VOIP Provider Advice

Hi,

I am going to setup VoIP for a small business. They currently have 4
ISDN channels (2 lines), a separate analogue fax line and a 4mB down /
512 kB up broadband internet connection.

Can anyone give me advice on the best IAX/IAX2 or SIP to PSTN provider.
Cheap would be good, but obviously reliability is most important.

Any other info or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Tom Jermy

Have a look at Voipfone (www.voipfone.co.uk). They specialise in small
business products. With a broadband connection you can do away with the
ISDN and get an IP PBX (99p per extension).

I'm involved with the company so don't take my word for it - read the
forums.

You might want to see a review here:

http://www.vonmag.com/issue/2005/oct/depts/europe.asp

On 2 Nov 2005 16:22:23 -0800, "cjd" <colin@talk21.com> wrote:

>Have a look at Voipfone (www.voipfone.co.uk). They specialise in small
>business products. With a broadband connection you can do away with the
>ISDN and get an IP PBX (99p per extension).
>
>I'm involved with the company so don't take my word for it - read the
>forums.
>
>You might want to see a review here:
>
>http://www.vonmag.com/issue/2005/oct/depts/europe.asp
Whilst I agree that voipfone is one of the better providers you
shouldn't expect to get absolute reliabilty from any voip provider.
Certainly I wouldn't advise the giving out geo-voip phone numbers to
customers if a break in service is likley to affect your business
significantly. If you have non-geos that can readily be directed to
other lines in case of emergency then that would be OK. Alternatively
for outgoing calls it would be generally OK.



Remove 'no_spam_' from email address.

"Brian A" <no_spam_bca1000@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:posjm1dlkourrnmvrsqbb99kc5hto1ui7a@4ax.com...
> On 2 Nov 2005 16:22:23 -0800, "cjd" <colin@talk21.com> wrote:
>
> >Have a look at Voipfone (www.voipfone.co.uk). They specialise in small
> >business products. With a broadband connection you can do away with the
> >ISDN and get an IP PBX (99p per extension).
> >
> >I'm involved with the company so don't take my word for it - read the
> >forums.
> >
> >You might want to see a review here:
> >
> >http://www.vonmag.com/issue/2005/oct/depts/europe.asp
> Whilst I agree that voipfone is one of the better providers you
> shouldn't expect to get absolute reliabilty from any voip provider.
> Certainly I wouldn't advise the giving out geo-voip phone numbers to
> customers if a break in service is likley to affect your business
> significantly. If you have non-geos that can readily be directed to
> other lines in case of emergency then that would be OK. Alternatively
> for outgoing calls it would be generally OK.
>
Why do you feel that we shouldn't expect absolute reliability from a voip
provider? Surely if voip is to compete in the mainstream then "five nines"
reliability must be the aim. Or is there something inherent in the
technology that means it can't happen? If that's the case it's hard to see
why telcos such as BT are migrating to ip networks.

"Why do you feel that we shouldn't expect absolute reliability from a
voip
provider?"

'cos it uses the public internet, an un-managed resource with no
service guarantees. What's the SLA on your Broadband connection, for
example.

Phil

"Telephoneman" <alexandergrahambell@REMOVEbigfoot.com>
wrote in message news:11mjtqcsv7esva9@corp.supernews.com

[snip]

> Why do you feel that we shouldn't expect absolute
> reliability from a voip provider? Surely if voip is to
> compete in the mainstream then "five nines" reliability
> must be the aim. Or is there something inherent in the
> technology that means it can't happen? If that's the case
> it's hard to see why telcos such as BT are migrating to
> ip networks.

There is a basic difference between VoIP telephone systems (at least as
they currently stand) and mainstream systems like BT and Telewest etc.
With the former, a large proportion of equipment is installed at customers
premises and is self-configured. Customers make mistakes. An awful lot of
problems that people have with VoIP are less to do with network
reliability and more towards customer misconfiguration. Look at the sheer
number of threads on this group alone asking "how do I configure a Linksys
PAP2 for such and such a service..?" and you'll see what I mean.

That's not to say networks don't have their problems, but they aren't to
blame for most end user problems.

Ivor

In article <11mjtqcsv7esva9@corp.supernews.com>, Telephoneman
<alexandergrahambell@REMOVEbigfoot.com> writes
>
>"Brian A" <no_spam_bca1000@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:posjm1dlkourrnmvrsqbb99kc5hto1ui7a@4ax.com.. .
>> Whilst I agree that voipfone is one of the better providers you
>> shouldn't expect to get absolute reliabilty from any voip provider.
>> Certainly I wouldn't advise the giving out geo-voip phone numbers to
>> customers if a break in service is likley to affect your business
>> significantly. If you have non-geos that can readily be directed to
>> other lines in case of emergency then that would be OK. Alternatively
>> for outgoing calls it would be generally OK.
>>
Except for emergencies - no 999 service. Also you'll lose service in a
power failure unless you have a UPS; yes, I know that will also apply to
your internal network but it would be useful to retain a limited service
in such cases, just one land-line, would it not?

>Why do you feel that we shouldn't expect absolute reliability from a voip
>provider? Surely if voip is to compete in the mainstream then "five nines"
>reliability must be the aim. Or is there something inherent in the
>technology that means it can't happen? If that's the case it's hard to see
>why telcos such as BT are migrating to ip networks.
>
Could be delayed packets in an asynchronous network which doesn't matter
to data but would do for voice.

Also some of the providers mentioned in this thread are marked "Beta"
though this doesn't apply to Voipfoin.
--
Peter Pratten
Please reply in group only

hmmm, i wouldn't exactly call their products "business quality". They are ok
for a home user but far from the requirements of a business environment.
Also just tried to look at the web site and it's down!!!!


"cjd" <colin@talk21.com> wrote in message
news:1130977343.848572.79050@g47g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
> Have a look at Voipfone (www.voipfone.co.uk). They specialise in small
> business products. With a broadband connection you can do away with the
> ISDN and get an IP PBX (99p per extension).
>
> I'm involved with the company so don't take my word for it - read the
> forums.
>
> You might want to see a review here:
>
> http://www.vonmag.com/issue/2005/oct/depts/europe.asp
>

>
> "cjd" <colin@talk21.com> wrote in message
> news:1130977343.848572.79050@g47g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
>> Have a look at Voipfone (www.voipfone.co.uk). They specialise in small
>> business products. With a broadband connection you can do away with the
>> ISDN and get an IP PBX (99p per extension).
>>
>> I'm involved with the company so don't take my word for it - read the
>> forums.
>>
>> You might want to see a review here:
>>
>> http://www.vonmag.com/issue/2005/oct/depts/europe.asp
>>
>
> hmmm, i wouldn't exactly call their products "business quality". They are
> ok
> for a home user but far from the requirements of a business environment.
> Also just tried to look at the web site and it's down!!!!

Yes, we were informed that there would be an outage this morning as they
move over to new and more reliable equipment. It seems the outage has lasted
longer than they planned.

I am surprised that they didn't schedule it for an earlier hour, or that
they couldn't do more thorough testing on the new service before it was
deployed live. I have written them an email saying as much, and from past
experience would expect them to implement changes in procedure, but we shall
see.

Mark

On Thu, 03 Nov 2005 11:29:52 GMT, Brian A
<no_spam_bca1000@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Whilst I agree that voipfone is one of the better providers you
>shouldn't expect to get absolute reliabilty from any voip provider.

A bit worrying, considering that BT is switching to VOIP from next
year.

Why do you think that VOIP should be less reliable.
--
Visit the Hairydog Guide to Mobile Phones
http://www.hairydog.co.uk/cell1.html

On Fri, 4 Nov 2005 15:01:57 +0000, Peter Pratten
<peter@localhost.co.uk> wrote:

>Except for emergencies - no 999 service. Also you'll lose service in a
>power failure unless you have a UPS; yes, I know that will also apply to
>your internal network but it would be useful to retain a limited service
>in such cases, just one land-line, would it not?

For any PBX it would be the same.

Given that just about everyone has a mobile phone, I don't think that
lack of 999 access will be an issue nowadays.
--
Visit the Hairydog Guide to Mobile Phones
http://www.hairydog.co.uk/cell1.html

tomjermy@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am going to setup VoIP for a small business. They currently have 4
> ISDN channels (2 lines), a separate analogue fax line and a 4mB down /
> 512 kB up broadband internet connection.
>
> Can anyone give me advice on the best IAX/IAX2 or SIP to PSTN provider.
> Cheap would be good, but obviously reliability is most important.
>
> Any other info or advice would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Tom Jermy
>

Gradwell have a business targeted VOIP service. We have been using both
their inbound and outbound services for evaluating Asterisk. We will
also be using their outbound service to overflow from a single ISDN2e
connection (two channels) in a small pilot Asterisk implementation at
one of our sites.

http://www.gradwell.com/voip/