VoIP services have become an integral part of cloud-based business communications. This peer-to-peer technology offers a wide range of benefits, including expanding your local global presence, as well as reducing operational costs.
Critical To Keep in Mind
Before discussing VoIP issues, it’s crucial to understand that many commonplace problems result from internet connection quality and network equipment. Therefore, choosing a reliable Internet Service Provider (ISP) is just as important as anything else and can help you avoid any future VoIP issues. If you still don’t have a dedicated internet line for your cloud-based business communication, this will most likely also impact the overall call quality.
The List of Possible Voice Over IP Issues & Ways to Resolve Them
- Choppy Voice
- Audio Delays & Echo
- High Voice Compression
- Inconsistent VoIP Call Quality
- VoIP Dropped Calls
- Caller ID Problems
- Low ASR Metric
- Jitter
1. Choppy Voice
Choppy Voice is is arguably the most common problem for every business using cloud-based communications. Remember those stuttering sounds created by brief yet annoying silences in the middle of the phone conversation? This situation is referred to as Choppy Voice and can be a pain for businesses that depend on customer interactions.
Possible Reasons:
| Caller Side | Callee Side |
|---|---|
| Slow internet connection | Location |
| Wireless/Bluetooth headset | Poor mobile network coverage |
2. Audio Delays & Echo
Have you ever realized that the other party is hearing you much later than you speak? Maybe you’ve also had the uncomfortable experience of hearing your own voice while talking? Audio Delays and Echos happen when your telecom provider’s servers are located too far away or when you are placing long-distance calls.
How to Fix It:
| Transmit Voice Via Nearest PoP | Choose VoIP Service With Direct Access |
|---|---|
| CommPeak created a proprietary telecom infrastructure and guarantees that your calls will always travel the shortest distance. | For the best audio quality, you should work with communication vendors like CommPeak that have direct access to local providers all over the world. |
By choosing CommPeak, you’ll get pristine local call quality while simultaneously saving on international calls. We have 12 PoPs strategically located worldwide, ensuring minimal audio issues.
3. High Voice Compression
Another typical call quality issue revolves around Voice Compression. VoIP systems work with different codecs that compress the audio data to travel more efficiently through the internet.
There are two main codecs for voice compression: G.729 and G.711.
| G.729 | G.711 |
|---|---|
| This code has a higher quality compression, making it travel quicker, but drastically reducing the quality. | This codec has a lower compression, helping to produce a better voice quality. |
Critical To Keep in Mind
If communications are crucial for your business success, it’s imperative that you select VoIP providers like CommPeak that have direct access to telecom supplies that use the G.711 codec. CommPeak also has enterprise-grade bandwidth, circumventing poor quality issues.
4. Inconsistent VoIP Call Quality
When your office network is overloaded (and your bandwidth is not unlimited), your call center most like will suffer from Inconsistent VoIP Call Quality.
Possible Reasons:
- Insufficient bandwidth
- Poor equipment
- Limited voice coverage
To learn more about how to create the optimal VoIP environment at your call center, read our blog.
5. VoIP Dropped Calls
If your average number of Dropped Calls begins to increase, you should first track the precise times they occur. These insights will help you figure out why they are happening.
Possible Reasons When Dialing a Number:
- Caller ID is banned
Possible Reasons During a Conversation:
- Caller Lack of internet connection
- Poor telecom coverage from local mobile operator
6. Caller ID Problems
Problems with caller IDs are yet another challenge for businesses that regularly deal with calls, especially considering getting the customer or lead to answer is their primary aim.
Possible Reasons:
- Local caller ID
- Domestic calling can cause difficulties for many telecom providers, as some countries do not allow a local caller ID if the caller is located outside the country.
- CommPeak has a pool of local virtual numbers, unlike other telecom providers, meaning you can buy and use a local DID number from 100+ countries. We have access to the countries that other providers don’t.
- Banned caller ID
- If you need assistance, CommPeak can help you. We check your DID number or numbers and let you know if it’s banned. We’ll also let you know if you buy the virtual number from us if it is whitelisted.
- Hidden caller ID
- Many businesses prefer anonymous calling, hiding their caller IDs. This anonymity can negatively impact their activity, as most people don’t like to answer blocked numbers. In some countries, it’s even forbidden to call from a blocked caller ID, and your call won’t go through.
7. Low ASR Metric
Answer Success, or Seizure Rate (ASR), is the number of successfully connected calls compared to the total attempted ones. The calculated percentage amounts to your call center’s ASR. A low ASR indicates poor performance.
Possible Reasons:
- Incorrect phone number
- To err is human, and you won’t get any result if you dial the wrong phone number. To eliminate this issue, you should get rid of manual dialing and start using an auto dialing system that detects and fixes invalid caller IDs.
- Dead contact list
- There’s no way to know whether your contact list contains potential leads and existing phone numbers. However, you can use LookUp to minimize dead-end calls, which will help boost your ASR.
- Time zone
- When you call people who live in a different time zone, this can drastically influence your ASR metric. So, it’s better to choose the VoIP system that can automatically select the correct time zone for calling.
- Irrelevant caller ID
- Choosing a proper caller ID is crucial, especially if you want to expand to a particular local market. People are more likely to answer the phone if the area code is local.
- Hidden caller ID
- Most people don’t pick up calls from unknown phone numbers. Moreover, these are the most likely to get blocked, so if you can, better not use hidden caller IDs at all.
8. Jitter
Jitter is the period of time it takes for data packets to be sent from one server to another. A slow arrival time could be caused by network congestion or inefficient routing. Jitters are measured in milliseconds and more than 15-20 ms of jitter can result in latency and packet loss.
Possible Reasons:
- Issues with ISP
- To discover whether your jitter causes issues with your call quality, you can use speed test checkers like CommPeak Speed Test. If it’s more than 20ms you should find a more reliable Internet Service Provider.
- SIP ALF (Application Layer Gateway)
- SIP ALG is a security setting on any commercial router. Ensuring that this setting is disabled is another way to troubleshoot audio quality problems caused by jitter.
- Double NAT (Network Address Translation)
- NAT deals with providing a private IP address to all the devices in your network. But if there is more than one network equipment unit (primarily, a router or a gateway) providing NAT, this may affect audio quality.
Stop Wasting Your Time With Frustrating VoIP Issues
If your call center has ever experienced these familiar Voice over IP problems, then you’ll know how frustrating they can be and what impact they have on your business. Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ll learn how to find the source of your problems and even how to mitigate them.
However, with CommPeak, you’ll never have to worry about voice connection quality. So if you want to stay out of trouble, choose CommPeak today!