Iristel offers tips for working remotely and business continuity

With unprecedented shift in work from offices to homes, telecom networks experience intermittent quality issues such as fast-busy signals, data interruptions

MARKHAM, ON, March 20, 2020 /CNW/ - As the global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic keeps more and more Canadians home, telecommunications networks can feel the strain with intermittent quality issues such as calls not getting through and data speeds getting choked at bottlenecks.

"The surge of in-home demand has impacted the quality some Canadians experience as telecom providers adapt networks not designed for this sudden change in network traffic patterns," says Samer Bishay, President and CEO of Iristel Inc., Canada's largest independent telecom supplier that administers seven million phone numbers and acts as an Internet backbone to providers of such offerings as connected car, Unified Communications, ride-sharing and food-delivery services.

"The good news is that there are simple things individual Canadian families can do to improve telecom service into and out of their homes if experiencing interruptions," Bishay says. They include:

• Ensure that the SIP ALG (Session Initiation Protocol, Application Layer Gateway) function on home routers and modems is turned off, or disabled. Most come from the factory turned off, but worth a check under system settings. It may also be worth a call to your Internet Service Provider to make sure they don't have a SIP ALG function on your connection. You will need to escalate this request to their technical service (not customer service) to remove it. This will improve IP telephony, stability and functionality.
• Be aware that large downloads and video streaming may overload your own Internet connection and cause degradation of call quality. Minimize unnecessary downloads and video streaming and limit WiFi and Internet usage in the home while you are engaged in important business calls and videoconferencing. It can really help performance.
• Think big picture of the Canadian telecom infrastructure and limit streaming, where possible. For example, maybe have the entire family watch the same Netflix or Prime Video movie, instead of streaming four devices at once. The added benefit is more family time, while at safe social distances.

The overall Canadian telecom network is a patchwork of many companies both large and small. The sudden change in working locations has shifted both data and voice traffic and created choke points where they did not exist in the past.

"At Iristel, like other carriers, we're experiencing greater volume which is causing some issues but our call volume does not exceed our internal network capacity," Bishay says. "Still, the more common sense tactics from users, the better for the overall Canadian telecom infrastructure."

About Iristel

Iristel is Canada's fastest-growing carrier providing innovative communication services, including cybersecurity, that are changing how consumers and businesses communicate. Founded in 1999, Markham-based Iristel operates Canada's largest facilities-based local voice network extending Coast-to-Coast-to-Coast. It also owns Ice Wireless, an LTE carrier with operations in Canada's northern territories and Quebec. Iristel also owns brands such as Sugar Mobile, an Over-the-Top (OTT) app where phone calls and text messages can be transmitted through data, and TDE, a company that offers sale, rental and repair services of telecommunication equipment in Eastern Quebec and Northern New Brunswick. Later in 2020, comes the launch of the Iristel Wireless LTE service and 5G readiness in Newfoundland. www.iristel.com

SOURCE Iristel Inc.

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