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Degraded Call Quality (even when you are not downloading or uploading) can be attributed to the following:

  1. Always verify your Cables & Jacks. A simple loose plug can cause a lot of static, lower volume, or even stop phones from ringing.

  2. If you are using a cordless phone which can be affected by other devices, test your TBB line with a corded phone to reproduce your problem and rule out your cordless phone.

  3. Are you using a wireless connection for your DVG?

  4. Do your calls drop either randomly or at fixed times?

  5. If it is none of the above, then this is the classical situation of the "Internet" affecting your VoIP service. You may also have had no problems for months, and all of a sudden, you start having issues. This can be occasional or very frequent.

    1. Occasional problems happen once in a blue moon and can depend on your TBB usage pattern. The problems of a call dropping, or static for 1 minute out of 20, can generally be attributed to intermittent congestion in the core Internet.

      These problems come and go based on Internet traffic usage and the (core) root servers (nodes), where the congestion lies, are very hard to pinpoint from a VoIP user's perspective, and from a service provider's too!

      Until all components of the Internet can provide 99.9999% PSTN like Quality Of Service (QoS), these intermittent issues will occur, regardless of your VoIP provider and ISP provider.

    2. Frequent problems means that somewhere upstream, whether it's your LAN, your ISP, the interworking to Primus, or Primus' network itself, there is a problem with the way packets are being sent/received - for VoIP anyway - the root cause being HIGH JITTER (>50ms). Although your surfing and file transfers may slow somewhat, error correction in these protocols fix JITTER problems. HIGH JITTER affects things like VoIP and gaming.

      HIGH JITTER may be due to a bad LAN configuration, load balancing in your ISP network, or congestion or loading within the ISP's or Primus' network.

      See other Issues with SHAW CABLE.

NOTE: See further information on TBB<->TBB call degradation.



If - from the TBB line - you can hear the other caller OK, but they hear your choppy voice, this usually means that your local ISP link is saturated/full. Do you notice that your calls fail at peak times [between 3pm and 6pm (after school - before supper), 7pm-10pm etc]?

This could be due to general Internet congestion at that particular time. However, apart from TBB system issues, degradation can occur at any time - but CABLE ISP networks are more susceptible to this problem given the local shared cable segment - which has a limited upload capability. This can happen regardless of any Higher Bandwidth "Speed" (i.e. Extreme) or QoS Priority (i.e. SHAW) feature on your Broadband connection. Either:

  • Your existing network "neighbors" are doing some more uploading and downloading (heavy usage application like file-sharing, etc)

    OR

  • Your ISP may have recently placed new (or more) customers on your neighbourhood's connection - either the DSLAM units or the local shared CABLE segment.

When you have degraded voice on your line, you should immediately Determine the JITTER on your ISP connection.


NOTE: Try and isolate the problem even further by testing your ATA on another BroadBand connection.



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by canoe See Profile
last modified: 2006-04-23 00:39:15