For many years after the onset of IP telephony, the dark cloud with VoIP voice calls was always quality and reliability. It was not only the physical aspects but from a reputation standpoint, nothing was more damaging to IP telephony than those two issues. It was almost like the individuals on each end of the call were testing cheap walkie-talkies. Thankfully, those days are long gone. Many improvements have been made in recent years gone by where VoIP voice calls are concerned, and it has finally begun to offset the finickiest of attitudes that were founded in the quality of landline services that had spoiled the user.

Unfortunately, prior to a solution ever being developed, all that was ever heard were the complaints, never the reasons or the solutions. However, all is well now with quality and reliability factors, and they continue to improve. But have you ever wondered what actually affects the quality of VoIP voice calls? The following content discusses those things that have any effect on the quality.

Bandwidth – this is probably the biggest contributor or detractor of voice quality with VoIP voice calls. It is the key to voice quality and probably the biggest reason why dial-up and VoIP telephony are not good bedfellows. As long as it is not “spotty”, a broadband connection usually performs equitable where voice quality is concerned. Additionally, the sharing with too many other communication applications also affects voice quality. One of the biggest drawbacks with VoIP voice calls is the dependency on sufficient bandwidth.

Equipment – VoIP hardware can have a tremendous impact on voice quality of VoIP voice calls. Typically, the cheaper the hardware the poorer the quality, but that isn’t always the case — just most of the time. Before investing your hard earned money into that nifty VoIP phone, make sure that you get a good idea of quality factors with the phone itself, the router, and if applicable the ATA (analog telephony adapter). Read all the reviews you can get your hands on and even visit some forums when you get the chance.

Phone Frequencies – you can often experience interference with other VoIP equipment due to the frequency of your VoIP phone. The quality VoIP voice calls is very subject to frequency issues. There have been numerous instances where people who are using 5.8 GHz phones have experienced voice quality problems. In most of these instances, downgrading to a 2.4 GHz phone (which operates at a lower frequency) solved the voice quality issue that was plaguing the user.

Weather Conditions - voice quality of VoIP voice calls can be terribly distorted by static which results from thunderstorms and the effect they have on static electricity in the atmosphere. Additionally, the voice quality can be affected by the following climatic conditions as well:

• electrical impulses
• heavy rain
• strong gusts of wind

Characteristically, this static intrusion is not so noticeable when downloading files or surfing the internet, but when you’re listening to a voice it is very annoying. Usually, all that is needed to get rid of static is to unplug your hardware (i.e. the ATA, phone, and router) and then plug it back in after waiting 20-30 seconds. Normally, this alleviates the static problem with VoIP voice calls.

Location of your hardware – during voice communications, interference is like a poison for voice quality. Noise and other related problems are known to occur when different pieces of VoIP equipment interferes with each other, and this in turn damages the voice quality of those VoIP voice calls. As an example, if your ATA is too close to your router, there could be voice quality problems. This is an electrical feedback issue and can usually be resolved by moving the pieces of equipment farther apart.