Mrs Blather is opening a shop. Someone suggested that we look into VoIP from Qwest for our phone service. Anyone have experience with this in a retail setting? Does the computer need to be up for the phones to work? I can just see our server crashing and then not being able to call customer service.
I’d like to hear any yays or nays.
I don’t know about Qwest in particular, but I know about the technology in general and another service in particular. The service uses a device called a VoIP gateway. A VoIP gateway is a device that converts between a standard telephone interface and a computer network interface (Ethernet). You plug this device into your computer network and it makes and receives calls using your standard broadband internet connection. You do not need a computer booted and running, but you do need your broadband internet connection up and running (this includes the cable/dsl modem, the broadband router, and the VoIP gateway.
It is possible to use your computer to run a phone application (known as a softphone) to make and receive calls, but I think this service is usually extra and targeted at frequent travelers.
The service should be cheaper than regular phone service, it should come with voicemail, and it should include basic call features (like caller-id, etc.).
I have just started using VoIP by Packet8 (www.packet8.com, not an endorsement as you’ll see in a moment).
It is okay. As noted, your computer does not need to be up, but your broadband connection does. It works (so far) . . . okay. If you are running a computer off of the same broadband connection, you will need a phone adapter from the VoIP company (about $49) and a router (cheap, these days). However, I have recently begun encountering a problem of the router dropping connections to either/both of the computer and phone. When that happens, you are SOL as far as phone service until you re-boot everything. Also true if your power goes out (the router and the phone adapter run off of AC), you are SOL. Thus, your phone service is inherently less reliable than traditional wireline (which operates by the “rule of five 9’s,” a traditional requirement that phone service must be available 99.999% of the time). However, VoIP is so damn cheap ($19.99 a month for me for unlimited local and domestic long distance, and not subject (for now) to any of the many state and fed. taxes that apply to traditional phone service) that it is hard to resist.
I would only recommend VoIP for a small buiness if you already have a broadband connection. Since for a retail store, you’ll only need two lines max, if you do not have a broadband connection that you’re using already, then you may not save much.
Also, as Huerta88 pointed out VoIP is not subject to the “rule of five 9s”.
We have 2 lines in our house. I am in the process of switching one line to Vonage who offers 500 minutes for 15.00 a month. This is not a business line so business rates would be higher. They give a Linksys phone adapter that plugs into your cable modem and acts as a router for you network. If you cancel the service you have to return the unit to them. I’m been pleased with the quality of service I have.
I also have the cable modem, and the phone adaper on a UPS so if the power goes out they stay up. I only have toworry about the cable going out.
From what I understand, Qwest would provide a DSL line that would be the broadband connection.
In the past few months, I’ve done a lot of reading about VoIP (I’m building a VoIP system for work). I don’t know anything specific to Qwest, but there are some general issues I think might be important.
Depending on the provider, emergancy calls via 911 might not work. Some of the larger providers (Vonage, Packet8 ) provide some form of 911 dialing. Your physical location may not be available to emergency services.
Sending and receiving faxes can be in issue. Faxing over VoIP can work, but not many VoIP providers support faxing (yet). There’s always eFax services.
VoIP offers a lot of features. Call Waiting, Caller ID, and Voicemail should be included for free or for a very low price. If you need several phone lines, some VoIP providers have virtual PBXs. It really doesn’t cost much to implement these features.
I don’t know if many small business are signing up for VoIP (my company is targeting a different demographic). Larger companies are using it for their internal phone systems (PBX), but many still have traditional phone service (like PRI’s) for outside calls.
If the shop absolutely depends on phone service, then I wouldn’t recommend it. But, OTOH, if she needs to make a lot of calls, particually long distance or international calls, then there can be a significant savings.
Monkey Lore wrote
I hope I’m not hijacking this thread. I’m interested in VoIP for a small business, but not 1 or 2 phones small, rather 30 internal lines small. Currently, we have 5 incoming trunks to a small PBX. My ideal situation is to use something like Vonage providing a gateway, and we have Asterisk (or similar) running internally, which feeds all of our internal phones.
The problem is, all of the carriers I know of refuse to feed a PBX. Instead, they mandate that they provide the VoIP router onsite, and a sole phone is plugged into it. The only carrier I’ve seen that does what I want won’t provide LNP, which I also want.
Can anyone recommend a carrier or make any comments on this sort of setup?
Thanks.
(For the non-knowing, Asterisk is an opensource PBX built on Linux, and LNP is the ability to switch your current phone number to another carrier, in this case a VoIP carrier.)
I still consider myself a bit of novice with this technology. That said, here’s an idea. Many, if not most, VoIP providers use SIP or IAX, so Asterisk should be compatible with them. You’ll probably have to to sign-up for one account per line. Asterisk can then route the call thru to the correct account based on who is making the call. I have no expierence with their service, but Broadvoice allow you to “Bring Your Own Device.” and they claim to be able to port numbers (however, I just checked, and they’re not able to port my particular residential number).
Alternatively you can keep your traditional phone lines for incoming calls feeding them into Asterisk (via Digium hardware). For outgoing calls, you could do least-cost routing, and have Asterisk decide to route the calls thru traditional lines or thru a VoIP termination provider. In this sitituation, as long as you bought enough minutes with the termination provider, you can make as simulatenous outgoing calls as your bandwith allows.
This is now changing and the carriers are looking at providing SIP trunks directly to customers. I have heard that it is still 8-12 months off, but I have no idea where those time estimates came from.
Thanks, Guys.
Monkey Lore, unfortunately, Broadvoice doesn’t cover my area. But also, they aren’t clear about whether you can do BYOD and LNP: