[mikeschumann]

This afternoon, my inbound calls to my broadvoice # in St. Paul MN has stopped working. The caller gets a fast busy.

Outbound calls still work, and I can make inbound calls from another broadvoice user, but all calls from a regular phone don't work.

Does anyone know what is going on?

[hkvalet]

I just finish my research!!

If the callers get fast busy, you probably have set the Preferred Codec to G729a.
Before yesterday, I set the Preferred Codec as G729a and set Use Pred Codec Only to NO, it was working fine. (It was not working if set to yes)

But starting from afternoon yesterday, Callers receive fast busy signal, even if the Use Pred Codec Only is set to NO.

So the solution is: Set the Preferred Codec back to G711u

[mikeschumann]

That is NOT my problem. My prefered codec is G711u.

[TXCraig]

I had this problem on Saturday- seems that it may have somthing to do with the server you use. I found a few people that were having the same problem as me but others were not.

I sent a email to Broadvoice support after I confirmed the problem with a few people on the VOIP forum on broadbandreports.com and got an email back from them telling me to cycle the power to my phone adapter.... Even though I have 2 adapters on 2 separate accounts and they both had this same problem.

Even if you forward your calls to another number during an outage like this- callers get the same thing. If this is going to happen all the time- I wish there was a failover number to use- like a cell phone- or you calls would go to voicemail so you could still get calls during this kind of outage. I had a few service outages as a Vonage customer, but never one like this....

[mikeschumann]

Suddenly, this evening, everything started working again. Is this normal for Broadvoice? If so, this is not going to be a viable service for me.

[deavod]

Originally Posted by mikeschumann

Suddenly, this evening, everything started working again. Is this normal for Broadvoice? If so, this is not going to be a viable service for me.

To be honest I think all the VOIP providers are not yet up to the same level of service that we have expected from POTS. Some of this is due to the underlying data network - VOIP uses UDP which has no guarantee of delivery. If there is network congestion somewhere along the way your call may end up in the bit bucket. Also the providers are growing at a tremendous rate and may have to add more equipment and/or increase their bandwidth.

Don't forget there is the possibility of network issues between you and the VIOP provider. BroadVoice can't be blamed if a router from your ISP is down or mis-configured but it could stop you from getting your inbound call just the same.

I found out the hard way that if I send a large email while on the phone my call ends up sounding like I'm talking through a fan Y.u c.n .ear .ver. thir. wo.. (You can hear every third word). I can't blame BroadVoice because I don't have a QOS router, but it sure does impact my service quality.

So I guess my answer is that you have to decide for yourself if VOIP is mature enough and reliable enough for your needs. BroadVoice, IMHO, is a young offering and still going through it's growing pains. I can't speak for any of the other services though - none (that I have found) offer free calls to Europe so for me they're not worth the price!

HTH

.D