As much of the country moves to a telework environment, reliable internet bandwidth is a common challenge. We recommend having your staff complete basic network reliability testing on their home networks as you send them home. This will be most needed if you don’t currently have a remote working policy in place as most policies require reliable internet. nPerf is a great tool that allows home users to check their network speed and latency. Latency and Jitter are what impact voice. It also impacts video and web-conferencing. Here are some widely accepted guidelines around latency:

– Ideally, latency should be less than 65 milliseconds
– Acceptable VoIP jitter is no more than 30 ms. This is where you will begin to see a drop in call quality
– Jitter of 100ms or more will impact the ability to continue a call effectively

By identifying your challenged users early, you can deploy wireless devices or plan for users to tether to their existing device and adjust data plans. There are options for users with challenges ranging from mifi devices (about $50+plan) to robust dual SIM wireless routers ($299+plan).