New Business Phone System - recommendations?

[zuki79]

you can build a phone system your self (i did) the software to run it all is free (open source)

you will need a computer to run the system, a "normal" household computer woudl be enough to run the system.

download an install Ubuntu (free version of windows) then install software called Asterisk. this is what most phone systems are based on

i know this is a brief intro to Asterisk but drop me a PM if you want more details

 

[sixeighth]

I would love to try Asterisk, especially given the money it could save us, but the cost of the card is prohibitive (I'm wary of getting so far then having to give up thereby wasting money).

 

[zuki79]

what (phone) lines have you got coming into the building?

if you have a decent broadband connection you coudl always just transfer all the numbers to SIP?

we have ISDN30, POTS and SIP coming into our box!!

 

[sixeighth]

We have ISDN30 (8 channels) coming in to our current office and are looking at putting a similar line into the new office. That might change if we can afford to go for a dedicated cable service (at least 2meg synchronous, 1:1) that gives us sufficient bandwidth for VoIP only although we are going to need something as a backup.

I don't know much about SIP but it sounds like that's going to be more prevalent?

 

[zuki79]

we have 15 channels on our ISDN30 whcih we have coming via a Digium card (i think it was about £300) TDM something i think is the model

we have 6 different sites around the Uk which all had ISDN2e's we transferred the numbers over to sip an got rid of the ISDN2e's (saving a fortune) an moved these onto sip.

i "think" any VOIP PBX will support SIP Trunks. a number transferred onto a trunk costs us about £6 per month from Voiceflex. each trunk has two channels aswell.

if you dont mind getting your hands dirty with Asterisk coding you will be fine. an besides hardware its basically free! we use Linksys/ Cicso headset an have hot desk users in our call center all run from Asterisk

 

[sixeighth]

Given the potential savings it's probably worth buying a card to set up a test system in our current office - assuming I can hook a test system up to our current ISDN line out of office hours. It will be another few months before we have a line at the new office.

Many thanks for your input zuki79 - further reasons to look at Asterisk.

 

[sixeighth]

Got the bug to build a PBX now, spending the weekend looking at the O'Reilly book on Asterisk (v1.4). Still don't know if I can use it with existing digital handsets (Optiset) or if we need to purchase VoIP handsets - will call one of the card suppliers this week - but it would be ideal if could try it out for the remaining few months at our current office.

Going the Asterisk route should give us more to spend on a dedicated cable link.

 

[sixeighth]

- but it would be ideal if could try it out for the remaining few months at our current office.

Don't know why I've assumed we can just use Asterisk as a replacement for the Siemens switch - looks like it's for VoIP so this won't work at our current site given our poor Broadband service.

Even if we do get a decent link at the new office I don't know if that will be enough for VoIP - is quality of call dependent on the rest of the Internet?

 

[bernardgreen]

Even if we do get a decent link at the new office I don't know if that will be enough for VoIP - is quality of call dependent on the rest of the Internet?

Very much so. And it can vary from minute to minute if the routing over the internet changes during the call.

One minute the call can be clear speech with no echo and no delay and then the next minute it can be distorted, a few seconds delay for the speech to reach the other end and loud echoes being returned.

Some VoiP connections are simplex. ( speech only in one direction at a time ) so you cannot hear the other person if they try to say something while you are speaking.

Calling a business and getting a poor VoIP speech connection suggests to me ( and others ) that the business is cost cutting and the initial impression is therefore not a good one.

VoIP may be acceptable ( tolerable ) for internal communications it may not be acceptable for communication with the public and /or other businesses.

 

[sixeighth]

Calling a business and getting a poor VoIP speech connection suggests to me ( and others ) that the business is cost cutting and the initial impression is therefore not a good one.

VoIP may be acceptable ( tolerable ) for internal communications it may not be acceptable for communication with the public and /or other businesses.

Although it might save us money we wouldn't want an inferior phone system so it's back to a direct replacement - iPECS is the likely forerunner at the moment.

I can always experiment with Asterisk and try it in the future if we end up with VoIP-capable handsets.

Thanks for helping to clarify things.

 

[Ltnman]

BT does a phone system called BCM (Business Communication Manager) It can use digital handsets or IP phones or a combination of both plus analogue for faxes and PDQ machines etc. Even with non IP handsets you can still integrate voicemail and Exchange but all I will say is don’t make it complicated. You might work in IT but the rest of your team doesn’t.

I recently installed an IP phone system for a doctors surgery which was picked by an IT savvy doctor. It did everything but the rest of the doctors and staff hated it and went back to conventional phones after 12 months.

I would stick to real phones that work when networks are down. They can still plug into CAT 5 wiring but can be patched to a patch panel with extension numbers on it or use existing telephone cable. Give them voicemail accessed through the phone and a direct dial number. That’s all most people want. If you really want more then software can be added to the PCs for those who might use it. http://btunifiedcommunicator.com/

Finally choose a provider carefully. Joe Blogs Telecom might offer a great package today but could be history tomorrow when you need your phone system fixed.

 

[zuki79]

we are based in Aintree (liverpool) an have sites (7) across the UK we are connected via site-site VPN via both BT and Virgin Media residential broadband connections. these VPN connections carry both terminal services (computer connections) as well as Voice (voip)

we did have NetEquip from BT but both up & down speeds were awful at the price we were paying, we currently have 4 10Mb BB connections through Virgin which we use with our Asterisk server.

to date we dont have any issues with our UK calls an we have around 400+ calls both inbound and outbound. we occasionally have issues with our USA branches, this is to do with SIP provider over in the US

aslong as you have QoS (Quality of Service) configured both on all switch gear and handsets aswell as gateways you should be ok

 

[zuki79]

Got the bug to build a PBX now, spending the weekend looking at the O'Reilly book on Asterisk (v1.4)

thats were we started to look, at first we built our Asterisk server as a "what can it do" we now have CTI (SQL integration) Asterisk can do basically anything you want it to do, aslong as you can tell it what to do

 

[bernardgreen]

If you are going to build a PABX then do it properly.

Read Atkinsons Telephony and the earlier Herbert & Procter book about telephones and automatic electro-mechanical exchanges.

Connecting some digital devices to a computor and running a software program that allows them to talk to each other is not really a PABX but a computer simulation of a PABX.

But then I cut my teeth on real telephone equipment.


Disclaimer .... I accept that modern electronic equipment is (normally) more reliable than electro-mechanical equipment. Is faster and offers far more features that was economically possible electro-mechanical equipment. But today we old one's miss the clicks, clunks and other sounds of our youth. And meeting new people "on line" happened with mis-connected calls and crossed lines that often happened when a mechanism didn't operate properly.

 

[sixeighth]

aslong as you have QoS (Quality of Service) configured both on all switch gear and handsets aswell as gateways you should be ok

I wouldn't be concerned about site-to-site links (if we set any up) but would we be ok with calls across the Internet?

If we can get a 2Mb each way, 1:1, connection then I assume we can ensure QoS leaving our site but I don't know what happens after that - perhaps that depends on the destination and whether or not the PSTN network is used?

If we can get a dedicated line I would hope we can go for more than 2Mb.