TrentGreenawalt
Technical User
We have two 3300 controllers, running on the IP Flex network of AT&T. We chose to go with SIP connections at both sites due to a huge cost savings over a traditional PRI. We have 12 SIP channels at our main branch and 6 SIP at our branch office. We are connected to each other via 1.5 MPLS, and we have a 3.0meg internet/voice connection at corporate, and a single T-1 voice/data at the branch. As far as I “know” we have and still are running G711 for all voice/fax/VM/auto-attendant/MOH traffic.
We went live Aug/Sept of last year 2010. At the time, we did not purchase the DSP modules or G729 compression licenses, and our installation went smooth (for the most part). I assume we didn’t need them, nor had I even heard of this G729 except in passing. Sure we had our issues here and there, but sooner or later they were mostly resolved except for one. We were never able to get MOH (Music on Hold) to broadcast outbound, on an outside call transferred back outbound. Example: Owner calls in on cell, receptionist can't find who he is looking for, so he asked to be transferred to (Joe's Cell), when the owner is placed on hold while the receptionist is transferring to Joe's cell, he hears dead air, then when the phone is ringing (even after release by receptionist) he hears nothing until Joe picks up.
We went round and round with AT&T and Mitel and neither wanted to own up to it. During the troubleshooting of this case (note: it has been 9 months now), an additional MOH problem came to light.
Enter the gorilla in the room, we lost any/all music on hold (MOH) outbound in any scenario, now according to AT&T they are supposedly REQUIRING G729 in order for the 3300 to communicate with AT&T routers (IP FLEX) network. I am not sure on the "AT&T corporate statement" on this, but this is what we got from a tier 3 tech on a conference call with about 8 other AT&T brass.
Furthermore, it was "implied" that if we didn't buy the G729 licenses and DSP card from Mitel that we could potentially lose outbound VM access, auto-attendant, and a few other voice type items. From what I understand, the only reason our 3300 is working with IP Flex SIP right now is due to the phones we use 5320-5330-5340 which natively compress voice to the G729 codec by default.
So I know this is a lot to digest, but we are sitting here with a $5k bill to "upgrade" just to get our MOH music on hold to work, and potentially stop a serious outage down the road. According to the AT&T tech, AT&T will be putting in protection mechanisms into their routers to will stop all G711 "voice" content. The only reason AT&T allows some form of G711 is for Fax use, when the user don’t use T38 for faxes, and the "loop hole" they "fixed" (broke in my case), was they were allowing our MOH to go out thinking it was a fax transmission. They now deep inspect the packets and have stopped this ability.
What do we do? What would you do? If this is in fact true, it will have a HUGE impact on both Mitel customers and AT&T as well. I personally think that Mitel should be making this baseline if this is fact the case. We did work with a vendor, but I don’t think it is their “fault” either.
Thanks for the help,
Trent Greenawalt
Best Regards,
Trent Greenawalt
IT Manager
Milwaukee, WI
We went live Aug/Sept of last year 2010. At the time, we did not purchase the DSP modules or G729 compression licenses, and our installation went smooth (for the most part). I assume we didn’t need them, nor had I even heard of this G729 except in passing. Sure we had our issues here and there, but sooner or later they were mostly resolved except for one. We were never able to get MOH (Music on Hold) to broadcast outbound, on an outside call transferred back outbound. Example: Owner calls in on cell, receptionist can't find who he is looking for, so he asked to be transferred to (Joe's Cell), when the owner is placed on hold while the receptionist is transferring to Joe's cell, he hears dead air, then when the phone is ringing (even after release by receptionist) he hears nothing until Joe picks up.
We went round and round with AT&T and Mitel and neither wanted to own up to it. During the troubleshooting of this case (note: it has been 9 months now), an additional MOH problem came to light.
Enter the gorilla in the room, we lost any/all music on hold (MOH) outbound in any scenario, now according to AT&T they are supposedly REQUIRING G729 in order for the 3300 to communicate with AT&T routers (IP FLEX) network. I am not sure on the "AT&T corporate statement" on this, but this is what we got from a tier 3 tech on a conference call with about 8 other AT&T brass.
Furthermore, it was "implied" that if we didn't buy the G729 licenses and DSP card from Mitel that we could potentially lose outbound VM access, auto-attendant, and a few other voice type items. From what I understand, the only reason our 3300 is working with IP Flex SIP right now is due to the phones we use 5320-5330-5340 which natively compress voice to the G729 codec by default.
So I know this is a lot to digest, but we are sitting here with a $5k bill to "upgrade" just to get our MOH music on hold to work, and potentially stop a serious outage down the road. According to the AT&T tech, AT&T will be putting in protection mechanisms into their routers to will stop all G711 "voice" content. The only reason AT&T allows some form of G711 is for Fax use, when the user don’t use T38 for faxes, and the "loop hole" they "fixed" (broke in my case), was they were allowing our MOH to go out thinking it was a fax transmission. They now deep inspect the packets and have stopped this ability.
What do we do? What would you do? If this is in fact true, it will have a HUGE impact on both Mitel customers and AT&T as well. I personally think that Mitel should be making this baseline if this is fact the case. We did work with a vendor, but I don’t think it is their “fault” either.
Thanks for the help,
Trent Greenawalt
Best Regards,
Trent Greenawalt
IT Manager
Milwaukee, WI