We are considering using Vonage for our outgoing office calls using Comcast Internet cable. Will we experience the same problems often associated with satellite service or other typical DSL service?
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Kate Gerwig, Editorial Director
Many businesses today are directing their outgoing office calls to Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSPs) such as Vonage. With satellite service, the baseline delay is typically much larger than with DSL, Cable Modem or high speed wireless Internet access. VoIP calls over cable modem broadband access typically provide good quality voice, however, as you are routing calls over the Internet, there are times when the quality may degrade to be more like that of a cellular phone call. It's important to understand what bandwidth you are actually getting from Comcast, because you have to determine the maximum amount of calls you can make over the connection (using G.729 instead of G.711 is a good idea to conserve bandwidth). If you're also going to use the same cable connection for Internet access and downloading large files, you can expect that the quality may degrade more often.
This was first published in October 2004