[Asterisk-biz] Full Turn-Key System Update & Request

[Tim Simms]

Hey all --

Thanks to everyone who has responded to me re: our solution.  I've been on
email, phone, and IM with many of you, and I appreciate the time you all
have put in.

Here's where we're at:
1.  We've garnered from you all that Hosted IP PBX is not the way to go,
because of reliability concerns, etc.  Several of you are working on this,
but don't have a commercial production system in place yet.  Because of
that, we may just go ahead and pull the IP PBX in house.

2.  There were concerns over the VoIP and IP PBX technology being used.
Many suggested we stay away from IAX, but go with SIP, since SIP is growing
as the standard.  Also SIP has greater community support than IAX.  Some
even suggested that because Asterisk is based on IAX, we should look at
other IP PBX vendors instead of Asterisk.  Main recommendation was PingTel.

3.  The two phones that were widely recommended for our mid-range budget
were the Polycom IP 500 (though changing to the 501 soon, with more mem) and
the Sipura phones.

4.  We want to find a VoIP provider that is reliable, answers their phones
for support, is less expensive than traditional PSTN calling, etc... but as
Preston pointed out a while back, that list might be empty.  Now with
reliability, I understand it might be possible to contract with multiple
carriers, so that if one goes down, the other takes over... I can't
visualize how that works, but interested in learning more from someone who
might be doing this.  FYI, we're probably doing close to 8000 - 10000
minutes per month.  Area code doesn't matter much; incoming will be coming
in on toll-free & just about all outbound calls will be outside of local
area.  Any recommendations?

5.  Suppliers / Contractors will need to reside in the continental US.  But
I find the recommendations and advice from those outside the US to be
extremely valuable, so I welcome any input you might have for your preferred
vendors, equipment, and technologies!

Still haven't figured it all out, so we don't have equipment speced out or
the people who will configure it, but we'll make sure it's paid at a rate >
$10/hr...  ;)


Thanks again for all your help!  There's no way I'd be able to make an
informed decision without this forum (unless I had way more time than I
have, to devote to it)!

Cheers,
-Tim