Cable Forum - View Single Post - A Little Info For Anybody Considering Voip over NTL 1Mbps

garethdphillips · 17-02-2006, 12:05

I have recently moved from a BT line and 2Mbs aDSL to NTL 1Mbps to try and save some cash! The idea being I am no longer force fed a BT line, as I now have Voip Only (SipGate).

I was paying Pipex £23.44 (for an excellent service) and BT around £11.
I now pay only £17.99 and no standing charges for my Voip service so Im happy!

The concern was that the rubbish 100k upload speed would not be sufficient for Voip and that I may need to upgrade to the 2Mbps service (with a 200k upload) but it appears that the 1Mb service is sufficient - just.

I have a Netgear Voip adapter that has an option for QOS (default it off). I notice that as emails etc arrive inbound whilst I am on the phone the person I am speaking with does notice some break-up in my voice, but as long as the QOS is turned on it seems stable. Without Qos I suspect that voice calls are OK, but there is always the risk of something "unknown" happening to consume that little upsteam bandwidth.

In a nutshell, if anybody fancies moving from aDSL just to save some money on "connectivity" it appears the 1MB service is fine, as long as you can either enable QOS on your Voip adapter, or you connection is usually idle whilst you are in a call.

Direction
Actual Speed
True Speed (estimated)
Downstream
964 Kbps (120.5 KB/sec)
1041 Kbps (inc. overheads)
Upstream
91 Kbps (11.4 KB/sec)
98 Kbps (inc. overheads)

17-02-2006, 12:05	#1
garethdphillips Inactive Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 28	A Little Info For Anybody Considering Voip over NTL 1Mbps I have recently moved from a BT line and 2Mbs aDSL to NTL 1Mbps to try and save some cash! The idea being I am no longer force fed a BT line, as I now have Voip Only (SipGate). I was paying Pipex £23.44 (for an excellent service) and BT around £11. I now pay only £17.99 and no standing charges for my Voip service so Im happy! The concern was that the rubbish 100k upload speed would not be sufficient for Voip and that I may need to upgrade to the 2Mbps service (with a 200k upload) but it appears that the 1Mb service is sufficient - just. I have a Netgear Voip adapter that has an option for QOS (default it off). I notice that as emails etc arrive inbound whilst I am on the phone the person I am speaking with does notice some break-up in my voice, but as long as the QOS is turned on it seems stable. Without Qos I suspect that voice calls are OK, but there is always the risk of something "unknown" happening to consume that little upsteam bandwidth. In a nutshell, if anybody fancies moving from aDSL just to save some money on "connectivity" it appears the 1MB service is fine, as long as you can either enable QOS on your Voip adapter, or you connection is usually idle whilst you are in a call. Direction Actual Speed True Speed (estimated) Downstream 964 Kbps (120.5 KB/sec) 1041 Kbps (inc. overheads) Upstream 91 Kbps (11.4 KB/sec) 98 Kbps (inc. overheads)