Home: Message List - Is VOIP reliable enough for running a small business?

Re: Is VOIP reliable enough for running a small business?

intechspecial — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 10:12:49 GMT

I also believe that you get what you pay for, and unfortunately so did the Better Business Bureau.

I am in the business of Information Technology, and my qualifications, training, and experience would have to say that VOIP is not the best choice for business.

It might save you a dollar, on your phone line, but how secure is it really?

Is there evidence to support the security issue with VOIP.

Well of course, I would not be stating the issue if there was not. The VOIP providers will try to hide this fact.

There is of course the issue with someone tapping into your phone outside of your building, but it is much easier to catch someone tapping into your phone line outside the building than it is to see the hacker listening in on your conversation across the internet.

Re: Is VOIP reliable enough for running a small business?

macro_comput — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:17:12 GMT

I believe in a comprehensive approach and not just one way and that is looking at the dollar with tunnel vision and thinking that you have the best deal or setup before you instead of hiring a consultant.... I believe that it is important to find a company that understands the importance of being colorful with their approach to solving the complexity of communicating with customers and business... I have seen a lot of companies that take this for a joke and give you very high phone bills and so on and it's not fair to the business owner at all....

I think that this gentleman is paying entirely too much for his voip services..... I thank that he could have done a traditional approach that would have been very cost effective and complete... with no problems at all... However, because his specialty is in another field he doesn't know that he's robbing himself of money every month... My suggestion to you is to get with a consultant that has saving your back pocket in mind and at the same time getting you quality, affordable service also.

thank you

Re: Is VOIP reliable enough for running a small business?

intechspecial — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 07:24:49 GMT

In my case it is a horrible choice for business.

On a regular basis, people would call and get a dead line.

I contacted customer service regarding this and other issues, and it was impossible to get appropriate help. I had to go to the BBB to resolve the issue, and was refunded for only one month of service.

VOIP utilizes the internet. It is possible for a hacker to "hack into" a VOIP line. Not a good idea in the competitive business world.

I contacted my VOIP carrier again, and they agreed there was an issue, but offered no support or resolution, only stating they could get into a hard line as well, from outside the building.

The VOIP carrier I used was the number one carrier in the business, and one of the first as well.

In my eyes, the VOIP technology has a long way to go before completely successful and secure.

Re: Is VOIP reliable enough for running a small business?

crewology.com — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 18:54:59 GMT

HI lovemyPYP, I THINK YOU SHOULD LOOK AT ALL YOUR OPTIONS FIRST ALL VOIP SERVICE PROVIDERS ARE NOT EQUAL OR CHOOSE 3 TO LOOK AT DONT JUST GO WITH THE FIRST ONE. THEY ALL WILL HAVE GREAT FEATURES, YOU CAN DO SO MUCH MORE VIA VoIP THEN LAND LINES. RINGCENTRAL IS GREAT AND I THINK ATT OR VERIZON OFFER VOIP SERVICE THEY MAYBE A LITTLE MORE IN TERMS OF COST,BUT THEN THEY WILL SAY WE'VE BEEN AROUND FOR WHATEVER TIME THAT SAYS SOMETHING ,BUT NOT EVERYTHING YOU KNOW, LOOK AT GLOBALINX THEY ARE NOT AS HARD OF AS VONAGE OR RINGCENTRAL,BUT THEY PROVIDE GREAT SERVICES, JUST LIKE THE OTHERS.
AND THEY HAVE VoIP VIDEO PHONES THIS IS GREAT IF YOU ARE IN A NETWORK OF USERS THAT HAVE THE PHONE SERVICE YOU CAN SEE EACH OTHER AND THESE CALLS ARE FREE WORLD WIDE AS LONG AS THEY USE GLOBALINX VoIP SERVICES AND IF YOU JUST WANT TO USE YOU OWN PHONES YOU CAN,BUT WHY WOULD YOU WHEN YOU CAN USE A VIDEO PHONE.

GREAT FOR WORK FAMILY AND FRIENDS
FOR MORE INFO. E-MAIL: gary@crewology.com

Re: Is VOIP reliable enough for running a small business?

JiMan56 — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:22:38 GMT

vonage leases their network elements- they have little control over QOS, and cannot- despite whatever they say, guarantee much better than 99.9, which is not very reliable. The costs also sound high. If you are thinking of this as an investment into your future or as an upgrading of your system, why bother? No soft phone? Come on.... Keep looking....

Re: Is VOIP reliable enough for running a small business?

stick2basics — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:24:17 GMT

Yes, that's a per year charge.

Re: Is VOIP reliable enough for running a small business?

moogrdotcom — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:22:39 GMT

I use Voip and couldn't be happier. I pay 1.95/month per DID (number) and then 3.95 per toll free DID. I pay less than 1 cent a minute for domestic and about 1.8 cents a minute for toll free anywhere in the US.

DID's in Voip act like PRI's so you can have multiple channels incoming/outgoing and just pay for the minutes used. I purchased some grandstream voip phones, use voip software and have recently started to purchase cisco voip (sip) phones.

I use Asterisk hosted on my co-located server and it allows me to work from where ever i have internet. Pretty neat since i can setup conf calls, get my voicemails in email and get everything i need. I even run my faxes through asterisk/voip. Of course i have multiple providers setup and i have QoS enabled on my router and i use a v-lan to segregate the traffic as much as possible and made sure not to cheat myself on bandwidth. With the telco savings alone it was a no-brainer to upgrade our internet service at home and the office.

Re: Is VOIP reliable enough for running a small business?

CorpCons08 — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:17:00 GMT

I think that was supposed to be 19.99/mo.

Re: Is VOIP reliable enough for running a small business?

dedtees — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:07:25 GMT

Stick2basics,

Nice chart,but very overpriced service. Why wouldn't you go with a cable company that offers the triple play package or Vonage the leading VOIP provider? They both will have half the costs.

Is that a typo "Residential service is only $199 per month."?

Re: Is VOIP reliable enough for running a small business?

stick2basics — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:42:32 GMT

VoIP is reliable taking into consideration all the things listed by other people. I personally like http://www.viatalk.com/. The have Free 411, Free second line.

Residential service is only $199 per month.

Here are some of the services vonage doesn't give you: Call Alarm
/ Wake-Up Call, Free 411 Directory Service, Voicemail Notification Via SMS Text Msg, Fax Service, Soft Phone
Access, Custom
Caller ID w/ Name, Operator
Services, Call
Broadcasting, Custom
Outgoing Voicemail Messages, and much more.

vtb_unlimited	1 month	3 month	6 month	12 month	24 month
U.S / Canada	unlimited min.	unlimited min.	unlimited min.	unlimited min.	unlimited min.
Voicemail	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Caller Id	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Call Waiting	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Caller Return	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
e911 support	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Call Hunt	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Do Not Disturb	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Custom Call ID	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
411 Service	free	free	free	free	free
Fax Line	free	free	free	free	free
International	rates vary	rates vary	rates vary	rates vary	rates vary
Extra Minutes	included	included	included	included	included
Plan Details	$42.95/mo.	$41.95/mo.	$40.95/mo.	$39.95/mo.	$35.95/mo.