Mike,
You are one of few people that have both the knowledge and the patience to explain quite complex topics. So, what I am going to say, is with a lot of respect! Most "non-technical" people that ask questions have high-WIIFM threshold for any information. Does the poster care about the difference between speed and bandwidth? If somebody tells me that the unit of measure is megabits per second, my first assumption would also be that he is talking about speed. Moreover, to be pedantic, latency isn't speed, either - it's time!
So, I don't think it's a lame excuse! If I ask whether my car can tow a boat, and a knowledgeable person says "yes" - then I really don't need to know anything else. If that person says "no" - then I want to know what my car is missing. Then I might want to learn more about torque, or horse power - or maybe I just want to know how much would it cost me to by a car that can tow!
In most cases, the response might be "it depends". Then I definitely want to know more... depends on what? On the size of the boat, quality of the road, etc.
Now, let's bring the conversation back to VoIP.
I don't care what you geeks call this thing that ISP advertises! Bandwidth, speed - whatever. If you tell me that 15Mbps is good enough (and obviously, it's way more than enough) - then case closed. If you tell me that it's not enough information - then tell me what additional information you need. Oh, upload speed (I swear, ISP gal called it speed yesterday - but if you want to call it bandwith, who am I to argue!)... it's 786kbps (btw, is it more or less than 15Mbps? - and don't get into explanation between kilo and mega; there is a reason US is still on Imperial measures).
Anyway, what else do you need from me? Latency and jitter? What the heck is that. Oh, never mind - just tell me how to find out? I should go to speedtest.com (see, they also call this bandwidth thingy "speed", but you insist that they are wrong! Maybe it's not them, after all
). Ok, so I got average latency 60ms, and jitter 3ms. Good enough? OK, thanks!
I help my 80-year old dad and his retirement-home neighbors all the time (by the way, most of them barely speak English); so explaining the difference between SIP and Skype is pointless. Also, in my day job I deal with scientists (and before - stock brokers) who are very intelligent - but have no interest in learning about IS (even those who spend 6 hours every day on the computer), just like I have no interest in learning about cars despite driving 20,000 miles every year! In short - remember WIIFM!
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