VOIP / SIP and migrating existing business telephone lines

[kev1974]

A customer of mine wants me to help them move to VoIP but I'm finding some of the details a bit complicated.

They have about 30 extensions and DDI on the current 15 year old phone system (delivered by ISDN30), so their phone numbers are very well established and we don't want to change them - can I just go to any reputable SIP trunk provider and have them take over the number range from BT? What happens if we don't get on with that company and want to move to a different provider one day - how would we ensure we can always keep the numbers, and not have them "held hostage"?

I see that BT offer Sip Trunk themselves, but they appear to insist on you taking data connectivity from them, which we don't, so I guess they are out of the running.

For a system of 30 extensions, is hosted VoIP definitely the way to go? It seems quite pricey when you look at rentals over five years or whatever.

I have had brief email exchanges with a couple of companies about it, but they don't fill me with confidence about using the full power of VoIP. Two main stumbling blocks are Door Entry - the ye olde phone system has the Front Door and Goods In door buzzers integrated into it (can answer the door and open it from a group of extensions, so I need the modern VoIP system to do the same, but the VoIP providers are saying things like "hmm we're not a door entry company". The other is to do with forwarding of extensions (on-call numbers forwarding to mobiles etc). With the ye olde system we are able to adjust the forwarding target from a handset while in the office or can do it by dialling in and pressing the right buttons. I feel that a modern VoIP service should offer even more options such as a web page to change the forwarding or even better, being able to set it on an automated schedule. Again this seems to baffle the VoIP companies despite our ye olde system of 15 years ago being able to do it?

Is it just that the typical VoIP provider just wants to sell a basic "suits most companies" system but to meet these door entry and call forwarding management requirements I need to go to one that is a bit more specialist?

Thanks

[Wombat3]

kev1974 said:

A customer of mine wants me to help them move to VoIP but I'm finding some of the details a bit complicated.

They have about 30 extensions and DDI on the current 15 year old phone system (delivered by ISDN30), so their phone numbers are very well established and we don't want to change them - can I just go to any reputable SIP trunk provider and have them take over the number range from BT? What happens if we don't get on with that company and want to move to a different provider one day - how would we ensure we can always keep the numbers, and not have them "held hostage"?

I see that BT offer Sip Trunk themselves, but they appear to insist on you taking data connectivity from them, which we don't, so I guess they are out of the running.

For a system of 30 extensions, is hosted VoIP definitely the way to go? It seems quite pricey when you look at rentals over five years or whatever.

I have had brief email exchanges with a couple of companies about it, but they don't fill me with confidence about using the full power of VoIP. Two main stumbling blocks are Door Entry - the ye olde phone system has the Front Door and Goods In door buzzers integrated into it (can answer the door and open it from a group of extensions, so I need the modern VoIP system to do the same, but the VoIP providers are saying things like "hmm we're not a door entry company". The other is to do with forwarding of extensions (on-call numbers forwarding to mobiles etc). With the ye olde system we are able to adjust the forwarding target from a handset while in the office or can do it by dialling in and pressing the right buttons. I feel that a modern VoIP service should offer even more options such as a web page to change the forwarding or even better, being able to set it on an automated schedule. Again this seems to baffle the VoIP companies despite our ye olde system of 15 years ago being able to do it?

Is it just that the typical VoIP provider just wants to sell a basic "suits most companies" system but to meet these door entry and call forwarding management requirements I need to go to one that is a bit more specialist?

Thanks

What do you mean by "data connectivity" ? If you mean internet access then its not the same.

If you are going to run a hosted telephony service then the SIP provider will (should) absolutely want to control the data circuit used to provide the service. How can they provide you with a service level agreement when you are doing who knows what else with the circuit?

Its also not going to be a straight internet connection anyway, it will be a data circuit connected directly to a hosted voice platform (or it should be).

It may be that internet access can be provided over the same circuit but if you want to rely on an internet (broadband) connection to provide business class telephony, well, that would not be a brilliant idea. Suggest actually get BT in & talk to them


You are correct though, for a fairly basic telephony requirement SIPP is not the end all and be-all and when looked at over 5 years plus it may not necessarily be that cost effective either. The first and obvious questions are why do they want VOIP & what is it that they want to do that they can't do now?