Is VoIP Too Bandwidth Intensive?
Having used VoIP problem free for a long time I was perplexed as to why out of nowhere I had been having so many problems. Sound quality has reduced and latency issues have very noticeable. Users on VoIP online forums in the US and other countries, such as Spain and Mexico, having issues since last year. For a while VoIP might seem like a good deal for the average person, more established interests in the telecoms industry view it differently – and are taking action against it.
Consultation
Mindful of what has happened in other countries the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom took the unusual action in January of announcing that it will look at the burgeoning VoIP industry and report next month on whether new laws are necessary to protect it. The consultation document says: “VoIP service providers have expressed concern that their ability to provide a reliable service may be impacted by internet access providers (ISPs) selectively degrading or blocking their VoIP traffic.”
Ofcom says it has no evidence this is happening in the UK; only about half a million customers use VoIP. But the forecast is for that to go up by 3m in the next six months.
And VoIP barring takes place in other countries, more often than not those where there is still only a single telecoms company. In Saudi Arabia, for example national carrier Saudi Telecom is using software from US supplier Narus to block all VoIP phone calls.
Telcos in the United States as well as other countries are reluctant to have their bandwidth encroached on by traffic from which they earn no revenue and have been challenged over similar alleged incidents of internet telephony barring. Blocking internet telephony traffic is complicated but not illegal and blocking precise kinds of internet traffic is on the increase.
Luxembourg-based VoIP provider Skype who are now owned by the pre-eminent auction site eBay has been particularly controversial. Skype is used by 75m people. But not everyone wants Skype on their network.
Skype is considered by a lot of people to pose a potential security risk because it creates an encrypted channel out of the network and forms supernodes that sit on a network and connect internet telephony calls. There is big debate about how much bandwidth such supernodes consume. There have been warnings that in supernode mode, Skype may even saturate a 100 Mbps line.
