Is VoIP Google's Next Frontier?

WindBourne writes "Apparently, Google is looking to some degree at VoIP. Of course, the question is whether they will support such items as Asterisk and FreeWorld or will they simply buy another company and tinker from that end."

AOL is getting into the VoIP market too

[andy1307]

AOL: You've got VoIP [zdnet.com]

Re:Quality?

[andy1307]

I have some issues with my internet service(Adelphia), not with my VoIP provider(Vonage). There's a two second delay before the conversation starts but other than that, I am generally happy with my service. I have the 15$/month plan and I never run out of minutes. I use a cell phone for long distance calls. You can set it up so that if your internet connection is down, the calls to your VoIP line get forwarded to your cell phone(or office phone if you prefer). I had a problem using a VPN connection when I had the VoIP box in front of my linksys router. You can open up the right port to fix that but i've been too lazy. I have the VoIP box behind the linksys router and it works fine.

I DO have a problem with using multiple lines. You have to plug in your phones to the VoIP box. You can fix that by cutting off the power supply coming from your LEC line.

Re:How does it work?

[Big_Al_B]

One of the many price hooks of VoIP is that the calls are cheaper because they circumvent these fees. The PSTN switch that gateways the SIP/RTP or H.323/RTP into SS7/TDM is considered the originating switch.

In some cases, the call may translate several times between IP and PSTN worlds. Any PSTN origination or terminating fee tarriffs apply to the PSTN legs only, so international call billing may occur at several legs, and be billed each leg as a local, LD or a "cheaper" international call based on which carriers originate and terminate the various legs.

Regardless, the terminating PSTN carrier will see some termination fee based on the incoming trunk type.

Re:Quality?

[Jim_Maryland]

Anyone else have good or bad experience with VoIP quality?

VoIP has been working well for me so far. My VoIP provider is SunRocket [sunrocket.com] and my broadband is Comcast [comcast.com]. I haven't experienced any of the static or dropped calls that you mention, but I've only been with them for about one month so far. The annual plan offered by SunRocket runs $199/year (USD) or roughly $16.58/month, which is much lower than my Verizon bill (about $34/month) without long distance service (I used my cell phone for long distance). One of the features that is really nice for me is that I can pick a second line and assign it to any area code they cover. In my case, I assigned it near family members so they don't have to call long distance to reach me.

My guess is that your friends problem is more related to broadband service or possibly hardware issues.

Re:Quality?

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

I use Vonage for my home office and the experience has been positive enough that the rest of my consulting group is converting to save on calling card costs. A couple of things to consider.

* Latency - If you're an online gamer and can consistently find several servers with low ping, then you should be good for VoIP. I dumped cable broadband due to the network latency going to hell in the late afternoon when all the kids returned home from school. With DSL this has never been a problem.

* Get a good router or build your own router - The original Vonage router (Motorola) is supposed to be in front of your home network router/switch, but I was finding it would crash frequently under heavy traffic. Tried putting the Vonage router behind a cheap home Linksys (later Netgear) router and still had to perform daily resets. Finally purchased a used Netopia R9100 and it's been excellent.

You can also try building your own router using one of the Linux router distros. They have bandwidth shaping utilities that can prevent connected clients from sucking all the bandwidth. Great if your kids like to run P2P.

Re:Quality?

[pathos49]

I have used various VoIP providers for the last two years. Have settled on Packet8. The quality can vary markedly from provider to provider but also from pipe to pipe. DSL is usually worse than cable. BTW, I only have VoIP in my house and use about 1200 minutes a month. While Skype is really sort of neat, it is the worse froma quality perspective. Sounds like talking in a tin can.

Re:Quality?

[grasshoppa]

I have my own setup here ( asterisk + connect.voicepulse.com ), with a polycom 500IP phone ( sip ), and I use the ulaw codecs.

It's better than a landline, and it's lightyears beyond a cell.

There are a few issues: 1) No 911. I haven't set it up yet. This is specific to my situation, vonage and similar companies have this taken care of 2) I am not entirely dependant on my inet connection.

Re:Quality?

[grasshoppa]

Using an Avaya VOIP system at my office and remote sites (over vpn) i have to say its good to great quality. cant tell that the user is on an IP or a normal digital set.

Side note, off topic: Avaya RAPES people when they want to go VoIP. I got a quote for ~100g for my office setup which prompted me to go with asterisk. At the end of the day, it was 15g, with redudant servers with good hardware. If a server dies, the voip services can be transfered in a few minutes. I'm working right now to learn how to switch them transparently.

Re:Quality?

[Lumpy]

I have broadvoice and it works flawlessly, espically compared to the regular Land Line. I have had a 60hz HUM on my regular Telco line for 6 months, the technicians said "we cant trace it, it must be at the switching station" and left it at that.

i switched to broadvoice (9.95 a month unlimited in state calls can not be beat) am saving over $35.00 a month on comparable land line service and have no cutouts, and everyone thinks I'm shouting so I have turned down the amplification on my cordless from it's MAX setting that was required so people could hear me over the HUM on the old phone line.

your friend, was he using a decent VOIP-> phone hardware device? I have heard of problems with the 802.11 cordless VOIP phones, and the cheaper junk VOIP phones out there.

and if he is using software on a PC, tell him to spend $75.00 and get a real device and quit screwing around.... He will be happier with a sipura spa-2000 (2 line capable, easily UNLOCKABLE so scumbag companies like Vonnage can not disable your property like the linksys crap they push in the stores.)

Re:Quality?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been using Packet8 (www.packet8.net) for over a year now and it worked so well that I disconnected my SBC phone altogether. It has saved me a ton of money too. I was in Sri Lanka for over 7 months and used it to make free calls to keep in touch with my friends and family here in the USA. Since I had a US number and calling the US/Canada is free, my friends could dial my us number and have it ring in Sri Lanka. I think their VOIP product is great!

Re:Quality?

[Big_Al_B]

Well, empirically, you can expect only about a 10% difference (0.5 points in a scale of 5) in predictive MOS scores between the lowest quality (G.728: ~3.6) and the highest quality (G.711: ~4.1) codecs commonly used for VoIP.

Jitter and delay introduced by intermediate networks has much more potential impact on MOS scores for VoIP calls.

Since Vonage, Packet8, et al. all ride across the public internet, starting with "Joe Bob's Broadband", VoIP packets generally get best effort delivery along with gramma's email.