Telephony from the ground up - help!

[asuasol]

Hello,
I've been asked to set up telephony for a small warehouse/office of 5 users. I initially suggested VoIP and COVAD suggested I use ADSL at 768kbps. Is this a sound and viable solution? What do you know about COVAD and are there better CLECs out there?

 

[artesian2000]

IMHO!
If occasional call quality isn't a big deal Covad hosted isn't a bad play. If phone service is paramount go get 5 POTS lines with voicemail. You may also want to look and the local cable and phone companies are doing in the IPtel space.

 

[Dexman]

Just my feelings. I would be leery about using non-managed VOIP service for a business application.

A few POTs lines with a telephone system geared for small applications, such as the Avaya Partner ACS (R6) coupled with an Avaya Partner Voice Messaging and you have a versatile phone system.

 

[JediBMC]

I would strongly recommend against using VoIP as the inbound lines for a business. The residential market for VoIP providers is flooded with problems in relation to number portability, e911, quality, and lack of regulation. Do you really want to saddle a business with these problems?

POTS service is still the standard for any small business, and there is good reason for that.

-Brian-
Semper Paratus

 

[GHTROUT]

Oh geez, you'll be getting calls all the time unless you put in a very traditional "always working - stocked everywhere" system.

Think of this idea:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=att+974

(I don't want to plug any one dealer)

No KSU. Add DSL to any line. 768 is way high unless they are downloading pictures all day long.

The 4th line maybe you connect to a paging system. If the warehouse is mostly quiet, get a talk-back paging system so the person can just yell "ya, whataya want" Cheaper yet, get two-way radio from almost any department store.

If this is a startup company or if these people are not excited by "cool stuff" like many of us -- then by all means the minimum is best if it does not hinder them from meeting their customer expectations...

In the end, they will know you gave them a solid solution that isn't so complicated that you will be the only person they can find if it acts up.

Phone breaks?? They call Anixter or get one on Ebay.




~

http://www.GHTROUT.com/

 

[Dexman]

I've worked with AT&T (made by VTech) NOKSU telephones in the past.

In VTech tradition, the telephone units pack many features into a small package and the units are attractively priced.

A few things to be mindful of if the decision is made to purchase the phones:

1) In order for all functions to work properly, you are limited to which model telephones you can use in the system.

2) VTech tends to not keep models in production for very long so the phones you buy today will probably be discontinued next year. However, chances are good that the new models will be backwards compatible.

3) VTech's quality control has been suspect in recent years. The AT&T 944 NOKSU telephones that I've worked with would generate an intermittent audible background whine during telephone calls. Replacement units did not resolve the issue.

4) The auto attendant found on the 984 model (and the older 964 model) has operating quirks. The quality of audio recordings is, at best, mediocre.

Despite the points I've noted above, these units do fill a need (otherwise VTech would stop production). If their weaknesses can be tolerated, these phones might be a valid alternative.

 

[CBasicAsslember]

asuasol,

ADSL is an acronym for "Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line". That means that upload and download rates are not the same (download being the faster). With VOIP the lowest data rate is the important one. The 768kb/s you quoted is likely the faster download rate, the upload rate on ADSL can be as slow as 64kb/s. Go with the standard POTS lines.

 

[Lundah]

POTS lines and a KSU-less system would work well, but you didn't tell us much about what the usage will be. Are the 5 users going to be on the phone a lot? What kind of growth are they expecting over the next 3-5 years? The needs may warrant a bit more than a KSU-less or hosted solution, perhaps something along the lines of a small Avaya Partner or Norstar CICS system. You may also want to take a look at a VoIP server-based solution, such as Asterisk.

 

[carpetflyer]

I currently have a hosted voip solution running on a covad line. You have to have at least 1:1 upload/download ratio if you plan on a hosted VoIP solution. Also remember Covad's ADSL does not have good QoS compared their SDSL. Your voice traffic will be on the same line as everyones data traffic. So on peak hours you will most likely get jitter and large latency.

I also have to say, the sound quality will not be as good as a digital phone connected to a POTS line. But you will save costs because you can get call center features without buying a PBX box.

 

[aarenot]

5 phones, in a small whse. you should not need 5 lines, unless you have an unusual high call volume. unless no one is ever out in the whse., you should need two, maybe three lines. check out engenius online, they make a good cordless system, if you do not need vm. if you do need vm, you could put in any used partner phones system with vm in front of the engenius, and put each line on the engenius as an analog ext off the partner. otherwise, vm on the lines from the telco, or an answering machine. range on the engenius cordless is less than 250,000 sq feet.