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NEWS RELEASE - August 28, 2006
Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor For those organizations considering a VoIP implementation, but concerned about the degradation in quality of the call, a new study released by Minacom reveals that VoIP phone service actually sounds better and connects faster than the standard public-switched phones network (PSTN).
An Internet Phone quality study was completed recently by Brix
Networks, and covered by TMCnet, that indicated that 1 in 5 VoIP calls
were classified as unacceptable and that call quality was steadily
decreasing. Results like these can be extremely detrimental to the
adoption of VoIP throughout multiple industries.
However, this study evaluated computer-to-computer (PC-PC) Internet
phone service, similar to those offered by Skype, Google Talk, MSN and
Yahoo Messenger. Minacom felt is was important to highlight that the
quality and service reliability of these applications does not compare
to that of the VoIP phone services offered by telcos, cable operators
and broadband VoIP providers.
Minacom spent the last 12 months collecting data using their
standards-based, single-ended service quality test system. Results
indicate that VoIP service quality increased steadily over the past
year, with an average Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of 4.2, compared to 3.9
for the PSTN, based on a range of 1 (worst) to 5 (best).
Based on a MOS threshold of 3.6, only 1 out of 50 calls in North
America were considered to be unacceptable. Worldwide, the result was 1
out of 10. Over the same period, greater than 85 percent of VoIP calls
exceeded average PSTN quality and improved in all regions.
Connections speeds for VoIP proved faster than those for PSTN. On
average, the VoIP calls connected at 8.2 seconds, compared to 8.9
seconds for those placed over the PSTN. Calls placed to North America
proved to connect faster on the PSTN (4.3 seconds versus 5.7 for VoIP),
while international calls connected faster with VoIP (8.7 seconds
versus 10.4 for PSTN). Results indicate that VoIP is closing the gap,
however, as it connected 2 seconds faster in July 2006 than a year
earlier.
To complete its testing, Minacom completed calls over PSTN, managed
broadband and cable VoIP lines, the same services offered to
residential and enterprise customers by phone, cable and hosted VoIP
providers. Minacom’s PowerProbe 6000 service level test probe placed
hundreds of calls each month from the company’s QoS labs in Montreal,
Canada to public destinations around the world over PSTN, broadband
VoIP, cable VoIP, DSL, FTTP and wireless networks.
The results were published in the Minacom QoS Benchmark Report. These
reports are used by the ITU Quality of Service Development Group in
studies summarizing global phone quality, published annually to carrier
around the world for the consistency and accuracy of the measurements
reported.
Because speech quality evaluation must consider analog signal analysis,
Minacom’s DirectQuality R7 test systems uses a combination of ITU and
industry standard algorithms to calculate listening quality MOS using
both analog and IP measurements. MOS scores based only on IP packet
statistics do not capture the effects of echo cancellers in network
equipment and telephone adapters, noise introduced by copper wiring or
issues with call volume and delay.
The PowerProbe 6000 IVR Test Agent measures a wide range of analog and
IP impairments, such as noise, echo, delay, packet loss, call volume,
jitter and loss, in addition to a complete array of connectivity
metrics including Post Dial Delay (PDD), Answer Seizure Ratio (ASR) and
Dial-Tone Delay (DTD).
When discussing MOS scoring, Frost and Sullivan Telecom Industry
Manager & Analyst, Jessy Cavazos, commented that carriers are
becoming increasingly educated about MOS and want to know where the
scores are coming from. With numerous products in the market that only
look at packet metrics, many carriers are starting to see degradation
they should not see or not seeing it where they should. As a result,
Minacom uses three different technology sources for MOS scoring instead
of only one in order to capture all possible service issues with the
highest degree of accuracy available.
According to Michel Nadeau, President and CEO of Minacom, VoIP has
undergone rapid deployment over the past few years as service providers
become more confident that the technology can deliver PSTN-quality
service. Minacom’s test results confirm that VoIP services available
today can equal or exceed the quality of traditional PSTN offerings.
VoIP, delivered digitally end-to-end, can outperform the PSTN and with
the introduction of wideband codecs and the ever-faster Internet
backbone, VoIP calls will soon be the next best thing to ‘being there’.
Scott Sumner, Marketing Director for Minacom contributed that, “this
study shows the steady progress VoIP is making as a viable replacement
communications technology for traditional public-switched wireline
service, results that are a testament to VoIP equipment manufacturers
and service providers, and the Internet Telephony community as a whole.
With IP peering fabrics starting to replace PSTN links between VoIP
provider networks, all digital, end-to-end pure VoIP calls will become
more common, further increasing call quality while allowing advanced
calling features that are currently limited by PSTN gateways. As VoIP
continues to evolve, it will take its rightful place as a critical
communications technology – high quality, low cost and widely
accessible worldwide.”
VoIP offers businesses and residential consumers alike the benefit of
utilizing the Internet for low cost communications. If call quality was
truly on a steady decline for all VoIP calls, this option would no
longer remain viable for the majority of the market.
And, while it is true that the Internet is congested, these results
from Minacom indicate that any increases in the congestion are not
negatively impacting VoIP. Instead, connection time and quality has
proven to increase in the past year. If services continue to progress
in this manner, it is very likely that VoIP will become the standard,
creating substantial demand throughout the world.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC and has also written
for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J.
Campbell’s columnist page.
VoIP Test Solutions
Copyright 2006 Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) - All rights reserved
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