<div><div>Many people can argue this back and forth- but yes, what most people forget is that the last two letters of the term 'VoIP' are the most important. VoIP is a realtime (or near-realtime) application running across a network. If you network is good, and within the standards that VoIP demands, you will have no problems.
<br><br>I personally have seen large multinational corporations running international VoIP without problems- and by that, I mean that all calls are at least 'toll quality' (meaning, they all sound like g729, regardless of the codec) or better. They all complete just as fast or faster than the traditional PSTN network. And they cost a whole lot less, especially internationally. There's an added benefit of security- if a company can put in a 'toll bypass' VoIP solution over it's own managed network, you don't have to worry about your phones being tapped (any more than your network being tapped- but your security model is typically already in place for a network). And yes, I put in that system, from day one- I know every bit of evil that lurks within.
<br><br>How did we do it? It's simple, really- it's all about the network. Better devices, better configurations, better providers- all are necessary for a successful solution. You simply cannot take any old network, without testing, and expect to save money by moving your telephony to your network. Can you save money? Absolutely- in the system I put in, we acheived ROI in 2 years. But it was not without initial investment. Can Asterisk help reduce the initial investment? Yes- but you cannot simply be an IT guy, pick up a book, download the source to Asterisk, and expect to tell your boss that a new VoIP solution will save millions tomorrow. Those of you who have an IT background- ask yourself- did you learn it overnight? Was your first project an absolute success? Telephony isn't just a new application- it's a new base theology to learn.
<br><br>So- I have to take a very contrary view to what's been 'summarized' here- VoIP is absolutely, 100% ready for business. Real business. And it's being used by real business. Everyday. Those who try to say it isn't, still have a lot to learn- but, once the lessons are learned, and the costs are counted, VoIP comes out on top- every time.
<br><br>-Paul Davidson<br> PlanCommunications, LLC<br> </div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Message: 4<br>Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 08:24:49 -0500
<br>From: "Hugh L. Johnson" <<a href="mailto:hugh-lists@teknology.net">hugh-lists@teknology.net</a>><br>Subject: Re: SUMMARY: [asterisk-biz] Does VoIP Really Work for Serious<br> Business?<br>To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion
<br> <<a href="mailto:asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com">asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com</a>><br>Message-ID:<br> <<a href="mailto:1141997089.2958.9.camel@boilermaker.ofc.tekinteractive.com">1141997089.2958.9.camel@boilermaker.ofc.tekinteractive.com
</a>><br>Content-Type: text/plain<br><br>It's all about latency. The roundtrip ping times across my DSL circuit<br>(Verizon ATM cloud) to my ISP's router (One hop away) are approx 25ms.<br>My ISP has a PRI which I use for all incoming and local outgoing calls.
<br>For these calls the quality is better than when I had an analog phone at<br>home.<br><br>For most of my LD calls I use a budget 1 cent per minute VoIP provider.<br>(*For calls where I absolutely need quality, I send those across the PRI
<br>as well.) The call quality isn't nearly as good when routing the calls<br>over the internet, but it shouldn't be expected. I get what I pay for.<br>I'll bet if I purchased a point-to-point circuit to the budget VoIP
<br>provider the calls would sound wonderful, but of course that is cost<br>prohibitive.<br><br></blockquote></div><br>