How to Test VoIP Sound Quality

Test your VoIP sound quality.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a modern telephone system that uses the Internet to transport phone calls. You can place and receive calls using VoIP. VoIP signals are digital. They are converted to analog when necessary, before they reach a land-line telephone. Using VoIP, you can call from a computer, a special phone or an old touch-tone phone with a special adapter. Due to the digital and analog signal conversion, and also compression of the signal, sound quality on VoIP calls can be problematic. There are some standard ways to test VoIP sound quality.

Things You'll Need

• Assistant
• Second phone

Instructions

Test Outbound VoIP Quality

1. Call a friend or family member and ask how you sound. This is the easiest way to determine whether your sound quality is passable.

2. Call an interactive voice-response system. The Google number 1-800-GOOG-411 is a good test, because it relies on voice recognition to route your call. Any interactive voice system that uses voice recognition may be substituted.

3. Place a call to a voicemail box. Call your own voicemail, and leave yourself a message. Call back and listen to it from another number.

Test Inbound VoIP Quality

1. Have someone call you and ask how you sound.

2. Call yourself from another phone. This is a bit more difficult, since you might encounter feedback using two simultaneous calls.

3. Dial an echo number, and speak and listen to yourself as an echo. The number 909-390-0003 works as a VoIP echo test. Nobody will say hello, but wait a few seconds after it connects, then talk and listen for the echo.

Tips & Warnings

• Ask your VoIP carrier for an echo number that you can use to test your connection, if calls placed to the 909-390-0003 number fail.

References

• Federal Communications Commission: Voice over Internet Protocol
• VoIP Mechanic: Troubleshooting Voice Quality
• Broadband DSL Reports: Phone Numbers to Test Audio Quality