User Configurable Call Quality/bandwidth setting

[djs5916]

A User configurable Call quality setting might help to avoid some of the problems inherent in lower bandwidth situations. Primus offers such a setting on their TBB (Talkbroadband) portal, which presumably helps in these situations, although my personal opinion it is more placebo than something that is under their control.

I imagine that by the time an incoming call arrives on the Freephone network it is already encoded and Freephone (like Primus) takes responsibility to route it correctly. As downstream bandwidth is generally more available it makes no sense for a provider to convert incoming calls for its bandwidth-challenged subscribers. Upstream bandwidth can be a larger problem, especially when some codecs can consume nearly 80% of the upstream bandwidth of many "broadband" plans. http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Band ... onsumption

So it would only be for outgoing calls, where a "Call quality" option might make some sense, but I'm not sure how it could easily be implemented. From my very limited perspective, the ATA device is the likely candidate for determining which codec is used for the outgoing call and this may not easily be altered by the VOIP provider. Many ATA devices are configurable with preferred codecs, but as this is typically an admin type function, users won't normally be able to adjust this selection. I have no idea how Primus "Call Quality" user option is implemented, but here is their spiel:

"
Change your Call Quality Settings

If you have a High Speed Broadband Internet connection then you will want to use the Best Quality Setting.

Set your TalkBroadband service to use Low Bandwidth setting if you have a "Lite" broadband Internet network connection or want to reduce the amount of network bandwidth used by your TalkBroadband service.

High Bandwidth / Best Quality must be selected for Fax usage. Faxing will not work if you select Low Bandwidth / Good Quality.

Please note, Primus has built this service for voice use, and does it's best to provide a service that faxes can use as well, although on a best efforts basis. Typically the appropriateness of your line for fax has more to do with the quality of your Internet connection than the Primus service itself.

"

Any comments?

DJS

[FONGO_kris]

I get the idea, this would really just be changing codecs for QoS purposes would it not?

[djs5916]

Yes - exactly - changing codecs to improve QoS! But I don't think this is easily implemented as a user-driven option.