Voip for small business

[fordracing19]

Looking to maybe switching to voip for my business and increasing my data package. Currently we are on a 10mbx2mb LTE wireless package but have been having issues. My provider is trying to work out a deal with us and running fiber to our building and could have speeds of 50mbx8mb. The price is double of what we currently pay but if I drop my phone service and switch to voip it's a wash. We have 2 phone lines that we use a base and 2 cordless that are all 2 line phones and have a 3rd line that is fax only. I have looked at the Fax Central service and it's a lot cheaper than my 3rd line and we only do maybe 100 faxes a month.

Any suggestions for voip service or phones? Is the reception quality good? I can't justify the double in price for internet without saving somewhere else.

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[Chili]

Looking to maybe switching to voip for my business and increasing my data package. Currently we are on a 10mbx2mb LTE wireless package but have been having issues. My provider is trying to work out a deal with us and running fiber to our building and could have speeds of 50mbx8mb. The price is double of what we currently pay but if I drop my phone service and switch to voip it's a wash. We have 2 phone lines that we use a base and 2 cordless that are all 2 line phones and have a 3rd line that is fax only. I have looked at the Fax Central service and it's a lot cheaper than my 3rd line and we only do maybe 100 faxes a month.

Any suggestions for voip service or phones? Is the reception quality good? I can't justify the double in price for internet without saving somewhere else.

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Every large company you call, particularly those that have call centers, are on VOIP. I cannot tell the difference, personally. We actually just lost our only analog line (for faxing) when switching phone systems (ShoreTel to Avaya). We scan to email, then use eFax to send it.

I have no solid recommendations since I just use the shit, but I know there are a few on here that can probably help more.

[fordracing19]

Thanks Chili

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[BP]

Just make sure you don't need any kind of analog connection for alarm monitoring. If security is a concern you'll need to be able to use a cellular system with a battery backup, otherwise all a thief would need to do is kill the power.

Faxing over VOIP can work but it's far from reliable. If you have a reliable cell phone signal you can probably get an app that'll let you fax.

[fordracing19]

From what I was reading I need a seperate line for each phone. We currently have a base with 2 cordless and a seperate 2 line in my office so 4 lines. 4 voip looks to be more expensive than what we currently pay.

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[BP]

http://www.obihai.com/obiplus

$10 a month for up to 12 lines. I've been using their single line device at home with google voice for free for two years now. Unfortunately big telecom is shutting that down due to E911 problems but it'll only be $40 a year when the rules change.

Or you can go out and buy a Cisco router and the phones that go with it for $1500 and pay a license fee.

[big_tiger]

Also make sure you have local 911 capability.

[ceyko]

So VOIP is Voice Over Internet Protocol. There are 2 main perceptions of it, but it can be one or both version.

Version 1: IP phones in the local offices, and devices to put their media streams to PRIs, FXO (POTS lines), SIP sessions and various other carrier connections. This tends to be the most reliable and feature rich variation.

Version 2: Utilizing the Internet for voice/media/other streams. Services such as Skype accomplish this type of service and there are various hosted solutions.

In the Cisco world we generally don't care how many "lines" an old system has currently. 1 line on a decent end point can handle 50 calls and a lot of the end points can handle 200. We generally limit them to 4 as most folks can't handle many more calls without additional software to assist.

Anyway, the thing to remember about Internet calls is there is ZERO QoS (Quality of Service). So you have no control over the bandwidth, queuing and so on. These types of calls tend to be okay, but you WILL have audio problems and problems with whatever other services you utilize. It's not an "if" thing, just when and how much. For a lot of folks the service is fine, but depending on the business and features you need these systems/services are fairly limiting. There are always exceptions to the rules, but when you're budgeting and only need base services this almost always will be the case.

Also, for 2-3 active calls at ones or even 6 - the amount of bandwidth is negligible. At most 1 call/session would utilize around 87Kbps. HOWEVER, if your Inet bandwidth is highly utilized it would be ideal to police it and reserve bandwidth for voice.

Cisco has solutions for what you're looking to do. However, up front costs are higher than most other monthly services. Additionally, most Cisco partners utilize 3rd party faxing solutions and they typically have a cloud based (monthly) solution that would be worth investigating. Xmedius is the one I prefer at this point in time - I believe their base offering is 200 a month which allows for 2500 fax pages per month (Different that faxes per month).

The general rule is higher upfront cost = cheaper long term cost but a better ROI. Then monthly services generally really don't have an ROI but sometimes those fit the budget better.

Also, you need to determine for sure if you want on-prem or cloud based.

One of my downfalls is my honesty in this business. With that said, I think for your situation from what I'm reading - a services like ... http://www.skype.com/en/business/ and similar maybe worth investigating. My guess is you have no one on staff to reliably handle an on-site phone system. It's most likely an additional function on top of a primary job and other hats being worn within the company. As mentioned above - these will NOT be perfect, but they will have lower up front costs and provide a fair amount of functionality. I believe Skype and other services do allow for customizing 911 information as well, but I don't know the details. It was touched on above, but make sure you know how 911 works with whatever service you purchase. It's a huge liability and about the only life/death situation you deal with in the corporate world.

Past that, alarm systems/elevators...etc typically still maintain dedicated POTS lines - but I'm thinking you do not have that concern at this point based off your past. (Making a lot of assumptions) On-prem solutions...etc can accommodate these systems, but you need to be sure to maintain power via UPS and generator - so it is on a case by case basis for what we recommend...etc...etc.

I could type for hours about these things and I've only scratched the surface. PM me if you have questions, need services reviewed or even want to go down the path of an on-site solution. I don't mind helping either way. I do this stuff for a living and go down some rabbit holes. It seems in your situation you do not need an over engineered solution though - but there are features you may want even if at a slightly extra cost.

[fordracing19]

Thanks for the reply Ceyko. With all the research and calling I think I am best off by just dropping my fax line and using a service or hook it to my 2nd line. We receive very few faxes and keep the machine off most the time to avoid spam faxes and send maybe 10 pages a month for customers. We charge $.50 a page and dont advertise to have fax service but do it to help people out. With 2 lines im guessing the fees and taxes will drop some so I'm looking around $80 month. With the added trouble and phone cost I figure I'm best to stick with a land line. With the savings of dropping my 3rd line that helps offset the additional cost of the 50mb data that I would like to get.

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