SIP and VOIP over T-Mobile's 4G report. Not good.

[fuzzybabybunny]

So I'm using T-Mobile's 4G service with the Google nexus.


Try #1:

Clocked at 652kbps down and 407kbps up, 275ms latency.

3 bars out of 4 in downtown Honolulu.

GrooveIP.

On WiFi it's perfect.

On 4G it is unusable. Tons of lag. Words get dropped at random. Maybe 1 in 10 of all words get dropped. Voice quality sucks and there's constant distortion/static in the background. At one point the entire conversation dropped. The call itself didn't drop, but no audio was transferred anymore.

Try #2:

1529 kbps down, 740 kbps up, 328ms

Full bars.

SIPDroid with PBXes

Audio Codec used was speex (11kbit) (this is much lower than the standard 64kbit PCMA codec).

On 4G it is still not good. Still lots of distortion/static in the background. Even at full 4G service strength, words still get dropped at around 1 in 20 words.

Basically if you're going to try to use VOIP via 3G/4G, prepare for it to not work well at all, especially on normal 3G speeds. On max 4G speeds it's usable, but be prepared to repeat yourself a lot.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

thanks for the report, I might be headed in this direction soon, with the 100 minute plan. I dont even use 100 minutes most months though already, however I probably would if it wasnt for unlimited mobile to mobile and unlimited off-peak minutes. If I do go that route, it looks like i'm just going to rely on text messages more, since this doesnt work well.

 

[Bateluer]

But on WiFi, its perfect?

Second, what phone are you using this with?

I've got an Galaxy Exhibit 4G to try this out, but haven't gotten around to testing GrooveIP/GVoice yet. I've been running speed tests at places I frequent, checking signal strength, and putting GNav through its paces. Navigation works well, thinking the GPS on the Exhibit is a little better than the crud Sammie put in the GNex.

Phone's rooted and running CM9 though. Little laggy at launching apps, but quite usable. I was actually surprised at how well the stock ROM ran on it, given that its an S2 with 512MB of RAM. TBolt had more RAM and ran worse. TW still looks like crap, but it ran far better than Sense did on the TBolt. I digress tho.

 

[ImDonly1]

Speedtest seems a little slow for t-mobiles network? I assumed they always got ~6mbps down and 12mbps during offpeak hours.

 

[wirednuts]

honolulu? does that count?

 

[Muyoso]

Its your atrocious pings. That is why everything is sounding like garbage. They need to be below like 150ms to even be tolerable. Even over 3g its fine if you can get a connection to Tmobile with a low ping. The thing is, good luck with that. I ran this for a month and tested the hell out of Tmobile's network. Indoors on 3g or 4g its not good. Same goes with driving. If you are stationary and near a window or outside though, it can be acceptable.

Even on wifi though its sometimes sounds like garbage, but most of the time it was fine if you can deal with the nearly full second lag of Tmobile->PBX->Google Voice->Other person.

 

[ponyo]

Thanks for the report. It's inline with other reviews I read. I used T-Mobile WiFi calling Android app when I was with T-Mobile. Even on my fast home WiFi network, the other parties often complained of echoes. I knew if T-Mobile official app had problem on WiFi, independent apps like GrooveIP and Talkaone wouldn't be any better.

 

[lothar]

Which is why I wonder why so many people are rushing to gobble T-Mobile's 100 minutes $30 smartphone plan to use with GrooveIP when they can go with $45 Straight Talk instead.
Unlimited voice, and better coverage.

 

[soccerballtux]

I tried it on 1xRTT on MetroPCS's network once, boy was that funny. I tried calling my gvoice # on phone through 1xRTT using Skype. I would say something in skype, and 5 seconds later I would hear it through the cellphone.
Other direction worked great though, I could say something to phone and under half a second would hear it on skype crystal clear ???

 

[soccerballtux]

Which is why I wonder why so many people are rushing to gobble T-Mobile's 100 minutes $30 smartphone plan to use with GrooveIP when they can go with $45 Straight Talk instead.
Unlimited voice, and better coverage.

I never talk to anyone. I think most people don't either. We're all too busy, do texting instead, so the unlimited texting makes it worth it.
For the few times you do need the minutes, you can either pay $0.10/minute past the first 100 or do it at home on wifi.

 

[soccerballtux]

Thanks for the report. It's inline with other reviews I read. I used T-Mobile WiFi calling Android app when I was with T-Mobile. Even on my fast home WiFi network, the other parties often complained of echoes. I knew if T-Mobile official app had problem on WiFi, independent apps like GrooveIP and Talkaone wouldn't be any better.

GrooveIP definitely going to be better on Wifi than some lame-attempt by T-Mobile. Those guys have engineered some pretty crazy algorithms for noise and echo cancellation.

 

[Chiropteran]

So I'm using T-Mobile's 4G service.

Try #1:

Clocked at 652kbps down and 407kbps up, 275ms latency.

...

Try #2:

1529 kbps down, 740 kbps up, 328ms

Full bars.

I don't think that is 4G.

Testing right now, I get 5254kbps down and 1784kbps up & 89ms latency using FCC test. This is just the first speed test, not cherry picking, and with service varying between 3/4 bars. Opensignal reports a 56% signal strength.

Just to see if those numbers are a fluke, I ran it again-

3605kbps down, 2364kbps up, 81ms latency.

Yeah, your connection is probably 3g or worse.


Anyway, as others have said, many of us don't need to talk on the phone that much. 3 minutes a day of phone time is plenty, and if we need an extra minutes $.10 each isn't bad.

(Galaxy Nexus on T-Mobile)

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

But on WiFi, its perfect?

Second, what phone are you using this with?

I've got an Galaxy Exhibit 4G to try this out, but haven't gotten around to testing GrooveIP/GVoice yet. I've been running speed tests at places I frequent, checking signal strength, and putting GNav through its paces. Navigation works well, thinking the GPS on the Exhibit is a little better than the crud Sammie put in the GNex.

Phone's rooted and running CM9 though. Little laggy at launching apps, but quite usable. I was actually surprised at how well the stock ROM ran on it, given that its an S2 with 512MB of RAM. TBolt had more RAM and ran worse. TW still looks like crap, but it ran far better than Sense did on the TBolt. I digress tho.

Oops, duh. Google Nexus. And yes, perfect on wifi.

 

[saratoga172]

The T-mobile plan is very attractive to me for the fast speeds, $30 charge, no contract, and 5GB of 4g data. The only drawback for me is the 100 minutes. I would need to make sure the calling over wifi/4g was stable. In the past three months (April, May, June) I've used my phone an average of 1020 minutes per month the past 4 months. 780 in April, 1640 in May, 730 in June, and 930 in July. I use my phone for personal and business calls outside of work. I've also got a work phone that gets used more.

Looking at the plans the Straight Talk plan is really starting to appeal to me more as I find myself in places with WiFi more and less dependent on data. I will however, during certain seasons, use data extensively. During Euro 2012 and the Olympics use nearly 5GB of data on a months bill. Going forward I probably won't need that but the unlimited data on Verizon is nice for now. My average usage is probably around 1.5gb for standard use which includes downloading a new rom and some apps for it.

 

[Dulanic]

Its your atrocious pings. That is why everything is sounding like garbage. They need to be below like 150ms to even be tolerable. Even over 3g its fine if you can get a connection to Tmobile with a low ping. The thing is, good luck with that. I ran this for a month and tested the hell out of Tmobile's network. Indoors on 3g or 4g its not good. Same goes with driving. If you are stationary and near a window or outside though, it can be acceptable.

Even on wifi though its sometimes sounds like garbage, but most of the time it was fine if you can deal with the nearly full second lag of Tmobile->PBX->Google Voice->Other person.

This. Don't expect voip calling to be bearable with >150 ping.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

lol at the kind of stuff people will do and put up with to save a buck. if you wanna talk on yur phone gist go git varizyn

 

[Fox5]

So I'm using T-Mobile's 4G service with the Google nexus.


Try #1:

Clocked at 652kbps down and 407kbps up, 275ms latency.

3 bars out of 4 in downtown Honolulu.

GrooveIP.

On WiFi it's perfect.

On 4G it is unusable. Tons of lag. Words get dropped at random. Maybe 1 in 10 of all words get dropped. Voice quality sucks and there's constant distortion/static in the background. At one point the entire conversation dropped. The call itself didn't drop, but no audio was transferred anymore.

Try #2:

1529 kbps down, 740 kbps up, 328ms

Full bars.

SIPDroid with PBXes

Audio Codec used was speex (11kbit) (this is much lower than the standard 64kbit PCMA codec).

On 4G it is still not good. Still lots of distortion/static in the background. Even at full 4G service strength, words still get dropped at around 1 in 20 words.

Basically if you're going to try to use VOIP via 3G/4G, prepare for it to not work well at all, especially on normal 3G speeds. On max 4G speeds it's usable, but be prepared to repeat yourself a lot.

You're not getting 4g speeds, and your latency is way too high. I can do VOIP just fine on tmobile on the east coast on their 4g, at least where I have it. I'd blame your issues on living in Hawaii.

 

[Headcase_Fargone]

Here in Houston I get anywhere from 2Mbps to 10Mbps. Even closer to 10Mbps Sipdroid doesn't work reliably over HSPA. I ended up setting up Tasker to only use Sipdroid when on wifi.

 

[Bateluer]

Which is why I wonder why so many people are rushing to gobble T-Mobile's 100 minutes $30 smartphone plan to use with GrooveIP when they can go with $45 Straight Talk instead.
Unlimited voice, and better coverage.

Probably because they want assurances they're not going to get cut off for using data. Straight Talk's fuzzy and inconsistent daily data limits are a turn off.

lol at the kind of stuff people will do and put up with to save a buck. if you wanna talk on yur phone gist go git varizyn

Its not a buck, its about 75. More, if you're on one of the newer tiered data or newest Share Everything plans.

 

[themillak]

Ignoring the cost, is Skype any good for 3G/4G calling on T-Mobile?

 

[Chiropteran]

Which is why I wonder why so many people are rushing to gobble T-Mobile's 100 minutes $30 smartphone plan to use with GrooveIP when they can go with $45 Straight Talk instead.
Unlimited voice, and better coverage.

Lot of people don't need unlimited voice, we aren't teenage girls.

I rarely used more than 100 minutes a month when I was on Verizon, so t-mobile's deal is perfect. Straight talk is a nice alternative in case something happens to t-mobile, but i'm not going to pay an extra $15/month without a good reason.

 

[wirednuts]

i only use about 100 min average a month for talk as it is, and i dont worry about my usage. 100min talk w/ 5gb of 4g data is a sweet deal for $30 a month im my case.

 

[Muyoso]

Which is why I wonder why so many people are rushing to gobble T-Mobile's 100 minutes $30 smartphone plan to use with GrooveIP when they can go with $45 Straight Talk instead.
Unlimited voice, and better coverage.

The reason its a great deal for people is that you can quite easily set it up so that you use WiFi calling when at work and home and then use the 100 T-Mobile minutes when out and about, switching automatically without any input needed. Since most people spend a vast majority of their time at home and work, its a pretty good setup.

For example, last month I was on the T-Mobile plan and I used 286 minutes over WiFi and about 40 on mobiles network.

 

[wirednuts]

The reason its a great deal for people is that you can quite easily set it up so that you use WiFi calling when at work and home and then use the 100 T-Mobile minutes when out and about, switching automatically without any input needed. Since most people spend a vast majority of their time at home and work, its a pretty good setup.

For example, last month I was on the T-Mobile plan and I used 286 minutes over WiFi and about 40 on mobiles network.

yeah, i already do that with a moto droid thats not activated. i use my sprint phone when i go places, but google voice ties my sprint phone with my droid at home so when im home i just use the droid.

also.. for those with grooveip issues when youre at home on wifi- dont forget to open your firewalls and or routers ports accordingly. and also, groove ip has built in audio enhancements that you can turn on to make call quality very good.

when im at home, voip calling absolutely destroys cell phone voice calls.


ok i lied. i just checked my usage history and i average about 150min a month on talk. but the last two months that i have had groove ip running at home? 50 min the first month and im pace for 14min this month! and i stream shoutcast radio at work, many times all day long. that averages from 1.3GB a month to max 2.2GB. i think the 100min talk/5GB data plan is going to work just fine for me.

 

[kaerflog]

I don't know why people come to this thread and knock others who are able to use this plan.
With that said, I paid $4.99 for grooveip and tried it a few times and it was terrible even if wifi. I'm on T-mobile. Haven't used it since.