Choppy Calls on GV Receiving End

[LTN1]

I have been experiencing choppy calls when using GV with my Obi200--but only on the receiving end of the call. I hear them fine when calling but the receiver is hearing lots of choppiness. I suspect it is a GV issue...anyone with suggestions?

[drgeoff]

What sort of internet connection do you have?  Some have significantly less bandwidth from you than to you.

[LTN1]

Seems like the issue resolved from a test done a moment ago. As for internet connection, I have approx. 50 mbps down and 5 mbps up. The choppy calls on the receiving end were landlines, including one that belonged to me.

[dennist]

I have been experiencing the similar choppiness in the last several days. People hear my voice is choppy but I can hear them well. All the people I called were landline. I have rebooted the cable/router/switch/Obi202 several times and the problem was still there. My internet connection speed test shows normal, 16/1.2. The configuration is cable modem-router-Obi202.

[drgeoff]

1. Can you hear the choppiness on your own voice when you call the OBi echo test number **9 222 222 222? That removes the GV variable.

2. 1 Mbit/s is adequate for GV unless there is other heavy traffic on the uplink. Is there anything else that might be running over it? Eg backup to a cloud server, file-sharing (torrent) etc?

3. A very high error rate on the (ADSL?) uplink will also produce choppiness. That is not easy to check.

[dennist]

1. Can you hear the choppiness on your own voice when you call the OBi echo test number **9 222 222 222? That removes the GV variable.

2. 1 Mbit/s is adequate for GV unless there is other heavy traffic on the uplink. Is there anything else that might be running over it? Eg backup to a cloud server, file-sharing (torrent) etc?

3. A very high error rate on the (ADSL?) uplink will also produce choppiness. That is not easy to check.

This problem is on SP1 and SP2. Both are GV.

The **9 222 222 222 test shows no choppiness on SP1 and SP2.

This is for family. I am sure there is no other traffic on the uplonk.

I forgot I set up LocalPhone as my SP3 several months ago. So, I tested my calls with SP3. People can hear me clearly without the choppiness. Can we point the finger to GV?

[drgeoff]

Calling a **9 number does not use SP1 or SP2.

If you hear no choppiness on your voice coming back from the echo test, that absolves a lot of the OBi's hardware plus firmware and your internet connection.

It would indeed appear that the problem has something to do with GV but I don't know anywhere near enough about the ins and outs of that to make any pertinent suggestions except that of making test calls between your two GV numbers.  Do those suffer choppiness?

[FormerYooper]

Had this same problem about 1-2 months ago & it drove me crazy.  Someone posted in these forums that sometimes there is interference caused between your router and Dect 6.0 phones.  Well, since I was using a Panasonic Dect 6.0, I moved the base unit about 6 feet away from my router .... the choppiness was instantly resolved.  I hope this may help you!

[dennist]

Calling a **9 number does not use SP1 or SP2.

If you hear no choppiness on your voice coming back from the echo test, that absolves a lot of the OBi's hardware plus firmware and your internet connection.

It would indeed appear that the problem has something to do with GV but I don't know anywhere near enough about the ins and outs of that to make any pertinent suggestions except that of making test calls between your two GV numbers.  Do those suffer choppiness?

I properly confused you. My telephone line 1 is configure to use SP1 while line 2 is configure to use SP2 on Obi202. I don't know how to make a **9 number without using the line 1 or line 2 on the cordless phone.

I just did the test again. Everything seems fine now. No choppiness at all for all calls. I will watch if the problem comes up again.

[LTN1]

Had this same problem about 1-2 months ago & it drove me crazy.  Someone posted in these forums that sometimes there is interference caused between your router and Dect 6.0 phones.  Well, since I was using a Panasonic Dect 6.0, I moved the base unit about 6 feet away from my router .... the choppiness was instantly resolved.  I hope this may help you!

When I had the issue a few days ago, I had it on both a Dect 6.0 and a 2.4 Ghz phone. It lasted for about a day or so. Nothing has changed in my phone configuration but the GV connection works well. My guess is that there was a partial problem with GV that may have only affected some GV users.

[drgeoff]

Calling a **9 number does not use SP1 or SP2.

If you hear no choppiness on your voice coming back from the echo test, that absolves a lot of the OBi's hardware plus firmware and your internet connection.

It would indeed appear that the problem has something to do with GV but I don't know anywhere near enough about the ins and outs of that to make any pertinent suggestions except that of making test calls between your two GV numbers.  Do those suffer choppiness?

I properly confused you. My telephone line 1 is configure to use SP1 while line 2 is configure to use SP2 on Obi202. I don't know how to make a **9 number without using the line 1 or line 2 on the cordless phone.

No offence intended, but it is you who may be a little confused. 

You have your phone ports 1 and 2 configured so that they default to using SP1 and SP2 respectively.  However those defaults can be overridden by prepending **n to a dialled number. For example, you can use the phone 1 to make a call that goes via SP2 by putting **2 in front of the number.

Similarly putting **9 before the echo test number 222 222 222 from either phone 1 or phone 2 will use the OBitalk network.  The call does not involve either of the Service Providers you have configured on SP1 and SP2 (or SP3 and SP4 if you have those on your device.)

[dennist]

drgeoff:

"No offence intended, but it is you who may be a little confused.  "


Yes, It was I who was confused. Thanks for explaining.

[KevKan]

I have been experiencing a high incidence of choppiness (intermittent/cutting out of audio for both parties) on inbound GV calls on my ObiHai 202.   From what I can see, it appears to be most prevalent on local incoming calls.   On occasions, the choppiness will disappear after about 20 to 30 seconds into the call and you are then able to have a normal conversation.   I don't think this is a QoS issue as I can immediately call the party back on the same line and not experience any choppiness.  Anyone have ideas on things to check or settings to change?

[jimr]

2 year old Obi110 no problems using Google Voice phone number as my primary home phone.  Then in January 2015 people started complaining that my voice was cutting out bad, and static/odd sounds, like a really bad cell connection.  I was hearing good voice quality from those same people on my end.  I have cable internet runs 6 to 15 Kbps - and I am not doing any streaming

I tried switching to a corded analog handset, moving my cordless phone base station away from my router, tried **6 to update firmware in Obi (recording said no update available) , nothing had any effect. 

Solution for me:
Today I went to my Obi account, and unchecked the GV number from SP1 "primary line for outgoing calls" and checked the SP2 "primary line for outgoing calls" on my unused Anveo phone number.  People said my call quality immediately changed to "just fine".

I had purchased the Anveo number in April 2014 when Obi suggested GV stand alone numbers would cease to function - but GV continued to function and I had never "used" the Anveo number. 

HELP?  On Google voice I have the box next to Anveo checked, but GV history appears to be ignoring the calls made now, any suggestions?

Thanks,
Jim R  Long Beach Peninsula, Washington

[BB88]

I have been using the OBi200 with FPL for a couple days (new user). Today, the callers are hearing very bad broken voice, but I didn't hear anything. I tried connecting the OBi200 directly to the cable modem (to isolate problem with the router), but the broken voice is still there. I have the problem on both the Freephoneline.ca line and the GV line. The **9 222 222 2222 echo test does NOT have the problem.

Running some VoIP test from http://voiptest.8x8.com/voip.php?voiplines=1&testlength=15&codec=g711:

Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 7437 kbps
Upload speed: 3082 kbps
Download consistency of service: 8 %
Upload consistency of service: 84 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum TCP delay: 289 ms
Average download pause: 7 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 90 ms
Average round trip time to server: 111 ms
Estimated download bandwidth: 65265 kbps
Route concurrency: 8.775384
Download TCP forced idle: 92 %
Maximum route speed: --

VoIP test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 20.7 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 6.0 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 0.0 %
Packet discards: 4.2 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Estimated MOS score: 3.7

[drgeoff]

.... I have cable internet runs 6 to 15 Kbps .....

Solution for me:
Today I went to my Obi account, and unchecked the GV number from SP1 "primary line for outgoing calls" and checked the SP2 "primary line for outgoing calls" on my unused Anveo phone number...

1. Presumably you meant Mbit/s. (Which is 1000 times what you wrote.)
2. Your outgoing calls to USA numbers via GV were not chargeable.  That is not the case for Anveo.

[jimr]

1. Presumably you meant Mbit/s. (Which is 1000 times what you wrote.)
Yes, you are correct Mbps, not kbps, my error.
2. Your outgoing calls to USA numbers via GV were not chargeable.  That is not the case for Anveo.
Yes, 1 cent per minute beyond 333 minutes per month.  It is worth it if callers can understand me.

SO my issue still is ..... my GV "History" is only recording incoming calls made to the GV phone number.  The Anveo number box is checked in GV settings. In OBI settings the Anveo is checked as primary line for outgoing calls.  I made Anveo primary as it appeared to cure downstream issues with voice quality.

So now it appears currently that outgoing calls are not going into GV history. Can I have good call quality and outgoing call GV history too?
Thanks,

[drgeoff]

If a call is going out via Anveo how do you expect Google to be able to log it?  It isn't going through any of Google's servers.

And ditto for calls coming in on Anveo.

[jimr]

I reported earlier in this thread that using an Anveo number instead of the Google Voice number cleared up the voice quality issue with people on the other end.  Well, eventually I started getting complaints again from people on the other end that my voice quality was bad choppy again. 

What seems to work for me now is powering down the power strip to the router/modem and obi box, then powering them up again after a minute wait.  This has worked twice over the last two weeks, I call back and the people on the other end say the choppy stuff cleared right up. I always hear the other party just fine, no change before or after. 

Just to test, I have started using the 8x8 voip test almost every other day, before and after powering down the equipment.  Each time the jitter test improves, moving up to standard or radio quality, and the MOS score often improves up to a 4.0 .  I have seen an MOS as low as 2.7

I am in a remote south Washington location, IP service from Charter, just fyi. 

[SteveInWA]

Your MOS scores are too variable to expect decent audio performance on your VoIP calls.  You're stuck with it, unless you can work with your internet service provider to repair any "fixable" issues between your house and their infrastructure.