Looking into getting away from traditional land lines in our office in the Wichita Falls area. We are a fairly small office and would be using about 15 phones, 6 lines, 2 fax lines. Anyone willing to provide feedback on your experiences with an internet based phone system?
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I am no help, but will give you a bump. -
We had a hard time at our when we switched. Corporate decided to update all the branch office phones one office at a time. The system was very sensitive to the internet service actually serving the building. They started with the Tyler branch and their phones were useless for a month or so. Voice calls were very garbled. They wanted to do my office next and I told them I couldn't have the same problem. I was assured that our IT guys had it figured out. Surprise, same issue. Ended up having to coordinate with building manager to get upgrade to the building and then to our suite of offices.Comment
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Not sure who is your main service provider but I have comcast business with 6 lines, a WATTS line, fax line and such and I have a Mitel phone system. Switched from ATT to this, and service improved and cost went down by over 50%. Plus when I relocated my offices from Tomball to Humble, through the internet phone system, I was able to keep my original numbers (2 from Houston from years ago, and all my Tomball numbers). ATT wanted a fortune to route those numbers! That Mitel phone system is totally awesome primarily because at the time I bought it, these guys were the only ones that had wireless hand sets and head sets... no coiled cord attached to the handset!! I can take a call in my office and while talking on the hand set walk all the way to the back of my facility (over 200 feet away and through several walls) and not lose connection with the receiver sitting on my desk. Cable connections are Cat 6 cabling back to a central hum in my server room... works like a champ.Comment
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Check with RingCentralComment
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This ^^Originally posted by seeing reds View Post
We are a small business and have used them for years now. I just transitioned to working from home/road full time and still have our main office line ring on my cell or desktop app. It's seamless and nobody knows that I'm not sitting in Katy when I answer. I can intercom with the rest of the office just like before.Comment
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Me and my wife are both in IT and she has recently started her own business. She has a voice (phone system) background and is currently focusing on small business solutions. Send me a PM with your number and I will have her reach out to you. She will help you to understand the current offerings that are available, and help to point you in the right direction. She supports customers accross the US, including Alaska. She will also give you some pointers on network, wireless and security if needed.
Last edited by GregO; 07-02-2019, 11:05 AM.Comment
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The term VOIP is thrown around very loosely.
You have cloud based/hosted or premise based VOIP service.
Cloud/hosted based service piggy back on your internet service and is constantly utilizing bandwidth. The more calls the more bandwidth. Your internet service and router setup is key for this service to function properly. Any latency will cause poor call quality and dropped calls.
Premised based VOIP system only utilize bandwidth when a call is in progress from the trunk side. most providers will offer SIP trunks and provision your service so it doesn't take bandwidth from your computer network. Most of them will also provide Quality of Service or QoS.
Before you decide on cloud/hosted or premise based, ask your self how important are calls and what is a call worth in dollars $$$. If the answer is very important and worth a lot of $$$ IMO premise based is the way to go.
Full disclaimer: I make my living selling, installing and servicing business class phone systems. Most of my new sales are yanking out cloud/hosted based service and installing premise based solutions.Comment
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VOIP
Voice Over Internet Provider.
It works great when it works. It will only be as good as your Internet service is reliableComment
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DON'T use RingCentral. Worst provider out there. I have had multiple issues with multiple companies with this provider.Comment
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Me too and Vonage and many more. Common denominator in all of them, is they are all cloud/hosted based providers and folks try and use cheap internet service.Originally posted by ren087 View PostComment
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Originally posted by Plain Lucky View Post
We have Fonality and before that we had Spectrum.Comment
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Protocol not provider.Originally posted by AntlerCollector View Post
Sent from my SM-G973U using TapatalkLast edited by Burntorange Bowhunter; 07-02-2019, 04:04 PM.Comment
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Well, Dang I've been wrong all these years. I thought VOIP was Voice over Internet Protocol.Originally posted by AntlerCollector View Post
Now you've gone and upset my apple cart...
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Oh my.
What percentage of your revenue is derived from your telephony? If you have an internet outage (no SLAs for internet, best effort), do you need some redundancy, i.e. local POTS/ISDN/cellular?
If the internet is a no go, would you be willing to utilize 4g/5g, i.e. SDWAN for the WAN connection?
Can you use soft-clients vs. hard phones? i.e. save the cost of a Polycom, Mitel or Yealink, etc. hardphone?
Are your router and LAN switches ready? QOS/Diffserve/Options, POE?
Are you wanting an extension to cellular type service, soft-client on the cellular, FMC for 4g/5g/WI-FI?
Are you willing to pay for a somewhat managed service?
All boils down to the risk you are willing to take, and the expertise you have at hand. And of course $.Comment
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