Intermittent audio on wifi and ethernet IP calling

[#1]

Can anyone resolve as tech support don't understand?

I have an IP phone at home hard wired into the back of the PN router. When I call someone, the audio from them and from me cuts out intermittently so we can't hear each other for about 3 seconds then it's back and the call continues. On our Apple iphones and Andriods, the same thing happens so it's not just a wifi issue. 

So far I have tried other channels (but that wont help the hardwired phone), I have tried a new cable and a new IP phone from the office that works normally and still the problem persists. 

Would you believe the PN tech support suggested I knock on a house in my street, take my router there, connect it to their network, log in to their broadband and try calling there! I said get a bloody engineer out but they say that the broadband is not at fault and they can't support or guarantee the wifi network. Even though I explained I am also having problems with a hardwired IP phone they didn't understand. So can anyone help without me [-Censored-]ing off neighbours?

[#2]

Voip audio quality is very susceptible to packet loss and/or jitter

Try running a speed test that tests these , like https://sourceforge.net/speedtest/?source=voip-info

[#3]

Yes ran that and it stated that Voip should be fine. Although I have 57% consistency in download speeds. Ave 18mps. It doesn't point to a particular issue. The jitter I think affects the quality of the call audio. Meaning how clear it is. Mine is clear and then cuts out completely both ends, then comes back clear, then cuts out again. So you get about 10 seconds on, 3 seconds off, 15 seconds on, 2 seconds off, 15 seconds on, 1 second off. It seems random. 

[#4]

That's almost certainly intermittent packet loss. I Use an IP phone from home, hooked into the office pbx and do occasionally get short dropouts, 1/2 second or so. The office has an pretty solid 80/20 FTTC connection (we're about 100m from the cab) and even then we get very occasional audio occasional dropouts. If you want perfect Voip quality all the time you need a dedicated connection from someone like https://www.spitfire.co.uk/ but it costs. Where the internet connection is shared with other activities you can sometimes get improvements by using Qos if your router supports it and allocating priority and reserving bandwidth for voip.

In your case, the 3 second dropouts do sound excessive, does it happen all the time or is it ok sometimes ?

[#5]

It happens all the time. And it happens on wifi calling using iphones and androids. Such as Whatsapp calling or just plain old wifi calls.

[#6]

Hi there.

Testing your line isn't showing anything wrong with your broadband service that we can see. 

Test Outcome	Pass
Test Outcome Code	GTC_FTTC_SERVICE_0000
Description	GEA service test completed and no fault found .
Main Fault Location	OK
Sync Status	In Sync
Downstream Speed	40.0 Mbps
Upstream Speed	10.0 Mbps
Appointment Required	N
Fault Report Advised	N
NTE Power Status	PowerOn
Voice Line Test Result	Pass
Bridge Tap	Not Detected
Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise	Not Detected
Estimated Line Length In Metres	730.0
Upstream Rate Assessment	Very Good
Downstream Rate Assessment	Very Good
Interference Pattern	Not Detected
Service Impact	No Impact Observed
Home Wiring Problem	Not Detected
Downstream Policing Discard Rate	0.0
Customer Traffic Level	Upstream and Downstream Traffic Detected
Technology	VDSL
Profile Name	0.128M-40M Downstream, Error Protection Off - 0.128M-10M Upstream, Error Protection Off
Time Stamp	2018-12-29T16:45:00

Parameters	MIN	MAX	AVG
Down Stream Line Rate	39.9 Mbps	39.9 Mbps	39.9 Mbps
Up Stream Line Rate	9.9 Mbps	9.9 Mbps	9.9 Mbps
Up Time	900.0 Sec	900.0 Sec	900.0 Sec
Retrains	0.0	0.0	0.0

Current and Last 15 Minute Bin Performance
Parameters	Last Traffic Count(Upto 15 mins)	Current Traffic Count(Upto 15 mins)
Start Time Stamp	2019-01-11T16:15:56.905+00:00	2019-01-11T16:30:56.905+00:00
Ingress Code Violation	0	2
Egress Code Violation	0	0
Errored Seconds	4	2
Severely Errored Seconds	0	0
Unavailable Seconds	0	0

Not all issues can be fixed by an engineer as it may not be an Openreach network problem. I think it's worth to do a little more troubleshooting. How long has the issue been on-going for?

It looks like your connection hasn't dropped in over 15 days, so it may be worth a reboot.

Do you have any issues with your connection through normal everyday use?

Also, if you can run a traceroute to pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com this may help in identifying where the problem lies.

[#7]

Thanks for additional thoughts. Here's the traceroute - any thoughts as it's mumbo jumbo to me...

traceroute to pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com (80.249.99.164), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1  dsldevice (172.16.0.1)  6.872 ms  15.830 ms  3.876 ms

2  * * *

3  * * 141.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk (195.166.143.141)  16.310 ms

4  140.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk (195.166.143.140)  12.424 ms *  18.221 ms

5  195.99.125.138 (195.99.125.138)  14.544 ms  14.135 ms

    195.99.125.142 (195.99.125.142)  19.220 ms

6  peer8-et-3-0-5.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.252.242)  15.842 ms

    peer8-et-0-0-5.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.252.186)  12.745 ms

    peer8-et0-1-5.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.252.102)  13.186 ms

7  * * *

8  po4-31.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net (80.249.97.85)  16.193 ms  22.877 ms  14.003 ms

9  pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com (80.249.99.164)  22.323 ms  13.865 ms  13.499 ms

[#8]

Thanks, I'm just trying something here.

I've made a change to the way your connection routes across our network which will cause your connection to drop for a very brief moment in a few minutes.

Let us know how it goes once it's back up please.