VoIP glossary
What is Packet loss?
Packet loss is the share of voice packets that never arrive, heard as clipped words, gaps or a robotic sound on the call.
Packet loss explained
Each RTP packet usually holds 20 ms of speech, so losing a few in a row removes whole syllables. Under about 1% loss most people do not notice. Above 3% calls become tiring to follow, especially with compressed codecs like G.729 that pack more speech into each packet.
Loss usually happens at the edges: overloaded office uplinks, Wi-Fi, or consumer routers. Run a test with a tool such as mtr from your PBX to the SIP server to see which hop drops packets before raising a carrier ticket.
Example
An mtr trace shows 0% loss across the internet but 6% at the first hop, which is the office router. Upgrading it fixes the choppy calls.
Put it into practice
Prepaid SIP trunks and wholesale routes from $200. Ask sales for rates or the NOC for a technical answer.