Is Your Network Ready for VoIP?

1. Bandwidth — Do You Have Enough?

Each VoIP call uses roughly 100kbps (both ways). A 10-person office on simultaneous calls needs about 1Mbps dedicated to voice. Sounds low — but the problem isn't total bandwidth, it's bandwidth during peak hours.

For most SA offices on fibre, bandwidth isn't the bottleneck — it's how the router handles it (see QoS below).

2. QoS — Does Your Router Prioritise Voice?

QoS (Quality of Service) tells your router to prioritise voice traffic over everything else. Without it, someone downloading a file kills your call quality. Most business routers support QoS — but it's rarely configured out of the box.

• Ask your IT provider to enable QoS on your router
• VoIP traffic should be highest priority, video second
• If your router doesn't support QoS, it's time for an upgrade

3. Latency & Jitter — The Silent Call Killers

Latency is the delay between you speaking and the other person hearing it. Under 150ms is fine, over 300ms and conversations overlap. Jitter is the variation in that delay — inconsistent jitter makes voices sound robotic.

4. Hardware — Router & Cables

Old routers with 100Mbps ports or worn Ethernet cables can bottleneck even fast fibre connections. Check:

• Router has gigabit ports (not 100Mbps)
• Ethernet cables are Cat5e or Cat6 (not old Cat5)
• WiFi is NOT used for desk phones (always use wired)

5. Backup Internet — What Happens When Fibre Drops?

In SA, fibre drops happen. Loadshedding, cable theft, maintenance — your internet will go down. Without backup internet, your phones go dead too.

The fix: Dual-WAN failover — primary fibre + backup LTE/5G. When fibre dies, calls switch to LTE in under a second. This is what we build for every client.