Calling China/Asia via VOIP - a bit ropey?
 

A friend of mine is currently in Beijing, China. He's got a pre-paid SIM (not sure which operator) but I rang him the other day via VOIP. The quality was so-so but there was a shocking delay which made the conversation a little difficult. A colleague said she experienced the same thing calling India recently.

I'm wondering whether this is due to VOIP, Asian telephones or a combination of the two. Anyone else know?

It can be a combination of factors: VOIP delay is one. I used Voicestick with a local SIM last time I was in Singapore; it worked great. I'm not so sure it would have worked as well in another country.

DRNewcomb is right, it can be voip, Asian telephones or combination. If its constant then try using another (maybe you could borrow an account from a friend) voip provider to see if it will have the same result. It could also be your internet connection. Previously my calls to the Philippines using Onesuite voip yield not so good call quality until I tried to use it on a friends DSL account and calls has been very good. I switched internet provider and since then my Onesuite calls has been perfect (well almost).

So a trial and error would prolly pinpoint the problem.