The business office at the school where I am employed as a telecommunications specialist has received a proposal from AT&T to switch from three current main T-1 PRI circuits to AT&T "Flex IP". Note these circuits carry all the school's DID numbers (a couple hundred) and approximately 20 fax and credit card modems. I have been asked to do some research on this and would appreciate any feedback - good/bad. Note the current T-1 PRI circuits do their job relatively flawlessly but some admin folks like the "VOIP" connotation and want to jump on the bandwagon. I want to know what kind of situation I am in store for.  

ringydingy,

First of all, how much will you be saving with AT&T flex? Is it significant enough to swap out your reliabel PRI lines?
Will you be getting additional features, such as site to site calling for free, outbound caller ID, e911?
Will you get direct trunk over flow, when one circuit goes down will it automatically overflow to another flex circuit?
Lastly, faxing over IP is still not very reliable. Most carriers will either demand that you use T.38 (which only a handful of pbx's support) or they will state that fax over IP is not supported. This is the biggest issue. You do not want to convert to "IP" and then none of your faxes work.
Just because the school district like the word "IP" make sure they understand what they are paying for.

Sal-

www.Telecomp-inc.com
"Voice and Data Solutions"

Thanks for the reply. To answer your first question - no cost savings. Posed the question regarding fax lines - they admitted yes the solution at this time for reliability is to purchase POTS lines (additional cost) for fax modem - how ever "the labs are working on a solution". Already have site to site internal four digit dialing in place using QSIG - no cost savings there. I had to make clear to the superiors that this is "IP trunking" not "IP phones". Decision was made to stick with current PRI circuits.