Latest SME telephone systems
Discussion
Hi. Just wondered what the latest telephone systems / solutions are for small businesses.
We inherited an 8 line ISDN system which to be frank is archaic.
As ever, we don't have millions of pounds to spend, need to contact the European space station or hold 'webinars' (whatever they are). We just want to lower our mobile call costs (some 80% of our calls are to mobiles), have a reliable service that is easy to use.
Any suggestions or links to sites would also be appreciated.
Thanks
We inherited an 8 line ISDN system which to be frank is archaic.
As ever, we don't have millions of pounds to spend, need to contact the European space station or hold 'webinars' (whatever they are). We just want to lower our mobile call costs (some 80% of our calls are to mobiles), have a reliable service that is easy to use.
Any suggestions or links to sites would also be appreciated.
Thanks
Yes, likely a VoIP system of some sort will be best
If your internet connection is up to it
Voipfone.co.UK was mentioned here previously and we switched to that.
Just pay bt 1x line rental and broadband now
We have 4 'lines' with ddi geographic numbers and can transfer calls internally, voicemail that can be accessed easily (it emails the message as a sound file if you want) and cheaper calls
Needed to buy new phones and other bits for about £350 outlay, but that was paid for in 7 weeks by the call savings
Easy to set up
If your internet connection is up to it
Voipfone.co.UK was mentioned here previously and we switched to that.
Just pay bt 1x line rental and broadband now
We have 4 'lines' with ddi geographic numbers and can transfer calls internally, voicemail that can be accessed easily (it emails the message as a sound file if you want) and cheaper calls
Needed to buy new phones and other bits for about £350 outlay, but that was paid for in 7 weeks by the call savings
Easy to set up
JPJPJP said:
Yes, likely a VoIP system of some sort will be best
If your internet connection is up to it
Voipfone.co.UK was mentioned here previously and we switched to that.
Just pay bt 1x line rental and broadband now
We have 4 'lines' with ddi geographic numbers and can transfer calls internally, voicemail that can be accessed easily (it emails the message as a sound file if you want) and cheaper calls
Needed to buy new phones and other bits for about £350 outlay, but that was paid for in 7 weeks by the call savings
Easy to set up
Almost identical to us but we're with Soho66 (and PlusNet fibre). Features and cost are so much better than BT. If your internet connection is up to it
Voipfone.co.UK was mentioned here previously and we switched to that.
Just pay bt 1x line rental and broadband now
We have 4 'lines' with ddi geographic numbers and can transfer calls internally, voicemail that can be accessed easily (it emails the message as a sound file if you want) and cheaper calls
Needed to buy new phones and other bits for about £350 outlay, but that was paid for in 7 weeks by the call savings
Easy to set up
All voip isn't created equally, some of it is great and some of it is shockingly bad
You want to put a max of 4 voip phones on an adsl line and not share it with data if you want good voice quality.
Spitfire sip communicator is about the best, and they do a good deal on voice approved adsl lines
You want to put a max of 4 voip phones on an adsl line and not share it with data if you want good voice quality.
Spitfire sip communicator is about the best, and they do a good deal on voice approved adsl lines
We have Splicecom systems from M12 Solutions. Our branches range from full ISDN30 to a few with ISDN2 and a couple SIP only. It's been 100% reliable in the seven years so far and call quality has been excellent, with the odd patchy glitch on SIP in the early days.
vxr8mate said:
Thanks to all for your help.
Would we need a decent internet capability? At present it's just a basic 'cheap' package with BT (12mbps download) but could easily switch to fibre if needed.
We run 4 phones and 4 internet connections simultaneously with perfect quality voice calls and fast data on a BT connection with 40Mbps down / 10 Mbps upWould we need a decent internet capability? At present it's just a basic 'cheap' package with BT (12mbps download) but could easily switch to fibre if needed.
If you can switch to a faster internet connection, it would surely help. In the scheme of how much you are going to save by ditching 8 ISDN lines, it isn't a significant cost to upgrade the broadband connection.
I found the guys at voipfone quite helpful when I was trying to understand what I needed. I expect other VOIP providers are good at explaining it these days too
An individual voip call needs around 150-200k in both directions so for sizing multiply that by the number of lines, and as long as that less than the upload you'll be ok.
you can get away with sharing it with data, but if you get a lot of data traffic a big upload or down load it can eat up the bandwidth and thats when you get problems with voice clipping.
if you can I would always recommend a separate adsl for the voice, unless you on a nice big fibre pipe and can put qos on the routing that prioritises the voip/sip over everything else.
i do have a few clients with one or 2 people in the office and a shared data line, but more than that you want to split it off. if your going from 8 isdn lines its still going to be a big chunk less and dependant on the system you can have all the latest switch board functions.
an other route would be 3cx either hosted ( you just have the phones) or an on site server and a couple of sip lines.
you can get away with sharing it with data, but if you get a lot of data traffic a big upload or down load it can eat up the bandwidth and thats when you get problems with voice clipping.
if you can I would always recommend a separate adsl for the voice, unless you on a nice big fibre pipe and can put qos on the routing that prioritises the voip/sip over everything else.
i do have a few clients with one or 2 people in the office and a shared data line, but more than that you want to split it off. if your going from 8 isdn lines its still going to be a big chunk less and dependant on the system you can have all the latest switch board functions.
an other route would be 3cx either hosted ( you just have the phones) or an on site server and a couple of sip lines.
vxr8mate said:
Thanks to all for your help.
Would we need a decent internet capability? At present it's just a basic 'cheap' package with BT (12mbps download) but could easily switch to fibre if needed.
on adsl its the upload that will restrict you. a lot of the cheap packages also do nasty traffic profiling which can bugger up the quality.Would we need a decent internet capability? At present it's just a basic 'cheap' package with BT (12mbps download) but could easily switch to fibre if needed.
At work we had a new voip system installed last year and it works very well.
About 15 numbers and the main number has 4 lines, about 12 extensions all with there own vm boxes etc. etc.
Auto switching to/from night vm, day vm in case no one picks up and an auto attendant (press 1 for sales'. press 2 for 'parts' etc.)
The company that we got it through upgraded us to fibre at no extra cost and are excellent at after sales.
I get their details and post tomorrow.
About 15 numbers and the main number has 4 lines, about 12 extensions all with there own vm boxes etc. etc.
Auto switching to/from night vm, day vm in case no one picks up and an auto attendant (press 1 for sales'. press 2 for 'parts' etc.)
The company that we got it through upgraded us to fibre at no extra cost and are excellent at after sales.
I get their details and post tomorrow.
If you are a Office 365 shop then I believe Microsoft will be brining their Skype for Business PSTN calling to the UK at some point. The UK is one of their biggest markets outside the US so hopefully they will bring it over soon.
We have used a cloud PBX system from Freedom Communications at a few of our offices. It works well, you supply the local networking and they supply the Cisco handsets and host the PBX. We have a dedicated ADSL breakout for the job and just route the VOIP VLAN to the line with other data going over the normal connection.
We have used a cloud PBX system from Freedom Communications at a few of our offices. It works well, you supply the local networking and they supply the Cisco handsets and host the PBX. We have a dedicated ADSL breakout for the job and just route the VOIP VLAN to the line with other data going over the normal connection.
Edited by colin79666 on Wednesday 10th February 20:18
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff