VoIP Call Quality Guide 2024

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) offers a cost-effective and flexible way for businesses to make and receive calls over the internet. However, poor call quality can be a problem. With a bad VoIP setup, you may experience choppy audio, delays, echoes, or dropped calls, which can be frustrating for your team and customers.

As you set up VoIP for your business, you need to understand the factors that affect call quality and how to troubleshoot and improve them. In this guide, we’ll explore common VoIP call quality issues and provide practical solutions to ensure your business enjoys clear conversations every time.

Common Types of VoIP Call Quality Issues

Even with the best VoIP systems, call quality issues can arise, leading to frustration for both employees and customers. Understanding the common types of VoIP call quality issues is the first step in troubleshooting and resolving them.

Jitter

Jitter occurs when voice packets arrive at irregular intervals. High jitter will mean voice calls sound choppy or distorted. This issue is often caused by network congestion, where too much data is being transmitted at once, leading to delays in packet delivery. Jitter can also be caused by improper prioritisation of VoIP traffic, where other data types are given precedence over voice packets.

Latency

Latency, also known as delay, is the time it takes for voice packets to travel from the speaker to the listener. High latency can result in awkward pauses and overlapping conversations, making communication difficult. VoIP latency can be caused by various factors, including network congestion, long distances between the caller and recipient, and inefficient network routing.

Packet Loss

Packet loss occurs when voice packets are lost during transmission, resulting in garbled audio or gaps in the conversation. It’s often caused by network congestion, poor network quality, or faulty equipment.

Echo

Echo occurs when the speaker’s voice is reflected back to them, creating a distracting and annoying effect. This issue is typically caused by improper equipment configuration, such as high microphone gain or speaker volume. Acoustic issues in the environment, such as hard surfaces that reflect sound, can also contribute to echo.

Background Noise

Excessive background noise, such as office chatter, street sounds, or equipment humming, can make it difficult for participants to hear each other clearly. This problem comes from poor room acoustics, inadequate noise cancellation in VoIP equipment, or the use of low-quality microphones

10 Ways To Improve VoIP Call Quality

Ensuring excellent VoIP call quality is essential for effective communication and maintaining professional standards. By implementing the following strategies, you can significantly enhance the quality of your VoIP calls and minimise the occurrence of common issues.

1. Optimise Your Network Bandwidth

Perhaps the most important factor in VoIP call quality is network bandwidth. Insufficient bandwidth can lead to choppy audio, dropped calls, and latency.

To optimise your bandwidth, prioritise VoIP traffic using Quality of Service (QoS) settings on your router. You’ll find the exact details of how to do this in your router’s documentation. Prioritising VoIP traffic ensures that VoIP data packets receive priority over less time-sensitive traffic, such as file downloads or video streaming.

2. Upgrade Your Internet Connection

If you consistently experience poor call quality, it may be time to upgrade your internet connection. VoIP requires a stable and fast connection to function optimally. Consider switching to a higher-speed plan or a more reliable internet service provider (ISP).

Each high-quality VoIP call requires around 80 kbps upload and download speed. Multiply this by the number of calls you need to handle concurrently and add in the bandwidth you need for web browsing, video calls, and other network tasks, and this will give you an idea of how fast you need your network connection to be.

3. Use a Wired Connection

Wi-Fi is really convenient, but it can be prone to interference and signal fluctuations. Whenever possible, use a wired Ethernet connection for your VoIP phones and devices.

Wired connections offer more consistent and stable connectivity than Wi-Fi because they are significantly less susceptible to interference from other wireless devices and aren’t affected by physical barriers such as walls.

4. Invest in High-Quality VoIP Equipment

The quality of your VoIP equipment plays a significant role in call quality. Invest in high-quality VoIP phones, headsets, and routers specifically designed for VoIP communication.

Look for devices with noise-cancelling features, echo reduction, and HD audio capabilities. High-quality equipment can help eliminate background noise, reduce echo, and provide clearer audio.

5. Configure Your VoIP Settings

Properly configuring your VoIP settings can significantly improve call quality. Every VoIP system is different, so check the documentation.

Typically, you can adjust the audio codecs to optimise for voice quality rather than bandwidth conservation. You can also enable echo cancellation and noise reduction features on your VoIP devices.

Additionally, ensure your VoIP software or firmware is up to date, as updates often include performance improvements and bug fixes.

6. Implement Network Security Measures

Network security threats, such as viruses, malware, and DDoS attacks, can severely impact VoIP call quality.

Implement strong VoIP security measures, including firewalls, antivirus software, and virtual private networks (VPNs), to protect your network from unauthorised access and malicious activity. Regular security audits and employee training on best practices can further enhance your network’s resilience.

7. Monitor and Analyze Call Quality Metrics

Regularly monitoring and analysing call quality metrics can help you identify patterns and pinpoint the root causes of issues.

Use VoIP monitoring tools such as SolarWinds VoIP & Network Quality Manager or VoIPmonitor to track performance indicators such as jitter, packet loss, and latency.

By proactively monitoring these metrics, you can detect and resolve call quality issues before they significantly impact your communications.

8. Optimise Your Network Infrastructure

With a skilled networking team, whether internal or external, you can assess your network infrastructure to ensure it’s optimised for VoIP communication. This includes minimising network hops, reducing the distance between VoIP devices and the router, and avoiding network congestion.

To optimise your network for VoIP, a network team evaluates and adjusts your setup to ensure smooth voice data flow. This might involve reconfiguring routes to reduce delays, placing VoIP devices strategically to avoid signal loss, and segregating VoIP traffic on dedicated network paths to minimise interference and congestion.

For larger VoIP installations like a call centre, consider implementing virtual LANs (VLANs) to segregate VoIP traffic from other network traffic, ensuring prioritisation and reducing interference.

9. Educate Your Team

Educating your team on VoIP best practices can go a long way in maintaining high call quality. Encourage employees to use wired connections when possible, minimise background noise during calls, and report any call quality issues promptly.

Provide training on proper headset usage, mute etiquette, and troubleshooting basic VoIP problems. An informed and proactive team can help identify and resolve call quality issues more efficiently.

10. Partner With a Reliable VoIP Service Provider

Choosing a reputable and reliable VoIP service provider can ensure consistent call quality. Research business VoIP providers in the UK that offer robust infrastructure, 24/7 technical support, and a proven track record of delivering high-quality VoIP services.

Look for providers that offer Service Level Agreements (SLAs) guaranteeing uptime, call quality, and responsiveness to issues. A trusted VoIP partner can provide the expertise and resources necessary to optimise your VoIP communication.