuming you are using a good hardphone device). It is also worth trying different codecs on your hardphone to see if that makes a difference - having checked your VoIP provider's recommendations.

probe

probe

spartacus93 wrote:

Get an ATA, should be way way better than any Soft phone.

I’ve used an ATA and VoIP phone in my tests. Both are far superior to softphones in terms of call quality, day to day operational practicality, etc.

A good quality VoIPphone wins hands down in my experience. The sound quality is even better than the ATA and it is more integrated with the VoIP system. If someone leaves you voicemail while you are out, there will generally be a flashing light on the VoIPphone when you come back to advise you as well as notification on the LCD that you have “2 new voicemail messages and 1 old”. Touch the envelope icon button and you are straight thru to the voicemail. The sound quality via an ATA depends on the quality of the analog phone instrument it is attached to and whether the line settings of the phone match the settings on the ATA – which they often don’t and are difficult to determine.

Caller ID works properly on VoIPphones and you can easily scroll thru the last 100 received, missed and made calls to call the person or check the date and time of a call, and you have a directory facility to store frequently called numbers like a mobile phone. You can use multiple VoIP lines on the same VoIP phone and move between carriers on a call by call basis if required.

A good VoIPphone is like an ISDN phone, only better - it is in a class of its own and worth the additional cost in my opinion. If you are half-thinking about it - go for it!

probe

turbot

OK - To update everyone here.

It seems that there was a major issue with my NTL Connection, such that they replaced a wire coming into my building.

I was travelling through Amsterdam airport on Friday and managed to have a 60 minute conversation with my little sister, on her uk mobile, from using the wireless internet access at Amsterdam airport. I can't say it was perfect, but it was good enough!

jimmycrackcorm

probe wrote:

I’ve used an ATA and VoIP phone in my tests. Both are far superior to softphones in terms of call quality, day to day operational practicality, etc.

A good quality VoIPphone wins hands down in my experience. The sound quality is even better than the ATA and it is more integrated with the VoIP system. If someone leaves you voicemail while you are out, there will generally be a flashing light on the VoIPphone when you come back to advise you as well as notification on the LCD that you have “2 new voicemail messages and 1 old”. Touch the envelope icon button and you are straight thru to the voicemail. The sound quality via an ATA depends on the quality of the analog phone instrument it is attached to and whether the line settings of the phone match the settings on the ATA – which they often don’t and are difficult to determine.

Caller ID works properly on VoIPphones and you can easily scroll thru the last 100 received, missed and made calls to call the person or check the date and time of a call, and you have a directory facility to store frequently called numbers like a mobile phone. You can use multiple VoIP lines on the same VoIP phone and move between carriers on a call by call basis if required.

A good VoIPphone is like an ISDN phone, only better - it is in a class of its own and worth the additional cost in my opinion. If you are half-thinking about it - go for it!

probe

I've a dect phone plugged into an ATA and features such as missed calls / caller id etc. Only problem with my ATA is that it defaults to PSTN so I have to manually switch it to make calls. Incoming calls come through ok. Damn chinese ebay goods.