[YLUG] VOIP as your main phone... feasible? Recommendations?

[Dave Berkeley]

> Is the sound quality worse in general with VOIP? (assuming I am not
> using the connection for anything else / have appropriately clever
> wondershaping stuff happening)?

Latency can be a problem, but VoIP to VoIP can be better than POTS. The 
degrading of quality and introduction of echo occurs when you convert from 
analog to digital and VV. Latency is worse with the higher compression 
codecs, and speech quality lower. VoIP systems negotiate a codec during the 
connection phase, and you can set preferences.

I was doing a lot of conference calls to India and Cambridge this year, and 
the digital connection to India (to a headset) was much better than the 
analog Cambridge link (to a conference phone).

Sound quality is measured (eg. PESQ) using a complex formula which includes 
factors for convenience, cost and mobility. People will put up with crap if 
it is free and mobile. If you are paying a lot for a landline call, people's 
expectations are higher.

I was on a contract writing software for voice quality analysis in POTS and 
VoIP systems last year.

Cheers

Dave Berkeley