Monitoring VoIP Call Quality: Keep A Call Log
If you use VoIP to make a lot of calls and have concerns about call quality, what you might try doing is keeping a call log, which you can analyze later. Use a spreadsheet or word processor program, and keep all or some of the following information in a grid or table form:
- Date of call
- Time of call
- Duration of call
- Quality of call - any info, including approximate (great, good, okay, poor, terrible) or even the number of dropouts you experienced.
- Type of VoIP - both delivery medium and interface (e.g., pure play, soft phone/ IM, power-line, etc.)
- Which VoIP service/ soft phone (e.g., Vonage, Comcast, Skype, Windows Live Messenger)
- Destination locale (local, national, international, or even specific country, state, province)
For example, a few days ago, I spoke to a writer in India using Google Talk, around mid-afternoon, New York time zone. He sounded like he was in the next room, over an intercom system. The quality was very good, but three or four times, his voice dropped out for a few seconds. Although I probably didn't miss any important words, I suspect I didn't hear every word.
If I manage to remember to keep a log over the next few months, I'll be able to analyze the data and compare different VoIP services/ soft phones. If find any interesting patterns, I'll share the information here.
Written by ewriter on October 6th, 2006 with
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