[asterisk-users] any possibility of Vonage Integration

[cb]

On Dec 6, 2006, at 8:13 AM, Paul wrote:

> Also, I should have mentioned that many of these providers advertise
> "business" plans on their website. How can anyone honestly advertise
> phone, fax, email hosting, web hosting, etc. to the business community
> without 24/7 support?

People should also keep in mind what is the definition of "24/7"  
support.

Even the big telcos only offer a limited amount of 24/7 support. I  
have dealt with business accounts with MCI (ne: WorldCom, ne: LDDS)  
for eons, as well as Verizon (ne: Bell Atlantic) and GTE (before and  
after becoming part of Verizon), and SBC (ne: PacBell). In all of the  
above cases, yes, they have a 24/7 support line, but when it comes to  
actually fixing and addressing problems, unless it was a simple  
issue, it waited until the next business day to actually be worked on  
(save for physical line problems, then Saturday was an available day  
as well).

But any after 5pm support (or often 3:30-4:00 on Friday's for  
Verizon), you could call and get your trouble ticket opened, but  
don't expect anything to be resolved until some time after 8am on the  
next day. In fact, I often could get residential non business issues  
addressed after hours faster and easier then business issues. Once  
the business office closed for the day, support for business problems  
all but stopped until they opened again.

So going with anyone over someone else because of 24/7 support, you  
need to find out what kind of support you really get after hours. If  
you are just going to get someone that can take your call, tell you  
"why yes, that is a problem, here is your ticket number, they will  
work on it in the morning", then are you really gaining anything over  
going with someone that only offers 9-5 support?

Personally, my criteria for picking someone for business use isn't if  
they offer 24/7 support, but rather how reliable are they in the  
first place. I don't care that much about 24/7 support, because I  
want someone who I will never have to find out what support hours  
they offer :-)

-chris
<www.mythtech.net>