VOIP Solution for small business

Err, well, PRI is a specific term - you don't need one. All you need is an IP (internet) connection to your VOIP provider. A DSL line or cable modem would work. Failing that, a fractional T1 would suffice but be a lot more expensive. In the case of a PRI (full T1) you aren't going to have to worry about dedicating bandwidth to phones vs. data, because it's all data. If you do split it up that way, you will be limiting your data bandwidth unecessarily. What I would do, and what we did at my office, is use QoS in the router to give voice data priority over internet data. That means that the internet could slow down when you've got a few folks on the phone, but the reverse does not happen.

For the service, we use Teliax. Its good - very happy with it. Are you comfortable messing around with Asterisk and the various settings? What Teliax initially set us up with wasn't ideal (the protocol, I mean) and we switched a couple of times. I would have to check with our IT guy but I know we are not using IAX because we had issues with the sound quality. I believe we are using SIP but I can check.

I have cable modem at home and we have DSL at the shop. I'd go with cable modem ALL DAY EVERY DAY over DSL if I could. Less downtime, faster pings and bigger bandwidth. Yeah I know it's a shared line but I've never had it be an issue.

 

teliax appears to be a boolean exercise. i know other people that speak highly of them. i found them quite sub-optimal (albeit a year ago). my advice to people looking for PSTN termination and origination is to sign up with a few reputable providers on throw-away numbers and test them out for a few days at various times of day and whatnot. then go with the provider that has the best service and get your number.

the asterisk-biz mailing list (archived on digium.com) has a lot of useful pointers and commentary on different providers. everybody and their brother offers PSTN bridging - it's a virtually $0 entry cost business, so do be careful of the fly-by-nights.

also be careful of LNP'ing. some of these jokers take a MONTH or more to move a number. be very very careful - there are a ton of stories about businesses whose numbers just blipped out of existence for weeks on end during the LNP process.

doody.

 

The one thing I would say RE: Teliax is they sort of seem hands-off. They will set up your line and that's about it.

I was reading the forum and it seemed many of the problems were self-inflicted. I.e. they would take it upon themselves to point themselves to a different POP, which allowed incoming calls but not outgoing. Then they would complain to Teliax about it. When we had issues they seemed quite good but then again our IT guy knows more likely than they do. I can see some poor guy who doesn't know much getting real frustrated and just wanting his service working. Add Asterisk into the mix and it's a recipe for disaster to the unsuspecting n00b.

I don't mean you are a n00b Doody, just that about 90% of what I read on their support forums were folks who had obviously tried things themselves without much knowledge of what they were doing and took it out on the company. I still do think that someone who is not very VOIP savvy might think about someone like Vonage instead, although that don't jive with Asterisk.