Ooma fights internet congestion with Adaptive Forward Error Correction technology.

Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is a proven, popular way to make phone calls, but the quality of the connection isn’t always ideal. The trouble is sometimes due to internet congestion rather than any problems with hardware, software or the VoIP service provider.

That’s why Ooma recently added Adaptive Forward Error Correction (AFEC) technology to Ooma Office and Ooma Office Pro. AFEC is designed improve phone call quality when underlying internet connections are unreliable.

Without getting too technical, here’s how it works: VoIP turns phone calls into packets of digital data that are transmitted through the internet. However, these data packets can get lost or delayed, especially as the massive growth of online video streaming and other high-volume traffic has strained internet capacity.

This congestion doesn’t typically cause noticeable delays when you’re browsing the web or watching a video. That’s because these tasks are predominantly one-way in nature. You’re receiving the video or website on your device and that’s it. But VoIP calls need data to move back and forth in real time, which makes packet loss and delays more likely. If that happens, your call may be choppy, garbled or even sound robotic.

AFEC fights back against internet congestion by sending small amounts of extra data – called error correcting code – with each packet. The code is designed to counter the effects of diverted or delayed packets anywhere along the transmission path. This helps the system to reconstruct the original voice stream and maintain great call quality even when there is a high level of disruption.

AFEC is automatically enabled and available now to all Ooma Office and Ooma Office Pro customers, at no extra cost, when they use the following endpoints for their calls:

• The Ooma Office desktop app for Windows and Mac• The Ooma Office mobile app for iOS or Android• All seven desktop phones in the Ooma-branded IP phone line – models 2602, 2602W, 2603, 2612, 2613, 2615W and 2624W

AFEC is the latest in a string of innovations designed to make Ooma Office and our Ooma Telo residential phone service more robust, joining features such as Continuous Voice, HD Voice and PureVoice.

And we’re not done yet. Our engineers continue exploring new technologies to make phone calls as clear and reliable as possible.