[ale] [OT] VoIP recommendations

[Geoffrey]

Michael B. Trausch wrote:
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> Jim Popovitch wrote:
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>>I heavily looked into doing the all VoIP at Home thing a few months ago.
>>In short the latency and packetloss issues of using either 256K DSL
>>(BellSouth) or 5Mb/384k Cable (Comcast) made it impossible to conduct a
>>business call without seriously causing problems for people on the other
>>end of the call or conference bridge.  Vonage is probably ok for limited
>>use to call and order a pizza or such.  VoIP in general for broadband
>>home users just isn't there (IMHO) for "realtime" conversations where
>>you don't have a 5 sec lag and you aren't constantly repeating things.

Is that your experience or perception?  I'm perfectly happy with my 
vonage service.  The sound quality is indistinguishable from my landline 
from Bellsouth.

>>A really really bad TDMA cellphone connection is still better than
>>broadband VoIP these days.  Tomorrow may change things as codecs are
>>constantly improved and networks (hopefully) become more reliable.

Wrong again.  My old tdma cell wouldn't recieve a signal in my home 
office.  I don't know where you get this info, but it does not match my 
personal experiences.


> So, in short, it wouldn't be good for general contact, is that right?

I disagree with all he had to say.  Does not appear that he's used the 
service, said he's looked into it.

> 
> Are there no codecs that can adequately compress to telephone standard
> quality?  I thought that was in the single-digit kb/sec range?  Am I
> wrong in that?
> 
> How much bandwidth does a single call require?

Can't help you with that, but if you'd like, you're welcome to call my 
on my vonage line and see how it sounds.  Seems the complaints from the 
previous responder are around the other end of the connection.

-- 
Until later, Geoffrey