[marco]

I've been using a Sipura SPA2000 and Broadvoice over my RR Cable modem for a couple months now with no problems. I recently moved and my cable modem connection is pretty slow. This speed decrease has made my VOIP connection barely usable. If the cable company cannot correct this problem, I'm going to have to switch to DSL. So, my question is, is DSL's upload speed fast enough to handle VOIP? SBC here offer's two speeds:

"Express": DL: 384Kbps-1.5Mbps UL: 128Kbps
"Pro": DL: 1.5Mbps-3.0Mbps UL: 384Kbps

Do you guys this the Express speeds will handle VOIP? What is your experience?

[PhoneBoy]

BroadVoice uses G.711, which means anything less than 128k upstream is going to be painful, especially if you are using your Internet connection at the same time. One thing that might help is a QoS router of some sort. Not sure what other codecs BroadVoice actually supports, but you might try changing your preferred codec to see if things improve.

Basically, with VoIP, you want as much upstream as you can afford. 128k is barely enough. Personally, I'd go with the "Pro" level myself.

[mberlant]

G.711 requires 80kbps in each direction - 64kbps for the voice and 16kbps for overhead. So, you can get away with one conversation on the Express package if you can stop your wife's gaming when you want to make or receive a phone call.

By the way, are these speeds validated for your home by the DSL company, or are they the numbers advertised in the basic service offering? In either case, I recommend that you visit www.dslreports.com and do an eligibility test. This will tell you how many wire-feet your home is from your serving Central Office as well as the theoretical upper speed your wire can support. If you are 20,000 feet from the CO and can't do 128kbps anyway, you might as well only pay for Express.