Resolving Choppy Call Quality

This article will cover different methods of troubleshooting and resolving poor call quality issues with the bvoip phone system.

Poor call quality can be a stressful inconvenience. Below are common ways that these instances of calls being 'choppy' can be resolved. 

Check For Local Issues

When there are calls with poor call quality, there are plenty of localized issues that can cause the audio to be less than great. 

Hard Phones

If hard phones are being used, test the softphone to determine if the issue is the device being used. If using the softphone resolves the issue, then the hard phone will need to be reviewed. 

If the softphone test isn't improved, it may be the local network.

Softphone Microphone Gain

If softphones are being used instead of hard phones, we recommend checking the audio settings for the Microphone Gain. To do this: 

1. Click on the vertical three dots. 
2. Go to Audio Options. 
3. Adjust the Microphone Gain to 1. 
4. Click the Ok button. 

Local Network

Local Network Settings can cause poor call quality as well. We recommend that the following items be disabled to prevent issues: 

• SIP ALG
• DPI-SSL

To verify if the issue is the local network, verify if either of the above options is disabled on the local firewall. If it is enabled on the firewall, use the mobile softphone application on a mobile network outside of the connecting LAN network. If the call works, the connecting LAN network will need to be reviewed further. 

If the call doesn't work, the issue may not be local. 

Check for Peculiarities

Before moving directly to phone system specific troubleshooting, it is recommended to determine if the issue's extent is global or centralized to a fixed extension or SIP Trunk. 

Confirm if Extension Specific 

Listen in on recorded calls for specific extensions that are affected. Is this affecting one or select extensions? If there are multiple extensions affected, check for the following items:

• Confirm if the affected extensions are in the same building or region to rule out network/regional issues. 
• Confirm if the extensions on the same SIPTrunk as other extensions that are working properly. 

If neither of the above seem to have a connection, it may be tied directly to the SIPTrunk itself. 

Check-in with SIP Trunk Provider

If it is noticed that the issue is for poor call quality with external calls and trunk specific issues, it is recommended to retrieve a few of the call recordings with the choppy quality and provide them to your SIP Trunk provider to review for potential issues on their end.

A method of testing if the quality issue is trunk related is to do an extension to extension call. If the quality is good, this is an indicator that the SIP Trunk experiencing issues as external calls flow through the SIP provider and internals do not.

If the SIP Trunk provider has confirmed that there is not an existing issue and that everything is correct, the phone system might need to be restarted.

Rebooting the bvoip Phone System

One of the fastest and easiest ways to attempt to correct poor call quality is restarting the phone system. For instructions on how to do this, please review the Restarting Phone Services article.