[Asterisk-biz] Asterisk Business Termination -- VOIPJET

[Kevin P. Fleming]

alex at pilosoft.com wrote:

> a) realiability of internet router doesn't hold a stick to reliability of 
> a proper class 4 or 5 switch.

OK, so I should not have used the term "phone system". My bad. Instead I 
should have said "key system" or "small office PBX".

> b) even if you compare to an average PBX (definity or something), it is
> much more stable than your router (which can get ddos'd or worse) or your
> carrier's IP link (again, ddos, misconfigurations, and in general, it is 
> not designed for 100% availability simply because there are more 
> "things" the router is doing compared to a stupid PBX). 

Definity is not an "average PBX". I don't see small businesses with 
under 100 employees installing Definity. What I see are Merlin (yuck), 
Partner, Norstar, DK280/424, etc. These are what you find in small 
businesses, if they have anything better than a Chiwanese true key 
system. All of these are "small office PBX" systems (really glorified 
key systems), and none of them hold a candle to the reliability of a 
Cisco 17xx router being used to route IP traffic over a T-1 link to a 
hosted VOIP provider.

Your other points about the IP link having its share of problems are 
well noted, but I was not responding to that. I was responding your 
statement about "guaranteed phone service even if their router is down". 
Since, in my experience, their router is less likely to go "down" than 
their small office PBX, this is actually a point in favor of hosted 
VOIP. Besides, there is not a single company that I'm aware that will 
guarantee anything except the T-1 and the trunks it is carrying; once it 
reaches the demarc (or possible the IAD, if one is being used) it's the 
customer's problem. If your company provides guaranteed phone service 
all the way to the deskset (for anything more than a standard loop-start 
analog trunk), more power to you.