T: Call Quality Troubleshooting

Owned by David Klein
Last updated: Nov 27, 2023 by Kyle V
4 min read

Description:

This article will show you the following.

  • What Quality of Service issues can be
  • Possible causes of QOS issues
  • Steps to resolve QOS issues

Examples of Call Quality Issue Sounds: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/voice/voice-quality/30141-symptoms.html#anc14

What is a QOS issue?

Poor Quality of Service issues can be best described as calls having choppy audio, delays, echoing, as well as instances of calls dropping when neither party initiated the end of the call.

Typical Causes of Call Quality Issues

Users Internet ProviderUsers Network EquipmentPhone Hardware
  • Insufficient Internet Speed
  • Packet Loss
  • Jitter
  • Packet Latency
  • Modem or Router failure
  • Incompatible Router
  • Bandwidth Management Settings
  • Broken Cable
  • Speaker issues
  • Handset Failure


Basic Questions:

Okay, so it sounds like this is a quality of service (poor quality) issue.  Let's get a few questions answered here:

  1. What is happening?
  2. How long has this been happening?
  3. Is it happening on one phone or all phones?
  4. Do you have more than one location?  Is it happening at all locations?
  5. How often does this occur?
  6. What type of firewall do you have?

  7. Has the Firewall been setup for Bandwidth Management by you or your IT department?

  8. Have there been any changes to the network which may have caused this to start?

Troubleshooting:

 1. Verify Basic Questions
  1. What is happening?
    • Choppy Audio: Is most often an issue with the ISP experiencing minor delay or packet loss which is common and usually goes away by the next business day or the customer bandwidth (the network speed) is being over utilized and dropping audio packets.
    • Dead Air: Dead air is when you hear nothing on your call after you dial a phone number. You don’t hear the dial tone anymore, but you also don’t hear any ringing; you just hear nothing.
    • Dropped Calls: Dropped calls happen when the call disconnects without any input from calling or receiving parties and is often a result of the ISP dropping audio packets.
    • Audio Delay: Delay is caused when packets of voice data take more time than expected to reach their destination.
    • Speech Echo: An echo effect is typically due to a blockage or mismatch, which results in the signals bouncing back from where they came.
  2. How long has this been happening?
    • Did the issue just start? If so, have any changes been made to your network/firewall equipment or settings?
  3. Is issue effecting all users or just some?
    • If issue is only effecting one user, have you tried rebooting the device or moving it to a different location to test?
    • If issue the issue is effecting all users, try restarting your modem and router/firewall.
  4. Do you have more than one location and is it happening at all?
    • First check to see if the locations are connected on your local network, then contact ISP.
  5. How often does the issue occur?
    • Is this a daily occurrence or intermittent? If daily, does the issue always seem to happen at a specific time or with a specific user/caller?
  6. What type of firewall is being used?
    • Are you using a software or hardware firewall? Hardware firewalls are physical pieces of equipment that sit between your modem and the rest of your network, software firewalls are generally programs installed on individual computers.
  7. Has the Firewall been setup for Bandwidth Management?
    • Many times the network and firewalls will need to be setup to manage the traffic or settings will need to be enabled/disabled to allow features to work properly
  8. Have there been any changes to the network which may have caused this to start?
    • Any changes to the network, such as adding new computers, moving equipment to a new location or even software/firmware updates on a piece of hardware can cause issues to occur.
 Choppy Audio
  1. How long has this been going on?

    1. New Issue

    2. Pre-existing issue

  2. Is the issue intermittent or consistent?
    1. Intermittent: The issue will go away and come back randomly.

    2. Consistent: The issue is happening all the time.

  3. How many users are being affected?

    1. Single User
    2. Multiple Users
    3. All Users
  4. Who is reporting the choppy audio?
    1. Sender (Outbound): The Audian user sounds choppy to the other person on the line when they talk.
      • The Audian user is uploading their voice to the internet and could be a bandwidth issue on the upload speed.
    2. Receiver (Inbound): The person talking to the Audian user sounds choppy when they talk.
      • The Audian user is downloading the other person's voice from the internet and could be a bandwidth issue on the download speed.
    3. Both
      • This would most likely be a packet loss or network over-utilization.
  5. Run Ping test on 54.149.90.30 or 52.11.88.63 keep an eye out for any results over 200 ms or instances of packet loss.
  6. Gather call examples with time, date, and the To and From telephone numbers.
  7. Contact Audian Support at 844.611.6110 option 2 for further troubleshooting.
 Single User Intermittent
  1. Reboot The Phone by unplugging the phone's power and plug it back in.
  2. Test the phone by making an outbound call. If the phone is still cutting in and out then do one of the following and test again before moving onto the next step.
    1. Try plugging the phone into a different port on the local network.
    2. Swap the Internet cable out.
    3. Run a ping test to see if you are getting delay or packet loss. If there is a delay or packet loss contact your IT staff.
 All User Intermittent
  1. Reboot all effected phones by unplugging the phone's power/Ethernet cable and plug it back in.
  2. Reboot the router or firewall by unplugging the device for at least 10 seconds and plug it back in.