[asterisk-biz] How Realistic is Hosted VoIP for SMBs?

[Jim Cole]

Please....correct me if I'm wrong.  Aren't a lot of hosted solutions
non-SIP?  Does that matter (if so) with relation to the local vs. WAN
traffic? 

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-biz-bounces at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-biz-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Greg Boehnlein
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 1:55 PM
To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion
Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] How Realistic is Hosted VoIP for SMBs?

On Sun, 29 Oct 2006, GlobalOfficePhone wrote:

> Recently there has been an upsurge in articles about the benefits of 
> hosted VoIP for SMBs accompanied by a similar upsurge in providers who 
> offer such services.
> 
> While I understand most of the benefits highlighted, especially if the 
> SMB is geographically dispersed; I can't seem to resolve one nagging 
> dilemma in my head:
> 
> Calls between local extensions situated within a physical location (a 
> cubicle across the hall) must traverse over WAN. Isn't this very 
> inefficient? And, doesn't it require a much higher WAN bandwidth, 
> which is usually limited and expensive - very expensive in some countries?

SIP handsets, properly configured, will send the media directly between the
two end-points. I.E. only the call setup and signalling will go to the
hosted server, but the phones will send the audio stream between themselves
on the same LAN.
 
> So, for a 20-user SMB with all its users located in a single office, 
> all extension-to-extension (local) calls must go out on a WAN and come 
> back to the office. This will require a much higher scarce WAN 
> bandwidth and not use the abundant LAN bandwidth!

No.
 
> Would hosted VoIP be a better choice such an SMB?

Depends on the customer, it's needs. Every solution is different.

> I would appreciate your thoughts on this issue to help sleep well :)

You might want to read up on how SIP works. Singalling is done on one port,
while media is handled as a separate transaction using RTP.
 
> Thanks.
> 
> 

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    Vice President of N2Net, a New Age Consulting Service, Inc. Company
         http://www.n2net.net Where everything clicks into place!
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