Connectivity
We recommend a dedicated FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet, or superfast broadband connection). This is more to do with the stability of the connection rather than the amount of data bandwidth that is required.
We offer a free software trial so that you can try it yourself and see what you think? As part of the trial we will provide access to a timer that measures the round-trip time to our servers showing you whether the speed of your connection will manage the demands of voice at all.
ADSL 2+
Our customers have found that running a system on an ADSL 2+ connection is fine most of the time. But the electrical signal over the length of the copper cable sometimes leads to occasional dropped packets. With Fibre to the Cabinet the electrical signal over copper has a very short run and is therefore much more stable.
Shared Circuit
Voice uses very little space on a broadband circuit. So why not share? The reason why we recommend dedicated broadband circuits is that occasionally with shared broadband circuits, during a large data download, the data can bleed into the voice and interrupt call quality. There is nothing you can do about this. Programmes are designed to use all available connectivity, so YouTube, Microsoft 365, Dropbox, Google drive will use all the connection they can get. This will impact the voice data which may cause poor call quality or dropped calls. So, most of the time your voice calls will be fine but perhaps not all of the time.
This is the same with all providers because the data download swamps the router before any management protocols can priortise the traffic. The only way around this is a managed shared circuit which is more expensive than a dedicated voice circuit.
You could try and get away with it on small sites by diverting calls to voice mail or mobile where they are avoiding the swamped circuit allowing you to maintain good call quality.
Dedicated Circuit
A dedicated fibre circuit is more stable as there is no interference from other programmes giving you stable voice all of the time.
Poor broadband Connectivity
You can still use this system with poor or no broadband. You just use it to manage the inbound calls and then forward the calls onto other telephone numbers.
Test your Connectivity here https://diagnostics.byphone.co.uk
Interpreting the results
Normally the upload speed is slower, and therefore the limiting factor. The amount of data a voice uses makes depends on the codec. Typically, a mobile call will use 30Kbs of data. Normally the system is set to provide for a higher quality of call by using a codec that uses 100Kps.
So, if you achieve an upload speed of 434Kps then your circuit should be able to support upto 4 simultaneous calls. If you adjust your codec to G729 (or similar), it could support 13 / 14 calls.
A 2Mbps would support 20 calls using a 100mbps connection.
Jitter
This is a measure of the variability of the connection speed. If the Jitter score is above 10 then you should expect some call quality issues. If the score is above 20 then you should not use the circuit for voice calls.
Sometimes you might find that a wireless or mobile connection has reasonably fast speeds but the jitter means that the call quality can be unsatisfactory.
Ping test
This is the round time journey for a packet of data. A Ping score of under 100 should mean voice will work well. A score of over 150 will lead to call quality issues.
It is worth running the test several times during the day and collating the results to tell you how the circuit is working.