Recommendable alternatives to VOIPo with compressed codecs?

[wimax]

I know this is a strange question here but maybe someone here can help me nonetheless.

I am since a couple of months a Voipo customer and it simply does not work. In almost all of my phone calls the other party complains about frequent cut outs that make it impossible to understand me (so that I have to end the call and use my cell phone instead). This only applies to my outgoing voice - I can always understand the other party very well. My ISP is Suddenlink (cable) with usually more than 10 Mbit down and more than 1 Mbit up. Just today I had three local calls in which all three callers complained within the first seconds of the call that they could not understand me and I had to call all of them back on my cell phone.

I have spent many hours in various chats with Voipo support we have tried whatever can be tried (i. e. putting the ATA into DMZ and raising the jitter level of the ATA to the highest level) but it is not getting better. In the last chat I mentioned that my calls with Google Voice seem to have never quality problems and that I don't understand why it works there and not with Voipo and the Voipo person answered that the reason would be the codec - Google would use a codec with compression which can handle jitter better than the lossless codec (G711u) that Voipo uses. I guess it is something comparable to flac and mp3 for audio files - well, I'm fine with mp3, I actually don't hear any difference with my audio equipment.

As unfortunate as it is - I think it is time to say bye bye to Voipo. However, it would be really sad if I could not have any "pseudo landline" anymore. I have three cordless phones in different parts of my house and would like to be able to continue using them for incoming and outgoing calls.

Are there recommendable alternatives to Voipo that use compressed codecs? The best alternative would be, of course, Google Voice with an Obihai ATA but unfortunately this would work only for a couple of more months before Google stops allowing this ATA for Google Voice. I therefore have to look for something different than Google.

Would be great if I could get some tips here. Thanks.

Greetings - wimax

[budmaster]

I had similar issues when I first signed up for VOIPO. However, customer service fixed my problem by moving my service to a different server. I still have similar issues on a rare occasion. When I do, I simply unplug the ATA for 30 seconds. A reboot seems to always fix.

[ki4zbo]

There are MANY variables that can cause your problem. By eliminating some of these variables, you could track down the cause. First and foremost what I would do is take the router out of the equation. Plug the ATA directly to the gateway. Make the phone calls for a while and see if the problem still exists. If not, it could be something with the router OR something on the network as a whole causing the problem. If it DOES still exist, it could be the gateway device itself. Some gateways have their own firewalls/port forwarders, etc. that need tweeking. Many people don't think to check this. *IF* that's not the problem, then yes, there very well could be an issue between your home to wherever on the internet VOIPo's servers are located. They can re-program you to different locations. This may or may not fix the issue. But at least these steps would be a good start.

[chevyman]

try this test from your computer and select Houston, Texas http://www.myconnectionserver.com/voip.html

see what it says, you only need 64 Kbps UP for each line of voip voice.

[ymhee_bcex]

@wimax,

I had exactly the same problem on one of my four Voipo accounts. Google Voice was flawless, but Voipo on the same Obihai ATA, same router, and same ISP wasn't working at all. After several months of troubleshooting, I had to cancel. I have to say, Voipo was very professional about it - and I am a happy customer on 3 other accounts. In fact, I got the fourth for my wife's business a few months later.

That said, I think Voipo techs try a little too hard to find a problem outside Voipo - router, ISP, global warming, whatever. Looks like in this low-margin business at some point it just isn't worth troubleshooting any further.

BTW, I am sure you saw that OBI will no longer work with Google Voice after May, 2014. Don't know if it factors into your decision-making