Cpt Jack Celliers
Active Member
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2007
- Messages
- 53
- Reaction score
- 1
Hi People.
I have been using FNB Talk now since November 2010. Its very nicely priced (25c per min for all calls, pay as you go), but if less than 40% of your calls actually work then maybe their slogan should be "Say Nothing For Less" rather than "Say Hello for Less".
How is everyone else finding this? If you haven't tried it, you may as well - its 10/10 for ease of access and startup, especially if you are an FNB account. You get R10 credit in your account after the free sign-up so that you can test it out. That's where the fun stops.
Here are the most common problems I have been experiencing (using the PC digital phone):
The errors above account for 60% of my calls. When you do finally get through to the person you are trying to reach the call quality is 80% of the time unusable - with every fourth letter or word a person speaks being inaudible, pops, scratches and crackles like a World War I radio.
If this was my only experience of VOIP I would be horribly disillusioned. Fortunately I tried out Google Voice and Skype which both have brilliantly clear, polished audio quality. What is FNB doing with FNB Talk? Aren't they using any of the special codecs (G729 etc)?
BTW I am on a 4 MB Business ADSL connection with Internet Solutions (1MB Burstable to 4).
Please reply to this thread if you have found any hacks / tricks to get the system to work. I notice you can use other softphone clients with it, so maybe the quality is better on some of these? Anyone? Is the cellphone client any better? Anyone actually earning eBucks off this platform?
I have been using FNB Talk now since November 2010. Its very nicely priced (25c per min for all calls, pay as you go), but if less than 40% of your calls actually work then maybe their slogan should be "Say Nothing For Less" rather than "Say Hello for Less".
How is everyone else finding this? If you haven't tried it, you may as well - its 10/10 for ease of access and startup, especially if you are an FNB account. You get R10 credit in your account after the free sign-up so that you can test it out. That's where the fun stops.
Here are the most common problems I have been experiencing (using the PC digital phone):
- Dial a number and after a short pause phone reverts to the ready/start screen with no error reported
- Dial a number and you immediately get a recorded message saying, "The number you have dialed is not available"
- Dial a number and you get a message on the screen saying "Call Rejected!"
- Dial a number and you get a recorded message saying, "The number you have dialed does not exist on the network (or something similar)
The errors above account for 60% of my calls. When you do finally get through to the person you are trying to reach the call quality is 80% of the time unusable - with every fourth letter or word a person speaks being inaudible, pops, scratches and crackles like a World War I radio.
If this was my only experience of VOIP I would be horribly disillusioned. Fortunately I tried out Google Voice and Skype which both have brilliantly clear, polished audio quality. What is FNB doing with FNB Talk? Aren't they using any of the special codecs (G729 etc)?
BTW I am on a 4 MB Business ADSL connection with Internet Solutions (1MB Burstable to 4).
Please reply to this thread if you have found any hacks / tricks to get the system to work. I notice you can use other softphone clients with it, so maybe the quality is better on some of these? Anyone? Is the cellphone client any better? Anyone actually earning eBucks off this platform?
