What's up with Video Calling?

[xera]

Why does it only sometimes work?

A friend and I have been testing it. Only sometimes it works. Of course we only test when we have 3G signal. Is it a network problem? Or dependant on the towers?

 

[dj_jyno]

It's Errol's wife taking up all the available bandwidth.

It's probably dependent on the load on the individual towers at that specific time.

 

[Ockie]

1. Both users must be provisioned for video calling
2. Both users must have phones that support this feature (front facing cam is not a guarentee that is supports video calling I as far as I know)
3. Both users must be in 3G covered area minimum.

As dj_jyno said...could also be a load on the tower factor coming into play. Just keep in mind that a video call is not the same as Skyping. This is a call that is billed at the same rate as a voice call and no data is charged for.

 

[GoofySmurf]

Why does it only sometimes work?

A friend and I have been testing it. Only sometimes it works. Of course we only test when we have 3G signal. Is it a network problem? Or dependant on the towers?

It depends on the following.

1. The load of the tower in the area, yours might be fine but the other person might be on a overloaded one.
2. Both users connection quality and packet loss.
3. South African peering issues between providers.
4. International peering issues.
5. The providers network that they are using is over congested although both callers have sufficient signal and bandwidth.
7. Problems with either callers software or something on the phone is wonky.
8. Underlying issues with either phones OS.

If its possible plug it into a pc and dial up as a modem and then test the latency, skype, badwidth etc. on both sides. It all depends how much effort you are willing to put in.

 

[xera]

1. Both users must be provisioned for video calling
2. Both users must have phones that support this feature (front facing cam is not a guarentee that is supports video calling I as far as I know)
3. Both users must be in 3G covered area minimum.

As dj_jyno said...could also be a load on the tower factor coming into play. Just keep in mind that a video call is not the same as Skyping. This is a call that is billed at the same rate as a voice call and no data is charged for.

1. Both users must be provisioned for video calling Indeed we are, it sometimes works.
2. Both users must have phones that support this feature (front facing cam is not a guarentee that is supports video calling I as far as I know) Indeed we do, we video called each other yesterday whilst we were standing next to each other.
3. Both users must be in 3G covered area minimum. Absolutely. Skype works 100%... but not video calling.

 

[Ockie]

1. Both users must be provisioned for video calling Indeed we are, it sometimes works.
2. Both users must have phones that support this feature (front facing cam is not a guarentee that is supports video calling I as far as I know) Indeed we do, we video called each other yesterday whilst we were standing next to each other.
3. Both users must be in 3G covered area minimum. Absolutely. Skype works 100%... but not video calling.

Maybe rather use Skype then. I am not even sure what codec video calling on the network side would use. I would not be surprised if the Skype codec is more efficient and therefore Skype works better. In my personal experience video calling never really took off. You are the first person in two years that I have seen asking about video calling utilising the actual network function instead of a 3rd party app. Dont think a lot of network resources from MNO to Vendor to Handset supplier development resources being poured into this anymore considering the popular demand of services like Viber and Skype. Rather then push network resources for proven services with good codec support (that did not require your financial support) instead of reserving bandwidth for a service no one actually uses and for which development seems to have stalled? This is of course my opinion. I have not done a research on this.