[asterisk-biz] Does VoIP Really Work for Serious Business?

[Steve Totaro]

This is a great and honest email.  I am looking forward to the replies.

My thoughts are VoIP is ready for serious business on the LAN and point
to point links.

Thanks,
Steve Totaro

> 
> Discussion...is VoIP really ready for serious business use.
> 
> We have been installing Asterisk for customers for about a year now,
and
> we
> are beginning to wonder if parts of VoIP are really ready for serious
> business.  Long Distance in particular is a problem.
> 
> We use 3 LD providers, one a Tier 2 provider (ie buys from L3, Sprint
etc)
> and a couple of  others lower down the food tree (that are often
discussed
> on this message board).   We still find that almost all customers
complain
> about dropped calls, echo, dead connections from time to time.  My
guess
> is
> that maybe 75-90% of calls are connected with decent quality.  The
rest
> are
> problems for various reasons, and customers are getting fed up with
it.
> 
> We have a primary carrier for each route based on quality and cost,
and
> fallback to another carrier if the call cannot be connected, but we
find
> invariably that carriers take calls and then dont connect them.
> 
> We are at the point of stopping offering LD service.  We make a few
c/min,
> but the customer disatisfaction is just not worth it.  People wont
accept
> Skype quality 10-20% of the time.  There is still a good business case
for
> customers to install VoIP within the enterprise, and for Off premise
> users,
> but to save a few c/min on LD is not worth the trouble.  We have
> considered
> connecting customers up directly to a carrier to cut out the
connection
> through our own servers.
> 
> We have also have mixed success with origination...busy signals,
missed
> calls and have stopped taking new users.
> 
> So...are we alone.  Is it possible to get VoIP LD to be as good as TDM
95%
> of the time, and if so how?  We dont have the time to try calls with
every
> carrier to every area code every day!
> 
> (and please, no responses from VoIPjet, Voxee, Junction, broadvoice
etc
> etc
> saying how you are different.  We know that you all suck to varying
> degrees!)
> 
> Help!  VoipXpress
> 
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