Signals Research Group recently took a look at the performance of voice over Wi-Fi as part of its in-depth exploration of all things voice-over-wireless related, using Spirent Communications‘ Nomad User Experience Analytics System to measure POLQA voice quality in various scenarios while examining the underlying network dynamics.
The new report on VoWi-Fi testing looks at T-Mobile US’ VoWi-Fi service in both public venues (including a convention center and international airport lounge) and in residential Wi-Fi situations, and looked at the impact of network loading, comparisons among VoLTE, 3D HD voice and Skype as well as call hand-offs between VoWi-Fi and VoLTE.
“By and large, we found that VoWi-Fi is as good or as bad as the underlying Wi-Fi network,” said Michael Thelander, president of SRG, in a statement on the results. “Without question, the call quality was much better and more consistent with a residential Wi-Fi access point in a controlled environment and with minimal network traffic. With public Wi-Fi access points, the consumer needs to be more forgiving, especially in areas where other Wi-Fi users like to congregate.”
The report summary adds that SRG “obtained results which suggest the typical consumer would never notice the difference when switching from VoLTE to VoWi-Fi, let along the actual handover itself. Conversely, we also documented results which weren’t as favorable. In many, but not all, of these instances, we believe that other factors were involved.”
The two companies plan to continue their collaboration on VoLTE-related testing, with lab-based examinations of VoLTE client performance in the future as well as testing how VoLTE performs in a multi-operator network.
In other test news this week:
• EXFO named a new COO, Phillippe Morin, who will be joining the company in October. He comes to EXFO from Ciena, where he holds the position of SVP of its global products group; Morin also held past leadership positions at Nortel Networks.
Morin will direct EXFO’s global sales, market development and marketing, product management and technology strategy. The company CTO and all sales and product management execs will report to him.
• Electro Rent signed an official distributor agreement with Rohde & Schwarz this week to offer equipment and support. Dan Greenburg, president and CEO of Electro Rent, said in a statement that the company has been “working to enhance our OEM supplier network to better leverage the efficient infrastructure Electro Rent has built over the last several years,” and that the agreement means a more robust supplier pool for Electro Rent customers.
• Polystar’s Subscriber Analytics solution received a Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award from TMC.
• Teradyne announced a cash dividend of 6 cents per share. The company had a particularly strong quarter, with revenue up 50% year-over-year and its strongest wireless test results in two years.
