Re: So is VOIP still shit ?

In article <IY6Gk.31748$qw.12994@newsfe18.ams2>,
Phil McKerracher <usenet@mckerracher.net> wrote:
>"Gordon Henderson" <gordon+usenet@drogon.net> wrote in message
>news:gc88du$1oh5$1@energise.enta.net...
>
>> And what problems are there dialling free, premium rate or emergency
>> numbers? Oh sorry I forgot - I only work with business solutions...
>
>So for the domestic users are you saying it's possible but too expensive?
>
>> ... I have many customers right
>> now where VoIP is their only method of making and making calls.
>> They've weighed up the risks and taken that decision - they have a
>> fall-back position, even if it's only 1 or 2 analogue lines carrying
>> their ADSL, but it's still something....
>
>I'm a bit confused by this - are you saying VoIP on its own is still too
>risky or not?

It's not my job to do a risk assesment for my customers. (Unless they
pay me to) However, part of my business (and therefore income!) relies
on VoIP, so while I may appear biased here, I've made a risk assesment
for myself and am confident that VoIP is a viable way to earn a few
pennies.

Everything has risks - you just need to work out what's acceptable for
you. So, for example, in a typicical office, unless you spend/research,
etc. on diverse routing, the ducting coming out will carry all the (BT)
copper and fibre for the whole building, so if a JCB goes through it
the chances of losing everything at once is quite high - so that leaves
you with the choice of media and transport reliability vs. cost. POTS,
ISDN2/30 are terminated at the exchange and from there into the PSTN -
VoIP is carried over broadband through the exchange and via the "network"
before it hits the PSTN.  There's a lot more to potentially go wrong
with the data before it hits the PSTN.

VoIP is generally cheaper than ISDN2/30, (in terms of equipment costs
and rental - not always on call fees!) but is that enough to make you
choose VoIP over ISDN2/30? Not my job to decide...

And so on - weigh up the risks against the savings to be made. Right
now we have a "credit crunch" and people want to save money, so more
people are looking at migrating away from ISDN2 and to a lesser extent
ISDN30 and into VoIP. (One of the issues is the number of channels you
can carry via VoIP - with ISDN30 it's obviously "up to" 30 with VoIP it
depends on the uptream bandwidth avalable and the codec you choose. 20
concurrent calls over a business class ADSL connection is perfectly
fesable with the right router and g729 codec)

(and that reminds me, I did an install just over a year ago - pure
ISDN2, but now their 1-year contract with BT will be up, so I wonder if
they want to move to VoIP :)

>> And for the really small business with just one line ... VoIP
>> gives them 2 things - one is a simplified office wiring and the other
>> is flexibility in outgoing call handling.
>
>But a simple PBX (like the Cybergear Gold I used to have) would do all that
>with their existing wiring. Sure, VoIP switches are now a lot cheaper and
>better than the old analogue or ISDN PBXen, but that's just because
>technology moves on, isn't it? I'm not sure what "extra flexibility"
you're
>talking about here.

>Isn't the real benefit of such an installation (and I'm not denying there is
>one) simply the fact that they've effectively already paid for the IP
>connection, so the connectivity is almost free?

In this instance (You've cut what this install was about - a small
office/shop with 4 staff & 1 POTS line), the flexibility means I can
re-use the existing cat-5 cabling, (which saves on install costs - as
right now they have trailing cables and DECT handsets), they can use
VoIP for outgoing calls which frees up the single BT analogue line for
incoming calls and the PBX gives them features they've been after for
a long time - call recording, voicemail, call transfers, large phone
book, dial from web, Outlook integration, and so on. They had already
tried VoIP - they have a sipgate account which I can port in, but they
didn't have the in-house expertiese to build their own system, or tie
mtime and effort to fiddle, buy, test, try, curse, and swear at the
things they were trying...

But hey - they sent me an invitation to tender, I replied, visited them,
sent them a quote and they signed on the dotted line! 8 days from signing
to installation. I like jobs like that :)

Gordon
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