How to Test a VoIP Call

Testing a VoIP call may require an assistant.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) uses the Internet to route telephone calls. You can make and receive telephone calls using VoIP. One thing to keep in mind is that VoIP signals are digital. The signal is converted to analog before it reaches an older touch-tone telephone. The digital VoIP signal is also compressed to save bandwidth. Due to the compression and the digital to analog conversion, VoIP calls may fail. Quality on VoIP calls can be unsatisfactory. There are a few standard ways to test VoIP calls.

Things You'll Need

• Assistant
• Second telephone line

Instructions

Test an Outbound VoIP Call

1. Call the phone of a friend or family member. This will test if you can dial out, and you can ask how you sound.

2. Place a phone call to any Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. Google's search number 1-800-GOOG-411 is an excellent test. Google's IVR uses voice recognition to route your call. If the IVR cannot understand when you speak clearly, there may be an audio problem. Any IVR using voice recognition could be substituted in this test.

3. Call yourself on voicemail. You can call your own voicemail, leave a message and call back from another number to check both the connection and the quality.

Test an Inbound VoIP Call

1. Ask a friend or family member to call you from another telephone. An assistant can tell you if the call connects and how the audio quality sounds.

2. Call an echo number. Speak and listen to yourself echo back. This is helpful to diagnose audio quality issues. One number known to work as a VoIP echo test is 909-390-0003. Nobody says hello, but if you wait a few seconds, you can talk and listen to yourself echo back.

3. Call yourself from another phone. This test can tell you whether your VoIP phone accepts incoming calls. It is a bit more difficult to test the audio quality, due to potential feedback.

Tips & Warnings

• You may need to ask your VoIP carrier for a number to perform an echo test, if your calls placed to 909-390-0003 do not connect properly.

References

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