From what I've seen online the majority of players are using AHVoice with no problems at all, maybe you have a hardware issue?
The connections have been a little troublesome recently there is no denying that but its a temporary measure while Skuzzy upgrades his connections as he and Hitech have mentioned before, its out of their hands while the telecoms people fart arse about.
I'm not a big fan of the flashing icons either but I would'nt go as far as saying take them out, they do have a purpose but maybe we could have a msg in the buffer like 'Field X Under Attack!' etc.
I was dissapointed by the lack of features for bombers, I had hoped for an overhaul in the way bombs are delivered but on the whole this was a great release.