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Originally Posted by Bifta
Currently VoIP quality is complete sh*t, not sure why .. it just is, dialpad used to be one of the best providers but it's impossible to hold a conversation with people and the calls are not that cheap anymore. However, if you want to hold high quality conversations between other PC users, try SkyPE, better quality than any phone, currently only works to other SkyPE users though.
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VoIP, whilst not having the reliability of normal circuit switched telphony, does offer a viable alternative for those in countries where international telephony rates are high (like in North Cyprus for example) and landlines bad. A normal landline here can take anything from 6 to 8 months to have put in and the rates to the UK are around 35p per min (peak) and nearly a £1 per min to the USA. Using a 2 way satelite BB connection and a service like Net2Phone I can place calls to the UK and USA for approx 3p per minute - which is quite a saving. Yes there is a 'delay' due to the sat connections latency, but this is no different to international calls used to be in the 70's and 80's when many were routed via satelite. More and more VoIP companies are appearing and some can offer an incomming UK or USA number so people can call you as well as you calling out.
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In order to ensure good transmission of voice, the internet would need to be QOS (quality of service) enabled in order to ensure that voice takes priority over everything else and thats not going to happen soon.
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Building in QoS protocols into TCP/IP is one way to ensure VoIP works better. It is however not the only way and it is the wrong way imo. The very essense of the power of the internet, the very reason it is the phenomenom it is today is because TCP/IP took the 'control element' out of the hands of those that own the physical network and placed it at the ends of the network, in the hands of the users. With TCP/IP you (your PC) control(s) your (virtual) connection from your machine to another. Thus you can define what service you can run. In a system where the control is placed with the owners of the physical infrastructure, they control what you can do with a connection, who you can connect to, how you can connect to them and crucialy how much you will pay for each of these control services. QoS is an 'excuse' used by those that own physical infrastructure to 'claw back' the control they lost with the widespread apdoption fo the internet.
So what is the alternative to QoS (built into the phyiscal network and under the control of the owners of the network and not the users)? The simple answer to thatis bandwidth. Just try running VoIP apps on an internal 100Mbs LAN in and office and then tell me the only way to get a decent voice call is to have QoS built into the network. VoIP works fine, without control / QoS features built into the network, provided there is enough bandwidth available. With the real cost of bandwidth falling at a rate faster than the rate at which processing power reduces, it makes more sense to 'throw bandwidth' at the problem than to spend time and money building expensive control and QoS solutions - that ultimately limit what the users of the network can do with the connection (unless they have the permission / cooperation and pay the netwrok owner). More sense that is if your objective is to produce as much value from the network for those that use it. If the objective is to produce as much revenue for those that own the network, and ignore those that use it, then having the control layer built into the network is an optimum solution. QoS is a great 'excuse' to roll back the gains (for users) that the internet has created so far and put the network owners literaly 'back in control'.
I do not want QoS. I want bandwidth. Then I can do what I like. VoIP. 2 way calling, 3 way calling any way calling , variable voice quality (bit rate) and a thousand other things besides, all only limited by my and other users imagination. Build QoS (and control) back into the network and you can have 3 way calling - if you pay the network owner to set it up for you. You can have better voice quality - if you pay the network owner to set it up for you. You can have anything that the network owner dreams up and can bill you for.
QoS - NO!
Bandwidth - YES!
