Call Quality Slidder

[Timothy]

Mojo - reserved bandwidth or amount of bandwidth the Ooma device can use to create a higher quality of call? I think there is a big difference because many of us have no issue with bandwidth from our cable/fios operators. Does this make sense?

[Bobby B]

I'm a bit confused about the difference between the two -- the reserved bandwidth is the amount of bandwidth the Hub allocates for calling. Have a look at this article. You'll be able to adjust the "Reserved for ooma calls and Voicemail" bandwidth in the diagram.

Right now you can only adjust the "ooma QoS bandwidth" which is used to accurately prioritize traffic..

Mojo - reserved bandwidth or amount of bandwidth the Ooma device can use to create a higher quality of call? I think there is a big difference because many of us have no issue with bandwidth from our cable/fios operators. Does this make sense?

[mthomtech]

Thanks Mojo and Bobby B for joining in the conversation.

I've got the same question as Timothy ... will this setting adjust what is reserved or what is actually used?

Mojo - you stated that by default ooma uses 30 kbps for voice calls, and 90 kbps for uncompressed fax call (by pressing *99). And I understand why you'd up the default reserve to 130 kbps to accomodate the usage for a simultaneous fax and voice. And it sounds like the knob to increase that call reserve will be a great addition.

But, my question is, will that change the quality of a voice call? For example, will a voice call now use 60 or 90 kbps, instead of 30? Or will the increased reserve just allow for more simultaneous calls at the same 30 kbps per call. I think our concern is the actual quality / compression used for the voice quality. I really don't know enough to understand what determines the quality that ooma uses, but not sure that just increasing the reserve will handle the issue. Maybe you could explain a little more to us. Bobby B - I did read the article, and I really like the explanations ... I was pretty clueless on QoS in general until I found that article.

Also, I assume that since I have the ooma hub after my modem/router combo, and all other network off another port from the modem/router, that the QoS settings on the hub will have no impact on my quality. My placement of the hub doesn't allow any prioritization of the other network traffic. However, I don't even come close to putting a dent in my up and down overall FiOS bandwith.

I have the same problem that's been described by everyone here ... cell quality calls, with slightly to significantly worse quality (including crackling when ooma user speaks) when using a phone connected to the scout. The poor quality is observed by the recipient of the ooma call (the quality on the ooma side is fine).

Here's my speed and connection quality stats:


Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 17909472 bps
Upload speed: 4676480 bps
Quality of service: 99 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 36 ms
Average download pause: 1 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 28 ms
Average round trip time to server: 75 ms

VoIP test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 0.0 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 1.4 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 0.0 %
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of supported VoIP lines: 29
Estimated MOS score: 4.3

[ommadude]

>Just got a call from my ooma scout. The call was very scratchy. I will >plug in to the ooma hub tonight and see if there is any difference.

>By the sound of this tread there is an obvious issue. I do not think it is >QoS related as my upstream is 768kbs up link.

>Hope the mods. will chime in with a fix!

Connected a phone to the ooma hub and called another phone. The transmit quality from the ooma in now fine! I will rewire my house wiring and put the ooma wall connection and scout on a separate circuit. I am guessing this will fix my problem!

[mthomtech]

ommadude ... so previously you had the hub "phone" port and "wall" port going onto the same line where you had the scout plugged in? And now your changing so the scout has dedicated wiring to the hub?

Let us know if that wiring works ... I do get better quality from the hub, and curious if the scout will work better under the dedicated wiring to the wall port of the hub.

[Timothy]

mthomtech - That was a perfect explanation above (march 12th 9:55pm) Hopefully Mojo can shed light of the enhancement taking place soon based on what you asked. We need a clear explanation will this enhancement allow us to choose "additional bandwith" for a higher quality of call (like vonage does previously posted) OR set asside bandwidth for traffic flow to various devices such as QOS. BIG Difference.

And of course get an explanation to the crackling static issue which is a seperate problem all together on the Scout.

[clhartung]

This may be silly, but can you just dial 99 to get the greater bandwidth as for faxes...I guess that would only work for outgoing calls, tho.

[ram104]

Timothy, I ended up taking my phone and instead of plugging it into the scout I plugged it into the hub. Now I had tried this before with no luck, but this time before I did this I unplugged the hub, scout and modem than plugged the phone into the hub plugged everything back in and the voice quality is not as scratchy.
If I had to rate it I would say about 85% better than before.
I had tried this before with no luck, but now its better. What confuses me is I had run brand new phone wire in the whole house last summer and I was still getting the voice crackle when I would talk to people if they were on a landline and I was on the ooma. I hope this helps with you.
Another note I was good to finally see someone from ooma join the discussion.

[Timothy]

Ram102 - Great News and gald to hear. Maybe Ooma did some type of firmware upgrade and the unplug and pluging back in reset to the new version..?? But regardless, since the scratchyness is removed you still notice the quality calling from a Land line to the hub/scount is still less than the quality being on the Ooma end?

clhartung - I agree, the *99 can be used in the mean time for outgoing, but the incoming you can't change not to mention once you use the *99 you can no longer use another * command. Appears only one * command per call.

Still hoping Mojo will shed light on the April enhancement clarification on bandwidth modification vs QOS modification.

[mthomtech]

Yes, ram102 ... it's good to hear that the hub is working better for you now too. It looks like we're all consistent in the quality. Best is from the hub (which could still be higher if we were given an option to use more bandwith for a call). The scout is still scratchy for the caller on the other end.

I may try connecting the scout directly to the wall port of the hub tonight and run a few tests. That may help narrow down that issue.

I hope we get some insight into the new feature to understand if we really are going to have the ability to set a higher call quality, and not just make unused space available for calls.