Cable VoIP calls clearer than landlines?

Thinking about ditching that landline? Are those VoIP options -- especially the free ones -- looking more and more attractive? Keynote Systems, a globally respected internet and communication testing company, has completed a ridiculously thorough investigation on the true audio quality that can be had using VoIP (within American borders), and the results are quite intriguing. To test call quality and remove human error / bias, they had automated machines in apartments nearly 3,000 miles apart call one another 125,000 times throughout the month of August, play a 30 second clip, and let an audio analyzer handle the rest. VoIP hard / soft phones, digital cable VoIP phones, and traditional landline phones were all tested and compared, only to discover that cable company-provided VoIP phones that utilized PacketCable -- an IP multimedia transmission system optimized for coax -- scored a whopping 4.24 MOS (mean opinion score), trouncing the 4.0 found in traditional phone networks. Granted, when viewing all VoIP venues, outliers were found around 2.6, which is fairly unacceptable when a 3.2 MOS is considered the "minimum" for a frustration-free conversation. All in all, landlines ranked second only to the mighty cable offerings, while hard VoIP phones (like the ATS E6501) slid in third, and "soft" services (Skype, for instance) were declared last. While we've personally had great success with the likes of Gizmo and other free internet calling alternatives, our ears certainly aren't sine wave decoders, so if you're thinking of tossing that ole rotary dialer for something with a touch more clarity, you might as well give that cable company a ring.

[Via Ars Technica]

[CaptCaveman @ Sep 24th 2006 5:50PM]

If your having a problem with VOIP quality while using bittorrent then you need to implement QOS (Quality of service). That's what it's there for. Tell your router that if packets start coming over the port that VOIP uses then those packets get priority over everything else. VOIP vs Bittorrent (or other download) problem solved.

I've had VOIP service for almost 3 years now. I wouldn't dream of going back to a land line.
Oh and as for loss of power. That's what I have a UPS for.

[Daniel @ Sep 23rd 2006 5:33PM]

Call me old-fashined, or paranoid, or whatever, but as long as the phone lines are underground and continue to function when the power goes out, I'll keep my land line, thank-you.

[Tim UF @ Sep 24th 2006 12:11AM]

landlines do run for a time with the power goes out... even with the power out at the source... they put batteries periodically along the phone line network. and with prolonged periods of power loss the land lines die as well. living in south florida through hurricanes andrew, charley, frances, jeanne, katrina (yes it hit south florida first, though not as dramatically), and wilma tought us this lesson: cell phones, generators, and propane or charcoal grills are life savers. a well chlorinated pool to cool off in also is a savior.

[Chris McDowell @ Sep 23rd 2006 5:53PM]

They dont function when the power goes out. The phone company provides the power just like with a cellphone and all of that. You are best off just getting a cellphone then you can take your number in your pocket no reason to have both.

[Mike Browning @ Sep 23rd 2006 5:54PM]

Um.. landline phones do work when the power goes out, so long as you aren't using a phone that depends on the power being on.

[Tim UF @ Sep 24th 2006 12:17AM]

landlines work for a period of time after power loss. non-powered plain corded phones draw their power from the landline's own voltage. if the source service station loses power, the phone network has back up batteries for these short term losses. unfortunately, in periods of prolonged power loss those batteries on the network invariably die (usually after a day or two). cell towers are a little less finnicky, as they can be powered by generators, and usually are left intact in events that would cause wide spread power loss.

[Chris McDowell @ Sep 23rd 2006 6:07PM]

Land line phones do require electricity it is powered from the Telco providers so if they lose power you lose phone. Your better off with a cell phone because you can not only take your phone in your pocket but you normally get free nationwide calls and with most plans free roaming all over the that they have your provider.

[AT39 @ Sep 23rd 2006 5:57PM]

Interesting test. Perhaps if I could get better than a 768 DLS connection out where I live, I would switch.

[Leon Lamle @ Sep 23rd 2006 6:03PM]

My guess is that soon we will all use VoIP instead of LandLine. I mean we are getting Free* Wireless in some cities and the amount of cities is growing, and with devices like the Sony MYLO, and all these VoIP Cellphones, its only a matter of time before these things are made as reliable as landline phones

[Mike Browning @ Sep 23rd 2006 6:19PM]

And if the power to the cell towers go out, your cell phone won't work either.
Point is, if the power goes out in your neighborhood, your landline will still work.

[LTM @ Sep 23rd 2006 6:38PM]

As long as I'm paying a low monthly cost and zero cost for any of my long distance calls without any downtime issues ( cross fingers so far ), I'm willing to risk the downside to VOIP rather than be gouged by telephone companies that have been screwing us all for years. If VOIP is the wave of the future, where potentially all calls will be considered local, then you landline lovers can talk till you are blue in the face about the benefits of traditional phones, but as far as I'm concerned a voip phone and a backup cellular is all I require to take care of my needs.

[Vasco @ Sep 23rd 2006 7:01PM]

in my experiences, Skype gives much, much better voice quality then my verizon land line, and completely blows my verizon cell phone out of the water.

I prefer Skype to regular land line phone calls, but I would not replace my land line system with VoIP at the moment.

[jerome @ Sep 23rd 2006 7:06PM]

skype call quality to another skype is amazing quality...almost ISDN. i skype-videod to my mate in NYC tonight from the UK and it was like he was in the room, audio-wise. Skype rules.

[Dimitri @ Sep 23rd 2006 7:33PM]

During mission-critical business calls, Skype and the like are unacceptable. The only viable options are regular phone lines or ISDN lines, period. In the future, that will certainly change, but at this moment, anyone relying on VoIP (for business use) is a fool.

[Bloobie @ Sep 23rd 2006 8:35PM]

Standard analog landlines continue to function when the power goes out, as do the analog telephones plugged into them (which are not cordless, which would require being plugged into an AC outlet). The telcos have power backups which continue to run electricity into those lines. Cellphone towers also have a few hours of battery backup in them, so they would continue to function for a short while.

Dimitri: You apparently have not heard of the countless number of businesses who have switched over to using T1 lines for their digital phone service. It is not Skype, but it is IP telephony. A single T1 line providing 24 digital voice lines as opposed to having 24 individual phone lines installed.

[Chi_Ray @ Sep 23rd 2006 9:20PM]

My VOIP solution runs when the power goes out. I use a UPS and seem to get by just fine. Sure when the UPS runs out of juice I loose the phone connection, but by that time I wouldn't want to be in my house anyway. If I have no lights, no heat, no TV and no computer, I really have no reason to stay home.

[Dimitri @ Sep 24th 2006 9:22PM]

Bloobie wrote:
>Dimitri: You apparently have not heard of the countless number
>of businesses who have switched over to using T1 lines for their
>digital phone service

Yes, I have. ISDN (and T1 lines as you added) are in an entirely different class of reliability than
DSL or cable connections: they are dedicated connections.

But, dedicated T1 (or even fractional T1) lines are many hundreds of dollars. Not financially viable for most businesses.

My earlier comments still stand: for mission-critical business calls, relying on VoIP over a DSL or cable connection is foolish.

Dimitri

[beanspants1 @ Sep 23rd 2006 9:21PM]

what is a mission critical phone call anyways?

i mean, it's a phone call. if it drops, then you can just dial it again, and recap what was said in the last 20 seconds. confernce calls don't even drop when the host falls out, so voip phones, or a cell phone with a decent connection, are perfectly good enough for any call.

[Dimitri @ Sep 24th 2006 9:23PM]

Beanspants1 wrote:
>What is a mission critical phone call anyways?

ALL business calls are mission-critical.

Dimitri

[retirement_bound @ Sep 23rd 2006 9:57PM]

This is a flawed test unless there was other test. Most land line calls 3000 miles apart are first sent to a local switch which is then sends it over a long haul carrier then to a local switch and then to the other user (Some times the signal at the switch is sent over an IP line to the other switch). The real difference in the two signals is the part between the two switches and the user. However, most calls are local and the call is from user-switch-user and should be much clear than a VoIP as you still have to go through the same network whether local or long distance. So lets see a comparision on local calls.

[blueatria @ Sep 23rd 2006 10:30PM]

I have been using a voip provider in Australia (where I live) for 18 months. The quality is great. Occasionally the ATA I use would drop the connection early on but that has been resolved. I use a ADSL2+ connection. Calls are much cheaper thru the voip provider than the fixed line provider and we still have the fixed line for emergency use if necessary. I would not be surprised if we see voip replace the fixed line network over the next 5-10 years.

[kimberly @ Sep 23rd 2006 11:15PM]

It's unfortunate that while I live in the heart of Silicon Valley, and see billboards for Comcast's Triple Play, they don't offer VOIP in Sunnyvale. Currently, I have no landline at all... I read some of the above comments and decided to give Vonage a shot.

[JustinMango @ Sep 24th 2006 3:20AM]

Sick of spending about $160 a month using a landline phone to call Perth, Australia from Chicago, USA I tried Skype. Not only does it now cost only about $8 a month in phone calls but the call quality is SIGNIFICANTLY better.

It's amazing how the taxes on my landline bill were higher than what I'm now paying per month using Skype.

[John from Buffalo @ Sep 24th 2006 1:36PM]

By and large this may be true, but you get in clarity you are taken aback with drop call possibility.

[BigReg @ Sep 24th 2006 1:48PM]

As a digital cable subscriber that gets HDTV, highspeed Internet and VoIP from TimeWarner - I highly agree that the voice quality is better than my previous landline. As one commenter said, many if not the majority of backhaul/switch-to-switch voice transport is VoIP. Close to all voice calls that go international are VoIP these days. The service providers that provide this service have LONG since switched over to save tons of money - many times not passing on the savings to consumers. This is changing because of services like Skype and Gizmo as the general public becomes more aware of the possibilities.

[bigtim @ Sep 24th 2006 2:38PM]

What most of you have missed is that the VoIP that scored the best and beat out the traditional telco lines is the service provided by MSO's(the cable company). This is becasue the service is run through an eMTA that when you make a call actually opens seperate bandwith for the call and when the call is over that bandwidth is torn down. Those eMTA's also have their own battery backup built into them as well as the cable companies if they have not already are putting in battery backups and generators at the nodes, bridgers and line extenders eventually; in excense it will take a pretty severe power outage or storm to knock out service for an extended period of time. I have worked in the Cable VoIP field for abotu the past three years and have seen tramendous improvements to the service throughout the industry. It is this stytem that beat the traditional telco not companies like Vonage, Packaet8 or Sunrocket that actaully use your internet bandwith and if you are doing a big download will effect your call quality. Also one other thing to consider the Cable companies VoIP service accesses E911 just like the telcos do and the other VoIP services don't, just ask.

[doublej @ Sep 24th 2006 4:16PM]

I don't even know if you can get broadband in the uk without some kind of landline voice service bundle.....so there no advantage yet

anyone know different ?

in any event, my co pays for my broadband - BT - and you need a BT line (�10/ month) just to get it.

[Davidluc @ Sep 24th 2006 6:17PM]

I wonder about this test of VOIP. Of course I think it's a great system, higher quality and less cost is always nice. I'm amazed at the call quaility when I phone a company and am connected to their "Indian" call center.
However, I recently recorded me calling an airline lost and found department. After listening to the conversation a few times, I think much of the misunderstanding during the conversation (which is quite funny) is caused by the slight delay to begin a sentence. In other words, some software, to save bandwidth, will wait until you start to speak before it starts transmitting, resulting in occasionly loss of the first part of a syllable. If this is a syllable that starts with a hard short consonant, that consonant may be clipped off, changing the meaning of the word. So a person may say "B", but the listener may hear "E".
I may be full of it on this, I really don't know how the VOIP system works. Could this be possible? Listen to this recording and see if you think this could be part of the problem:
http://www.sailingtexas.com/chumorunitedlostfound.html

[BigMrWiggly @ Sep 24th 2006 10:56PM]

Use a ham radio when the power goes out

[Michael Urlocker @ Sep 25th 2006 10:00AM]

Observing consumer behavior, we can see customers have adapted to substantially inferior voice quality over cellular networks. And the traditional five-nines reliability of the Public Switched Telephone Network has become a moot point for many telecom users, including some businesses, who readily use their cell phone as a backup.

An important question for carriers:
If not voice quality, what are the attributes that customers value on VoIP systems? (The cop-out answer is lower prices.)

More at:
http://www.ondisruption.com/my_weblog/2006/09/voip_call_quali.html

[mobile mama @ Jan 18th 2007 6:15PM]

i have found the quality perfect on some of the "alternative" VoIP providers like Globe Dialer and Skype to Skype.

[Joe @ Feb 25th 2008 9:13PM]

My experience is that Cable VoIP is overpriced. And has fewer features and large cancellation/setup fees. Plus it's tied to Cable provider. I personally like http://ClearDigitalVoice.com. It works with any Internet provider and is cheap, with a ton of great features.

I use my cellphone if the power ever goes out. Which is rare and usually during non-business hours.