"Restart Call" feature

[kbuck320]

I'd like a "restart call" feature.

When my wife calls me from our Voipo phone at home, the voice quality might be perfect, might be poor.

Most of the time, one of us will hang up and redial. Usually the 2nd call is crystal.

It'd be nice to have a feature whereby, during a phone call with bad quality, you could hit "***" or something and Voipo would basically re-start the phone call, as if you'd hung up and re-dialed the parties to get a better line.

[usa2k]

I *think* by that point, you are direct connected?

Its an unusual idea. There must be some signaling or how would VOIPo know how long the call lasts? I wonder if some vPanel request could do that? And do it so neither of you can sense it.

A ticket reporting such an issue, may be your only way to help VOIPo improve future connections.

[burris]

I wonder how they could do this if one of the connections is PSTN.

Maybe on a VOIPo to VOIPo call, but haven't you ever gotten a bad connection on a land line to cell or cell to cell or land line to land line?
Just how much trouble is it to redial?
Are we that lazy. :rolleyes:

[mikeb]

Sounds like it would be best to address the root cause of the problem. A phone service where some calls are fine and others are poor is not acceptable. Submit a ticket and see if the poor quality calls can be fixed.

[kbuck320]

Would submitting a ticket actually help? Intermittently poor quality? What do they do, put you on the "good" servers?

I guess I just assume that this kind of service is the nature of Voip. Sometimes it's good, other times not.

[Russell]

Would submitting a ticket actually help? Intermittently poor quality? What do they do, put you on the "good" servers?

I guess I just assume that this kind of service is the nature of Voip. Sometimes it's good, other times not.

Not really. You should have solid service all the time (assuming you have a solid ISP with decent bandwidth not being usurped by (e.g.) torrents).

[Montano]

Speed-dial my friend ;)

Push a couple numbers and you have your 'restart call' :)

[burris]

Or, if the call was incoming, look at the current CID and push talk...If it was outgoing, simply push redial and away you go.;)

[kbuck320]

Guys .. suggesting performing a speed-dial / re-dial is not helpful. Of course I can, and do exactly that. -- The reality is that calls, which if re-started, often clear up VQ issues.

While I can do that re-dial quickly with my wife (although this lowers the wife acceptance factor by the day) it is plain embarrassing with other parties who I call or call me. "hey, can I call you back .. and try to get a better line? My inconsistent phone line might get better if we redial."

A better solution would be as I suggested. Press some key sequence, have voipo restart, and tell the other party to please hold for a few secs. -- very similar to hitting the 'channel' button on a cordless phone.

--

I believe my isp is decent. It passes tests w/flying colors. The fact that two successive calls have different VQ tends (not 100%) to rule the isp out. (And no, I'm not doing p2p or other network heavy apps.)

I do realize that this may be impossible, but I imagine that other voip users have experienced similar issues and would benefit from a feature like this.

In truth, posting here isn't aimed at getting users' attention, but at the Voipo guys themselves, so they can respond with their thoughts.

[Russell]

I'm curious if you've had other VOIP providers with the same ISP and whether they've been flawless? Care to mention the ISP and level of service you have?

[Montano]

Glad I've never had such a problem with Voipo.

I've never heard of anything where the person on the line can 'hold for a few seconds', while the call is redialed. Doesn't really make sense to me.

You never said if your wife was calling your cell phone. I do have bad calls to/from my cell where we choose to hang up and call right back. But nothing like that from my Voipo line to a landline.

[voip123]

I currently using VOIPo (primary) and Sipgate (alternative). The VOIPo is Linksys RT31P2 and Sipgate is Linksys PAP2-NA (unlocked). Both of them are behind my routers (Linksys WRT54GS). I have no any problems with both the services.

[fisamo]

Let me be honest here--if I had that kind of voice quality issues on my line, I wouldn't be quiet about it for very long. I'd give Voipo a chance to fix it by submitting ticket(s), etc. If they were not able to resolve the situation, that would mean to me that they are not the service for me. That's not to say "it works for me, but not for you, so go away" or anything similar. But residential VoIP does have the complicating factors of various ISPs using a wide variety of CPE (cable/DSL modems), the customers themselves getting one of a number of routers out there, with numerous firmware versions, and some using 3rd-party firmware. Obviously, the ideal VoIP solution would not be sensitive to any of those factors. I feel fortunate that the combination that affects my home service has worked well with the primary providers I've chosen...

My point is this: make whatever effort you consider to be reasonable to fix these voice quality issues with Voipo--go for the root cause (as mentioned earlier in the thread). If it's something that can be addressed, you'll have great service shortly. If it can't be addressed in a reasonable timeframe, look around for other providers that can meet your needs better.

As a Voipo user, I hope you (and support) can figure out the issue--it makes for a more stable service for everyone. But if you can't, remember that Voipo's "early termination" clause is quite fair to the customer - consider it a 'failed experiment' and move on.

I don't think a "restart" call feature is the answer for this problem - Voipo engineers would be spending time designing a work-around instead of identifying and rectifying a problem that affects your service (and possibly others').

[voip123]

I'm curious if you've had other VOIP providers with the same ISP and whether they've been flawless? Care to mention the ISP and level of service you have?

I currently using VOIPo (primary) and Sipgate (alternative). The VOIPo is Linksys RT31P2 and Sipgate is Linksys PAP2-NA (unlocked). Both of them are behind my routers (Linksys WRT54GS). I have no any problems with both the services.

[scott2020]

Let me be honest here--if I had that kind of voice quality issues on my line, I wouldn't be quiet about it for very long. I'd give Voipo a chance to fix it by submitting ticket(s), etc.

I have had a lot of trouble calling one particular prefix that my wife happens to call a lot. I opened a ticket with support and went back and forth a few times, but eventually they rerouted calls a few times until the voice quality was acceptable. There are times where calls sound terrible and I have to redial, but it has happened on various VOIP providers and I chalk it up to VOIP in general. Just a small sacrifice to make in order to save a lot of money and have more features vs. POTS I figure.

[fisamo]

I have to say that I have not had that extent of voice quality problems. My wife has not complained to me of the phone service, except for a few recent troubles with the wrong CallerID number being sent with some of our calls. Occasional voice issues I have no problem with. After all, the calls are being sent over the shared internet, etc. However, I've had excellent service, including voice quality, with both CallVantage and Voipo, so I know (at least with the internet connection I have) reliable voice quality can be had over a VoIP line.