Testing Company Keynote released the results of it’s quality report today and it had some interesting quantitative measures to test the quality of VoIP lines vs PSTN lines.
The study found that VOIP service providers are still experiencing significant problems with audio delay in their calls. While both PSTN and PacketCable both measured a mean average audio delay of below 150 milliseconds, VOIP providers measure a one-way audio delay of between 150 to 250 ms. The best mean audio delay for a VOIP provider came in at 149 ms, while the worst came in at 279 ms. Even so, this was far better than the worst delay recorded in Keynote’s September 2006 survey, which clocked in at 335 ms.
There is definitely work to be done to build on the quality issues from VoIP providers. I can’t help but think that there are some providers who do much better than others delivering VoIP services and these people bring down the perception of all of the offerings. All in all these sorts of reports highlight the work that needs to be done to deliver a better experience to consumers which is not such a bad thing.
