[Asterisk-Users] My experience with one IAX termination provider and one SIP provider

[Michael Graves]

In the wake of the recent NuFone thread I'd like to offer up a brief
summary of my limited experience with both Vonage and VoicePulse
Connect.

I live in Houston TX and for about a year had a Vonage line as my entre
into VOIP. Back then, as now, I'd go to some length to avoid
Southwestern Bell. I work for a UK based company and my operational
territory is "The Americas" thus I use a lot of long distance, mostly
to the US, Canada & the UK.

The Vonage service was very reliable and I could usually not tell the
difference between one of my POTS line and the ATA connected Vonage
line. Their service was in my opinion exemplary. One problem with
Vonage for me is the billing model. When I travel (a lot) paying a
monthly fixed price makes no sense. Some months I use very few minutes,
others 2000+. Also, I couldn't get a real second line without incurring
another significant monthly fee. Still, they offered local DIDs and I
used them happily for a year.

In looking at * I was attracted by the prospect of control, features,
moh, aa, etc. So I built an * server and bought a few SNOM phones. This
displaced my 4 line/8 ext Panasonic office phone system. Connecting the
Vonage provided ATA to an X100p didn't seem to make much sense.
Needless D/A and A/D steps. Passing SIP through my router meant opening
up multiple ports which I really didn't want to do. So I sought out a
provider who offered IAX termination....and ended up with VoicePulse
Connect (VPC).

I've only been using VPC for about a month. The quality of calls over
VPC is not quite as good as I had with Vonage. I suppose that could be
in part a codec issue. At present I use GSM to connect to VPC to save
some bandwidth. I'm open to suggestions as to how to tweak the
connection.

The service was easily setup. From the point of account creation to
initial call was about 30 minutes, largely due to my having to edit the
dialplan. No waiting for hardware to ship. The account was up and
ruinning immediately even as I worked on it near midnight. The service
has thus far been reliable. It supports multiple (up to 6) simultaneous
outbound calls which I have used to conference several co-workers.

The management imterface on their web site is not as feature rich as
Vonage, but it gets it done for me. I like the pay as go, no monthly
fee billing model. It's so convenient that even if I use another
provider I will keep VPC as a fallback/alternate in my dialplan. One
problem however is their lack if DIDs in my area, so I only use it for
outbound calling. POTS lines for inbound.

Later this month I will likely drop two of my incomming POTS lines as
the * server takes on more of the load. That's a vote of confidence in
VPC, but I'm still looking for options. If NuFone provides Houston DIDs
then they're likely my next experiment. Broadvox Direct, while
interesting,  is a non-starter due to their flat rate billing model ala
Vonage. I also hope to add a wifi sip phone to fill in the last void
(cordless) left by the departure of the Panasonic system...if ever they
become available.

I am eager to hear about others experience with the various providers,
even IP Centrex providers. This is just my recent experience. As usual
YMMV.

Michael Graves

P.S. - what to do with my Vonage-crippled ATA?



--
Michael Graves                           mgraves at pixelpower.com
Sr. Product Specialist                          www.pixelpower.com
Pixel Power Inc.                                 mgraves at mstvp.com

"With us or against us isn't a policy worthy of a democratic superpower."
-- Zbigniew Brzezinski, Former US National Security Advisor
 
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