GV - Call received but cant hear the other end

[skyking_comms]

Hi,

I have an OBi110 with GV - I can make calls fine and when I call my GV number from my cell phone the call works. But when someone with a UK landline tries calling me I can't hear them even though the phone rings. They can hear me fine. I can call the UK landline number and the call works.
The person with the UK landline number has no problems contacting anyone else.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Darren

[N7AS]

I would check if SIP ALG is enabled in your router settings. If it is enabled, disable SIP ALG. This is a common cause of one-way audio.

[SteveInWA]

It's not caused by SIP ALG, because Google Voice doesn't use SIP.

If you can call your Google Voice number from your cell phone, and audio works both ways, what about other domestic calls (for example call your GV number from a land line or two)?  What happens if you call the person in the UK, instead of them calling you?

[skyking_comms]

Thanks for the responses

I can call the UK number without any problems from my GV number which made me think it was a problem with the UK side. But the UK number can call other people fine so I thought there maybe a setting in GV which causes problems for numbers outside of N America calling?

We don't have a landline only cell phones and they call the GV number fine.

Will try and get some other people to call us from landlines

[SteveInWA]

Thanks for the responses

I can call the UK number without any problems from my GV number which made me think it was a problem with the UK side. But the UK number can call other people fine so I thought there maybe a setting in GV which causes problems for numbers outside of N America calling?

We don't have a landline only cell phones and they call the GV number fine.

Will try and get some other people to call us from landlines

Yes, that would be helpful.  Here's why:  if you can isolate the problem to only particular inbound calls from the UK, whereas all other inbound calls work, then the problem is with one of the intermediate "transit" carriers.

Telephone carriers don't own the entire call path on international calls.  In your example, somebody in the UK calls you, and their carrier uses some combination of other carriers' networks, including undersea fiber, to complete the call.  Occasionally, when this hodgepodge of carriers connect with each other, errors occur in negotiating the audio portion of the call.  On outbound calls from Google (Chat or Hangouts), Google can often troubleshoot the issue by looking at the call logs, and then working with the failing transit carrier to resolve the problem.  On inbound calls to a GV number, you'd have to get the calling party to complain to their telco and diagnose it from their end, outbound.

[skyking_comms]

Thank you SteveInWA - Digging further I now realise the caller in the UK is actually using a SIP provider (VOIP Stunt) - They call out using SIP and receive calls via their landline. Unfortunately I can't find a contact email address for VOIP Stunt and can't see any settings for them to change on their Gigaset N300A device that might make a difference.

Now wondering if there's a problem calling from a SIP provider to GV or whether it's just the routing like you mention.

Thanks again

[SteveInWA]

There's no general, universal problem with SIP VoIP providers' customers calling GV numbers.  However, it's the issue  described:  the smaller providers like that one often go with the cheapest transit carriers they can find, and problems occur.  There's nothing that can be done about it, other than to switch carriers.

[SteveInWA]

Perhaps one of the UK users here will chime in with some carrier recommendations.

[gsmlnx]

Uk user here

I use the following (in order of most traffic sent and shows the primary use of each ITSP)

1. sipgate.co.uk - all incoming calls, outgoing UK landlines, 999 (aka E911), some premium numbers
2. localphone.com - all outgoing mobile calls, freephone, some premium numbers
3. voipfone.co.uk - some premium numbers, 999 (aka E911)

Configured as a trunk group so I have failover between providers so all 3 configured to offer freephone, mobile.

localphone are cheap to test as you can credit £1 by Paypal so not much lost of it does not work out. The other 2 have £10 initial minimum while sipgate basic offers a free incoming number (DID)