Best options for VOIP

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Paulv

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Hi guys

I am new to this forum and not very clued up with VOIP, so plese excuse my ignorence.

I have moved my firm of Attorneys to an area with no Telkom lines, outside Cape Town. I have contracted with Snowball as my VOIP gateway/internet access and Switchtel as my PBX and ported my Telkom number which I could not afford to loose after 20 years.

After a year, the quality of IP Calls is still so bad that I can practically not use the service, or it is totally off. I have to phone each client back with my cell phone and are currently paying to Switchtel for the PBX, Snowball for internet access and a lot of money to Vodacom to phone all my clients back on cell.

Reading through the threads on this excellent board, VOIP should be good enough for my requirements, but it just does not work.

Neither Snowball nor Switch Tel can give me better service. They don't even reply to all my cries for help.

In desperation, I have bought a 3g switch (TP-Link) today in view of the fact that download and upload speeds on my 3g HSDPA is very good and five time faster than what Snowball gives me. My intention was to try and use 3g in conjunction with Switchtel(to at least keep my number) and to replace Snowball. However, I can not get it to work. Not clever enough. 3g works on computer but I can not get it connected via the router, and even if it does, I am unsure what the results results are going to be.

My next option is to contract with Vodacom who offers VOIP Lite Advanced for an initial setup cost of approximately R 7000.00 but I am afraid that that might also not work and I will have to stay with Switchtel also, to keep my numbers. Vodacom Voip will give me 087.. number.

I am like a cat on a warm stove and do not know which way to go. I need connection to my clients as a matter of urgency. Clients just do not want to phone cell numbers, and I still need my old Telkom (now ported to Switch Tel, which almost force me to stay with them as PBX provider.

Any advice or suggestions will be highly appreciated, I am desperate. :cry:
 
Ok Paul, lets get to the bottom of your problems. Your issues are almost cretainly backhaul related, in simple terms your internet is crap for VoIP, your backhaul is the foundation for quality sevice. The Switchtel network is solid and your problems do not lie there, you may port your number again to another provider, you are allowed to do this every 2 months but this is not the root of the problem.
If you provide me with the following info i will gladly assist.
give me the upload speed & latency of your Snowball connection www.speedtest.net and packet loss & MOS www.pingtest.net
I need the same info for your new 3g connection, in addition i need to know the provider as some restrict the APN's but they can be unrestricted for VoIP.
Lastly i need to know how many cocurrent calls you are trying to push accross the Switchtel SIP and and a rough estimate of how much data you are using ( email, downloading, surfing ect) per/month. Whatever connection you settle for you have to set up some serious QoS in the router when voice & data are sharing the connection.
So in conclusion once i have the info i can see what the problem is and be able to tell you if the 3g will 'hack it' remember that 3g performance can be further enhaned with the addition of an external aerial available from 'Poynting'
Another option if you have high call concurrency is to use ViBE which will dramatically reduce the bandwidth load of the VoIP. If we go the 3g route i will gladly assist you in setting up the router and QoS.
So lets not jump the gun, get me the info and your solution is close by.
 
Thanks a lot for your reply Paul. I have finally managed to get the Vodacom 3g working on the TP-Link router. I loaded the latest Firmware and it worked immediately.

Speedtest.net:

Vodacom 3g:
Ping: 75ms
Downloads: 5.44, 6.1, 6.2
Uploads: 1.18, 1.35, 1.29

Snowball -wireless:
Ping: 25ms
Downloads: 1.75, 1.6, 1.99
Uploads: 0.42, 0.40, 0.48

PING TEST:

Vodacom: B* Ping 93ms Jitter 10ms
Snowball: C* Ping 63ms Jitter 29ms

I have succesfully connected to switch tel with the new 3g connection and it work much, much better.

I am using approximately 9 gb per month, so it is going to cost me much more than Snowball, but it is all about quality of the VOIP and not the costs.

I suppose I can install another network to enable me to still use Snowball on one network for Internet browsing/e-mails and the other one (3g)for VOIP only? or is there another option. It should then prevent to much trafiic on the VOIP network, and limit costs that way, because snowball bandwidth is much cheaper than Vodacom?
 
Paul,

I suggest you try 8TA and CellC network. Buy Pre paid cards, run the Voip over it and see how the quality is.
HOWEVER, 3G is NOT GOOD for VoIP, and also expensive for your company use. So wireless is the most cost effective if done properly.

Snowball should be able to help you in getting your VoIP service running properly, but if you cannot, PM me and I'll recommend some other wireless service providers.

On a last note, I suggest you look at this website and request to see who can help you with a wireless connection in your area.
http://www.wapa.org.za/coverage/check-coverage

I have assisted many users in similar predicament as yours, and there's always a solution available. Please PM me if you don't come right with anything else.

Tx
M
 
Paulv said:
I am using approximately 9 gb per month, so it is going to cost me much more than Snowball, but it is all about quality of the VOIP and not the costs.

I suppose I can install another network to enable me to still use Snowball on one network for Internet browsing/e-mails and the other one (3g)for VOIP only? or is there another option. It should then prevent to much trafiic on the VOIP network, and limit costs that way, because snowball bandwidth is much cheaper than Vodacom?
Click to expand...
If you want to run VoIP over your Data line , you will have to either 1) prioritize VoIP packets, what happens now is that a user flatlines your 2 Mb/s line (not Snowballs fault as they have excellent ping times) and your SwitchTel VoIP traffic is effected when the line is flatlined.
Your Snowball Package account has a slow upload speed - increase the package

2) as you suggested - route all Switchtel traffic on another line.
What codec are you using on your SIP trunks ?
 
Last edited:
You can also ask voda to put up a dish at your office for a decent link.
telkom now offer the same service where there is no copper.
 
What area are you in ? Pm me your details and let me see what I can arrange for you.
 
Hi there,
You don't give us an indication of your Snowball upload speed. With voip you need at least 16Kb per second per call. You should also prioritise the VoiP data if you have only the one connection.

Regards

Tim
 
paulv: Alarmed to read that you're not getting help that you need from Switch Telecom. Please pm me the ticket number that you have with Switch Telecom and I'll have it escalated. If you don't have a ticket number, please email details to [email protected] (which will open a new ticket) and then p.m. me the ticket number. Ta.
 
Thanks for all the replies. Greatly appreciated. I am now using the 3g with Switch Telecom and so far, the quality is very good although I loose connection from time to time, and in the process I loose incoming calls, not knowing that the connection dropped. Probably why mo-to said 3g is not ideal for VOIP.

@gmza I did not receive a ticket number on my few requests to advise me on better solutions. However, the problem does not lie with them but rather with Snowball who provides the connection. The service from Switchtel in general is actually very good as VOIP PBX provider.

@ Robertv: Is a Voda dish really going to improve quality? If so, I will definately add a booster dish but was infoirmed that those extra dishes does not make a big diffrence if any.

@Tim the Tech Expert. I am now using 3g exclusively for VOIP and wireless Snowball for browsing/mails.

@Kilos-What codec are you using on your SIP trunks ? I don't know what that is, lol


I am currently monitoring the situation with the 3g and will keep you posted. Thanks again for all the help.
 
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