So where does this myth of needing a dedicated broadband line for VoIP come from

1.      Ease of configuration

If you have a hosted VoIP solution, if the provider also supplies the router then they can configure option 66 (not to be confused with Order 66, which is the extermination of the Jedi) and your physical device will look to their provisioning server to get its config files automatically.

The alternative is a couple of minutes to set up each phone.

So for this particular point, the broadband line is irrelevant, it is the router although the router may need to authenticate with the service providers network.

2.      ADSL Max lines and upload rates

If the only services available to you are ADSL Max, which has a maximum upload rate of 784kbps if it has perfect performance, then you may find this is not enough for managing a reasonable call volume and desktop requirements.

While phones use less data, it is consistent data, so they don’t leave room for other activity i.e. When uploading a file, you upload a file, you don’t often sit there uploading file after file.

A VoIP call on the other hand does use constant data.

3.      Codec priorities and compression

In order to overcome the issues with low upload rates, you can either

  • Use a lower Codec, say 33kbps
  • Use a Codec priority based on available bandwidth
  • Or now, a lot of work has been done on codec compression which means higher quality calls at a lower bandwidth. That depends on your supplier and their infrastructure and configuration of services.

However you look at it though, Fibre lines solve these problems, FTTC or FTTP this is no longer an issue, certainly not for a small business, as the total requirement for bandwidth would have a minimal impact for the phone services.

If you have a dedicated line just for voice calls, it is unlikely you need compression or a lower codec.

So the only reason for a supplier to give you a dedicated line, or require you to use their broadband service to receive either a SIP trunk or Hosted VoIP solution, is their own short comings.

So I have a quote example here stating to a customer they will need a dedicated Fibre line to provide call quality for 5 sip trunk channels, no two ways about it, that is a lie.

Now irrespective of whether you have the service providers broadband line or router, it is not the router or broadband line that is routing your calls back onto their network

Hosted VoIP = This is configured on the physical handset, which is why on a pure hosted VoIP solution you can pick one up, take it home, plug it into your own router and it will work. It is the same reason why softphones work and why unified communication works. If it was not the device or application communicating back to the supplier network, then these services could not exist.

SIP Trunk Solution = If the on-site phone system is SIP enabled, this can be configured on that device. If not then a SIP Gateway device.

There is no physical, security or bandwidth requirement for you to use a certain providers broadband service, there is no additional quality to be gained.

The only argument that could be made is around latency, but that is generally a flawed argument simply because your mobile phone operates at a latency of roughly 500ms, a lot of people “face time” without issue which has a drastically higher requirement on data than a voice call and would be impacted more by latency than a voice call.

Ultimately, when you use VoIP service and Computers on the same broadband, the only thing that can provide or control quality is Device Bandwidth Management and Quality of Service functionality on the router provided.

Bandwidth Management = Ensure you have enough data segregated for high quality calls

Quality of Service = Prioritise voice traffic over other traffic which benefits you when the line is at capacity

So the short of this article so far is

  1. VoIP is not cheaper
  2. You don’t need half of what you are being sold.

Now let’s look at some specific scenarios for how people can transition to VoIP and SIP services without a significant, or in some cases, any cost on the next page

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