Voice over IP performance: Why your calls crackle and how to fix it
When your Voice over IP, a technology that sends voice calls over the internet instead of traditional phone lines. Also known as VoIP, it powers everything from small business phones to remote team chats. But if your calls sound robotic, drop mid-sentence, or lag like a bad Zoom call, it’s not the provider—it’s your VoIP performance. Most people blame their internet speed, but the real issue is usually how voice traffic is handled on your network.
Good VoIP performance isn’t about having the fastest internet. It’s about giving voice data priority. That’s where DSCP marking, a system that tags voice packets so routers know to treat them as urgent comes in. Without DSCP 46 (EF class) on your router or switch, your voice calls get stuck in the same line as email downloads and video streams. You’ll hear delays even on a 1 Gbps connection. Then there’s voice traffic prioritization, the practice of setting up your network to give calls first access to bandwidth. This isn’t magic—it’s configuring VLANs, turning on QoS, and making sure your SIP phones send the right signals. Many businesses skip this and wonder why their $500 desk phones sound like a walkie-talkie.
Latency isn’t just about distance. If your VoIP system routes calls through a server in another country just to save a few bucks, you’re paying in echo and dropped words. Cloud peering with AWS Direct Connect or Azure ExpressRoute cuts that delay by skipping the public internet entirely. And if your audio sounds like a robot on a bad day, it’s often not the mic—it’s sample rate mismatches or aggressive noise suppression. You can fix that in minutes with a driver update or a setting toggle. Even your Ethernet cable matters. CAT6 is enough for 95% of offices. CAT7? Overkill unless you’re running cables next to industrial motors.
Behind every choppy call is a network that doesn’t know voice is different from data. The fixes aren’t expensive. They’re just overlooked. Below, you’ll find real solutions—tested by businesses that stopped losing customers to bad calls. From setting up SIP trunking to choosing the right hardware, every post here answers one question: Why does my VoIP suck, and how do I make it stop?
