VoIP for VSAT

Is VoIP for StarBand VSAT broadband available? I want to install the broadband satellite system in a remote locale that doesn’t have POTS landlines.

Is  VoIP for StarBand VSAT broadband available? I want to install the broadband satellite system in a remote locale that doesn’t have POTS landlines.

– Via the Internet

Theoretically, VoIP is possible on VSAT. There are several items on which you need check with vendors to see if and how they handle them. The first is IP latency. Several vendors I have talked to will work at 120 ms but won’t guarantee how well things will work at 200 ms. ITU-T’s G.114 spec says VoIP  should work at around 300 ms round-trip, which means you can tolerate up to 150 ms one way. At the extreme end, you’ll experience choppy conversations and it will sound very much like what you would hear on a CB radio. With the high latency I’ve seem in most satellite systems, this is something to consider.

You’ll also need to look at some type of quality of service between locations, so when a VoIP conversation is going on, the lion’s share of the bandwidth is available to VoIP to help keep the conversation as smooth as possible. There may be some additional hardware your VoIP vendors may need  at each end of the connection to “fool” the equipment into overlooking some of the IP latency. Depending on the amount of bandwidth you can get from StarBand (or whatever IP satellite service vendor you choose), you may have to limit the amount of VoIP traffic in use at the remote location in order to hold conversations everyone can understand.

Having laid the groundwork, there are several options to pursue. Vonage is one such company that can help you implement this type of solution. There are other third parties. such as GroundControl. that work with several different satellite providers to help you get VoIP up and running over a satellite connection.