As Wi-Fi has evolved from Wi-Fi 4, 5, and now to  6 (802.11ax) so has the misgivings around the common challenges such as packet loss and jitter that made for unreliable voice calls over Wi-Fi Networks. Wi-Fi now offers the stability required for voice and there are superb products on the market to make voice-over-WiFi the first choice, especially for consumers and home offices.

Wi-Fi is the most commonly available and widely used medium of Internet access for most of the world’s occupants.  According to STATISTA, out of the 4.66-billion active Internet users worldwide, 4.32-billion accessed the Internet via mobile devices that are Wi-Fi capable.

Wi-Fi networks are more economical in the sense that multiple end-user devices can be connected to a single access point, instead of having each desktop or laptop hardwired through an Ethernet connection.  This does offer up some challenges as a Wi-Fi network becomes a shared resource with each connected device vying for a timeslot to transmit and receive data.  As more devices connect to a single access point, the worse the end-user experience can be.

However, the introduction of dual-band access points, which offers connection on both the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz frequency and the ability of access points to implement band-steering and airtime fairness are some of the features that aim to eliminate the capacity issue and provide for a smooth end-user experience across the WLAN.  With a capacity that ranges from Wi-Fi 4 at  600Mbps, to Wi-Fi 6 Access Points offering as much as 2Gbps, it’s clear that Wi-Fi has evolved and will continue to evolve as the connection choice for consumers and home office.

Voice over IP requires jitter to be at 30ms or less and no more than 1% of packet loss for clear voice calls.  The latest codecs used by Wi-Fi phones ensure that the compression of VoIP packets are done in such a way to ensure smooth, clear voice calls.  MiRO’s offering of Wi-Fi-enabled VoIP phones from SNOM and Grandstream support the latest codecs for clear voice transmission over Wi-Fi.

Grandstreams’ GS-WP810 and GS-WP820, available from MiRO, can be onboarded to the GDMS, Grandstream Device Management System, which is their free, cloud platform for managing, configuring, troubleshooting and provisioning.  Pair your installation with Grandstream’s series of Wi-Fi 5 access points that are designed to integrate with Wi-Fi phones to provide the necessary functionality for an enterprise VoIP solution with features such as QoS (Quality of Service), easy Mesh capability, roaming and cloud onboarding to monitor the AP performance and connected Wi-Fi phones.

SNOM’s range of Wi-Fi phones, also available from MiRO, can be onboarded to their free access SRAPS cloud platform that also allows for remote configuration, provisioning and management.

As MiRO stives to empower you to connect communities, our training academy has created two courses that will assist you with your VoIP solution.  Either select Zero-to-Hero: Understanding VoIP or the Grandstream Certified Specialist training.

If you would like to learn more about how you can evolve your current VoIP phone solution to a Voice over Wi-Fi solution, please contact one of our MiRO solution specialists or alternatively, order yours online by visiting www.miro.co.za.