TheatreGuy
IS-IT--Management
We could potentially save many dollars if our Magix could use VOIP for outbound dialing (long distance). Has anyone ever done this on a Magix?
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Can Magix use VOIP for outbound dialing? 5
- Thread starter TheatreGuy
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- #21
dagwoodsystems
Programmer
Consider calling on Paetec ( for a quote. I find them to be very reliable, inexpensive and one of the carriers that seems to understand what PRI Custom protocol really is.
Tom is right. Make sure that you see the pricing for one, two and three year contracts. The more time you commit to buying a carrier's service, the more favorable the pricing will be.
Unless your internet demands are really low, I would not consider a "flex" product. Flex circuits are funny animals that carry both voice and data, but not in a strictly channelized fashion. You get full T1 data as long as all phones are idle. As phone demand increases, the data portion is "dug into" by a measure of 55Kbps or so. If you're getting busies with 11 lines, your company must have 25-30 employees. But even if you're smaller than that, you probably wouldn't want to have all those calls knock your bandwidth down to 700Kbps.
Tim Alberstein
Tom is right. Make sure that you see the pricing for one, two and three year contracts. The more time you commit to buying a carrier's service, the more favorable the pricing will be.
Unless your internet demands are really low, I would not consider a "flex" product. Flex circuits are funny animals that carry both voice and data, but not in a strictly channelized fashion. You get full T1 data as long as all phones are idle. As phone demand increases, the data portion is "dug into" by a measure of 55Kbps or so. If you're getting busies with 11 lines, your company must have 25-30 employees. But even if you're smaller than that, you probably wouldn't want to have all those calls knock your bandwidth down to 700Kbps.
Tim Alberstein
- Thread starter
- #22
TheatreGuy
IS-IT--Management
It is obvious to me now that I have come to right place for information. Your responses have helped steer me in the right direction and saved me much time and anguish.
As to the number of lines, during our peak employee portion of the season we will have anywhere between 120 and 150 employees. That level will last for three to four months and during the winter months we will only have 20. Of course, when we start to sell tickets in the spring the inbound traffic can be tremendous and we have never had the capacity to know how many calls we have been missing.
As to the number of lines, during our peak employee portion of the season we will have anywhere between 120 and 150 employees. That level will last for three to four months and during the winter months we will only have 20. Of course, when we start to sell tickets in the spring the inbound traffic can be tremendous and we have never had the capacity to know how many calls we have been missing.
Your service provider should be able to do a "TRAFFIC STUDY" to provide those answers.
Of course, good luck finding anyone in this day and age that knows what that is.
Of course, good luck finding anyone in this day and age that knows what that is.
- Thread starter
- #24
TheatreGuy
IS-IT--Management
Merlinman, that is funny you bring that up because I have asked our telco for that two different times and never received any results from it. Supposedly there is one going on now but we will see.
I knew that we could have one done because I worked in a call center in a previous life.
I knew that we could have one done because I worked in a call center in a previous life.
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Yes, the "BUSY STUDY"/"TRAFFIC STUDY", a very useful tool! But most telcos ignore its existence. They have been around as long as the Bell System. If you have requested one and have had no results escalate the request to a supervisor level and insist on a paper copy! The Bell companies never charged for them. I don't know about the independent Telcos. They can be set up in different ways, all real CO switches have this capability to provide this type of data. When I worked for the Paging company I had scheduled Busy Studies for all our end office DID trunk groups for the 3rd week of the month 7/24. It would provide peg counts, overflow counts, and maintenance counts or time value for trunks out-of-service. I found these very useful.
Paetec being an exception, I wonder if any of the CLECs even know what they are!!
Be very careful in your evaluation and choice of provider and ask ALL the questions and verify the answers you get from them. You have to be critical, because it's your business!
....JIM....
Paetec being an exception, I wonder if any of the CLECs even know what they are!!
Be very careful in your evaluation and choice of provider and ask ALL the questions and verify the answers you get from them. You have to be critical, because it's your business!
....JIM....
- Thread starter
- #26
TheatreGuy
IS-IT--Management
I received word from the people at itquotes.com that they did not think there was another provider in our area besides Verizon. I think I am up a you know what without a you know what.
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- #27
TheatreGuy
IS-IT--Management
If that indeed holds true then this thread will have gone full circle because I will need our Magix to use VOIP for outbound LD.
MrTelecom1
Vendor
Throwin in my part on the PAETEC reference... I agree, that they have proven to be an excellent Carrier AND ISP.
I like them because you can still talk to someone at the local Switch if necessary! and.., imagine, calling in a Ticket for repair that doesn't get closed 5 minutes after it's opened ... (cough-cough...ahem, ah ATee & Tee.....)
MrTelecom1
Living the AT&T/Lucent/Avaya issues
since 1979!
I like them because you can still talk to someone at the local Switch if necessary! and.., imagine, calling in a Ticket for repair that doesn't get closed 5 minutes after it's opened ... (cough-cough...ahem, ah ATee & Tee.....)
MrTelecom1
Living the AT&T/Lucent/Avaya issues
since 1979!
- Thread starter
- #29
TheatreGuy
IS-IT--Management
I did fill out a sale inquiry for PAETEC this morning but had not heard from them. I will give them a call on Friday and hope that they can service us. From what everyone is saying, I should send them by data and phone business.
Thanks
Thanks
dagwoodsystems
Programmer
And to be fair, we should also put in a plug for Telepacific ( so that no one thinks we're favoring a particular CLEC. I have also had great luck with heating up Telepacific PRI circuits for Legend, Magix and Definity.
Some of the guys here on the board--Jack in particlar--has had positive experiences with Cbeyond as well.
On a different note, I've got two really good spreadsheets for anyone that wants to do their own traffic dimensioning. I'll send you what notes I have on Erlang and Erlang B if you need, too. Math is cool.
One of my customers is the NHRA, who also has what I would describe as a very seasonal business. Any given race track will have heavy voice and data useage for perhaps nine days out of the entire year; the remaining time is completely quiet. By using detailed traffic studies (shucks...I had to go to the drag races for days on end), I was able to do a pretty bang-up calculation of the track's true voice needs. With confidence, we successfully supplanted 74 Centrex lines with a Magix, one PRI and a DSL circuit. The ROI was four months.
Now my situation was somewhat unique in that nearly every phone call made was outbound. You are smart to press the telephone company for a study to help understand what inbound calls, if any, that you are missing.
Tim Alberstein
Some of the guys here on the board--Jack in particlar--has had positive experiences with Cbeyond as well.
On a different note, I've got two really good spreadsheets for anyone that wants to do their own traffic dimensioning. I'll send you what notes I have on Erlang and Erlang B if you need, too. Math is cool.
One of my customers is the NHRA, who also has what I would describe as a very seasonal business. Any given race track will have heavy voice and data useage for perhaps nine days out of the entire year; the remaining time is completely quiet. By using detailed traffic studies (shucks...I had to go to the drag races for days on end), I was able to do a pretty bang-up calculation of the track's true voice needs. With confidence, we successfully supplanted 74 Centrex lines with a Magix, one PRI and a DSL circuit. The ROI was four months.
Now my situation was somewhat unique in that nearly every phone call made was outbound. You are smart to press the telephone company for a study to help understand what inbound calls, if any, that you are missing.
Tim Alberstein
MrTelecom1
Vendor
I would be interested in the Erlang info you have. I previously used Erlang studies extensively on Cigna Healtplans in the earlt 90's. They were very cool. Terranova had some of them built-in to the WinPBX application they had for Definity's ..
MrTelecom1
Re-Living all the AT&T/Lucent/Avaya issues since 1979!
MrTelecom1
Re-Living all the AT&T/Lucent/Avaya issues since 1979!
- Thread starter
- #32
TheatreGuy
IS-IT--Management
I would like to update this thread to let everyone know that has been following this that PAETEC does not provide service to the area that we are in. It was suggested to me to call our Public Utility Office and find out if there is anyone else providing service. This is all a part of the cost of doing business in a rural area.
crumthwacket
Vendor
Just saw this thread so I apologize for this delayed response. I have no direct experience with Packet8, but I have installed 3 traditional systems to replace the Packet8 service that the customers hated - I mean, really hated, due to dropped calls, lousy voice quality, and poor customer service. We all have to eat, and I don't like to disparage other vendors, but there seems to be a lot of unhappy people with that service provider.
- Thread starter
- #34
TheatreGuy
IS-IT--Management
A delayed response is better than no response. I do appreciate the input. Does anyone have any experience with Verizon and their PRI solution? They seem to be our only option at this point and maybe the best solution is to stay with POTS lines.
tdaugirdas
Technical User
Your best solution - may well be to stay with POTs lines for local calling - and get a few Vonage or similar VOIP lines - strictly for outbound long distance calling and/or local toll calling - assuming you have sufficient up/down bandwidth (about 90kbps per Vonage line in use). If you don't need to dial 1+area code for local calls - you can put the Vonage-type lines into a seperate pool for outbound LD calls.
Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com
Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com
- Thread starter
- #36
TheatreGuy
IS-IT--Management
We have what is called a FREEDOM package on 10 of our 11 POTS lines now that gives us unlimited long distance for $21 per month per line.
After all of what I have learned here it looks as though staying with what we have might be our best option.
We did have Avaya give us a demo of the IP Office. I am going to put that on my wish list. Maybe in five years or so we will have a reason to upgrade.
After all of what I have learned here it looks as though staying with what we have might be our best option.
We did have Avaya give us a demo of the IP Office. I am going to put that on my wish list. Maybe in five years or so we will have a reason to upgrade.
dagwoodsystems
Programmer
Would that be the Verizon "Freedom" package? VZN is a great company, and that's a nice service bundle. I actually use it at home!
BTW, anyone interested in the Erlang stuff should send email to tim at (my tech-tips handle) dot com. There's a rule against posting mail addys here, so forgive the cryptic wording.
Tim Alberstein
BTW, anyone interested in the Erlang stuff should send email to tim at (my tech-tips handle) dot com. There's a rule against posting mail addys here, so forgive the cryptic wording.
Tim Alberstein
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