yahoo2003
join:2007-11-02
Mclean, VA
| [General] VOIP for small business
My wife has a small business currently has three Verizon lines, one for fax, two for voice. The two voice lines have a single external number.
From the other thread "Is fax over IP reliable", I'm convinced that we need to keep at least one line for fax.
I have the following questions about switching voice lines to VOIP:
(1). Will porting number interrupting service? Can it be done during non-business hours? How hard and how long to port numbers from Verizon to VOIP providers such as Callcentric or Future 9?
(2). How VOIP handles single number to two lines? Callcentric offers $9 office unlimited incoming number with 3 "incoming channels", what is "incoming channel"?
(3). Which VOIP providers provide reliable service to small business with competitive prices? Vonage service seems OK, but after read horrible stories about canceling Vonage, I decided not to get in to the trouble. Callcentric is more established with good service, Future 9 offers better price.
(4). Anything else should be aware before switching to VOIP?
Thanks for advices. |
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toro
join:2006-01-27
Scarborough, ON
 ·TekSavvy Solutions..
| I can answer some of the questions:
- from my experience porting doesn't interrupt the service. Usually the VoIP provider gives you a new number and initiates the porting process (which sometimes can take as long as a month). In the menatime you should have phones connected both to the old service (pots) and the new one (voip). At some point, when the porting actually takes place, the calls will just start ringing the new VoIP service instead of the old lines. You should not cancel your old service until the numbers are ported, otherwise you may loose the umber. The porting usually takes care of cancelling the old service.
- if a VoIP provider say you can have 3 incoming channels, it means you can have 3 simultaneous inbound calls. I am not sure how you would configure an ATA for this. In my case, I have a service like this, coming into an Asterisk server. Then from Asterisk I have 2 channels going to an ATA. Asterisk is configured to call the first channel of the ATA, or if it's engaged already, roll over to the second. The channels on the ATA must be configured to disallow call waiting, otherwise the call doesn't roll over. If you don't have an Asterisk server, see how the configuration looks on their end. Some of them allow you to set up multiple peers and roll over between them. That way, you will register each cahnnel of the ATA to a separate peer. |
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RockyBB
Premium
join:2005-01-31
Castle Rock, CO
| reply to yahoo2003
said by yahoo2003  :Anything else should be aware before switching to VOIP? Respectfully, you are doing this for the wrong reason. Three times in your post you refer to cost. If you're putting only two lines in play, what are you expecting to save, maybe $50/month? If the $50/month is important to that business, then there is something else strategically wrong about the business that $50 is important. If that's the case, I would put more effort into fixing that -- in my view, the amount of time and effort involved to save $50 is best put into generating more revenue.
Most small businesses move to VOIP-type solutions not to save money but to increase capabilities. You didn't say a word about the key selling points of moving business communications to VOIP:
--auto-attendants for call direction (press 1 for this, press 2 for that) and to make you appear as a larger organization
--simul-ring to cell phone so you don't miss calls while out of the office
--when you do miss calls, enhanced voice mail puts the messages into your email as .wav files for forwarding and archival purposes
--integration of remote employees (guys in the trucks, or partners working out of their homes) into the main system in a single dial plan
--call queuing, so callers can wait for a rep, instead of having to leave a voice mail
--single phone number -- your business card can be cleaned up by listing only a single number for phone, fax and cell.
By doing your project with a cheep residential VOIP provider, if you leave all these and other capabilities on the table, then all you'll end up with is cheep phone service instead of a system that makes it easier to do business with you, which itself generates additional revenue. |
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nitzan
join:2008-02-27
 ·ViaTalk
 ·Comcast
edit:
May 30th, @11:01AM
| reply to yahoo2003
I'm not sure about other providers, but from Future Nine perspective we can open your account to as many channels as you'd like with the pay-as-you-go or bare essentials plans.
There's no problem having 2, or 200 phone numbers on the same account.  If you need to use more than one adapter, or two lines on the same adapter, we can do that too, and can ring both of them for incoming calls if wanted.
As far as service interruption with porting - from a technical standpoint there is interruption as your Verizon phone line will just stop receiving calls in the middle of the day. There are a couple of ways to work around this:
1. Just keep a spare phone attached to the adapter anticipating the port. We typically give you advance notice of your due date.
2. We can setup your ported number to forward to a cellphone or landline - so once your number is ported if anyone calls you you'll still receive the call even if you don't have a phone hooked up to the adapter.
Porting usually takes 3-4 weeks, and unfortunately there is a fee. We get charged a high fee from our porting partner so we have charge you.  Other providers do it "for free", which means they charge you higher prices elsewhere to compensate. If you keep your service with us for a few months the savings compared to other providers will easily pay for the port cost.
--
Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation |
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yahoo2003
join:2007-11-02
Mclean, VA
| reply to toro
Thanks for the information.
She currently has a Norstar ICS system, I guess it takes multiple phone lines and connect them to special Ameritech phones. I'm not sure if it can be used for a VOIP systems.
I may have to start an Asterisk project with a PC or routers, to port to PC might be easier, but I prefer eventually having Asterisk running in routers. I'll contact Callcentric if they provide "multiple peer". |
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yahoo2003
join:2007-11-02
Mclean, VA | reply to nitzan
Does Future 9 offer "multiple peer" or I have to have Asterisk to have one external number for multiple lines/channels? Another feature she needs is to be able to make conference calls. |
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yahoo2003
join:2007-11-02
Mclean, VA
| reply to RockyBB
said by RockyBB :Respectfully, you are doing this for the wrong reason. Don't take me throng, price is selling point to my wife.
I'm obsessed with VOIP technology, by selling her VOIP, I hope she'll complain less for time (and money) I spent on VOIP and I can put my unlocked ATA's in use. |
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nitzan
join:2008-02-27
·ViaTalk
·Comcast
| reply to yahoo2003
We have to set it up for you (not automated), but we support multiple peers under parent account, ringing to any combo of peers you want, etc.
I'd recommend playing with Asterisk on your side anyway, but if you want to connect 2 (or 20) adapters to FN under one account - we can do that. |
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yahoo2003
join:2007-11-02
Mclean, VA | Sounds great.
Please make it reliable and stay in business, otherwise my wife is going to kill me .
I guess I'll try it for sometime before porting her number. |
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yahoo2003
join:2007-11-02
Mclean, VA
| reply to yahoo2003
It seems Asterisk is the way to go.
Following is from Callcentric support:
"You cannot register multiple devices to your account and properly route calls to the device that you want. If you register multiple devices at once then you'll have a registration conflict (as mentioned on the following FAQ (»www.callcentric.com/faq/11/99)), to resolve this our servers will send all incoming calls to the most recently registered device. On your end this will look like calls are going to either device seemingly at random. The only way to use one account to route calls based on DID to two or more devices is to register an IP PBX that supports said features and use that to route the calls for you.
We have many setup guides and even links to free IP PBX softwares, such as Asterisk (»www.callcentric.com/support/devi···terisk);
Trixbox (»www.callcentric.com/support/device/freepbx);
Please follow our setup guides accordingly to register the IP PBX under your account.
Configure your IP PBX accordingly to creating a Call hunt group (please visit their respective authors, software development team, or support for instructions on how to create a call hunt group)" |
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nitzan
join:2008-02-27
·ViaTalk
·Comcast
| What they're saying is true assuming you only have ONE PEER defined for you.
What you can, and we in fact do, is setup multiple peers for you (one for each device), and set your phone number to ring both peers at the same time (call hunt).
Works perfectly. |
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yahoo2003
join:2007-11-02
Mclean, VA
| said by nitzan :What they're saying is true assuming you only have ONE PEER defined for you. What you can, and we in fact do, is setup multiple peers for you (one for each device), and set your phone number to ring both peers at the same time (call hunt). Works perfectly. That is very attractive feature for small businesses without VOIP supporting staff.
Which plan I have to order for this feature? The plan page "https://www.future-nine.com/plans.html" doesn't mention "number of channels". |
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nitzan
join:2008-02-27
·ViaTalk
·Comcast
| Pay As You Go or PAYG Premium.
(for US & Canada it's all premium, the "premium" applies only to international calling)
After you sign up, let me know your account number (in private), how many peers you need, and how many channels for each peer.
That's pretty much the intention.. we'll worry about the setup/routing - you (small businesses) just "plug it in". |
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toro
join:2006-01-27
Scarborough, ON | reply to nitzan
Hmm, I thought call hunting is when you have multiple lines and an inbound or outbound call picks up the first line available (but only one line).
What you described looks like ringing all lines at the same time. |
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voipdabbler
join:2006-04-27
Kalispell, MT
| reply to yahoo2003
VOIP only as stable as your ISP
yahoo,
Just remember that in addition to technical glitches with your VOIP provider, your VOIP service is only as stable as your ISP. If you're experiencing any reoccurring problems with your ISP, it will mean outages for VOIP service. Yes, many VOIP providers will allow calls to rollover to a backup number, like a cell phone, but it's a factor to consider.
Fax, well make sure your wife's fax machine can be set to transmit at lower rates, like 9600 (14400 at the most). Slower is better with trying to fax via IP, it's still not as reliable as a phone line. |
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yahoo2003
join:2007-11-02
Mclean, VA
| reply to nitzan
Re: [General] VOIP for small business
said by nitzan :Pay As You Go or PAYG Premium. (for US & Canada it's all premium, the "premium" applies only to international calling) After you sign up, let me know your account number (in private), how many peers you need, and how many channels for each peer. That's pretty much the intention.. we'll worry about the setup/routing - you (small businesses) just "plug it in". Currently she is connected to Allstate corporation network through Cisco 1700 router with T1 line, there is a 3com hub between Cisco 1700 and two Allstate provided PCs. The Allstate provided PCs are pre-configured with domain names. I could not have other PCs and ATAs connect to internet through the 3com hub. I believe Allstate network only assign IP addresses to Allstate provided PCs.
Allstate is transferring corporation owned technologies to "Agent Choice Technologies" (ACT). With ACT, she will be able to order HSI and phone services from commercial ISPs and VOIP providers staring July.
I'll open an account for her when she orders HSI from Verizon or Cox in July, or if we can figure out how to use VOIP in her current Allstate network. |
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yahoo2003
join:2007-11-02
Mclean, VA
| reply to voipdabbler
Re: VOIP only as stable as your ISP
said by voipdabbler :yahoo, Just remember that in addition to technical glitches with your VOIP provider, your VOIP service is only as stable as your ISP. If you're experiencing any reoccurring problems with your ISP, it will mean outages for VOIP service. Yes, many VOIP providers will allow calls to rollover to a backup number, like a cell phone, but it's a factor to consider. Fax, well make sure your wife's fax machine can be set to transmit at lower rates, like 9600 (14400 at the most). Slower is better with trying to fax via IP, it's still not as reliable as a phone line. In our area, Verizon DSL and Cox HSI have been very reliable. If network is down, she won't be able to do business anyway because most software are run through internet connection. Rollover to backup number is very nice feature.
Fax baud rate can be slowed by many fax machines and modems, I agree it may not be enough to have reliable fax through VOIP line. Besides, she will need to keep at least one traditional fax line anyway if we choice DSL. |
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