it would increase latency badly (the turn server for the call.element.io instance is in the UK, so all traffic would bounce through it, often unnecessarily), and it would cost us loads on bandwidth as a result. It also means that the turn server sees all the IPs and metadata of who is calling who, which may not be an improvement if you trust your caller more than your server admins!

For instance, two users on the same LAN calling each other would end up bounced via the UK, which is a bit unfortunate if they are in Australia.

The solution is really to switch to using SFUs everywhere, which then solves both firewall traversal, scalability and privacy (assuming you’re happy for your SFU to know your IP - but if you’re happy for your TURN to know it, then it’s probably fine).