Small office with VOIP & Vodafone

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Zebbie

19 posts

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#35265 7-Jun-2009 16:11

Hi
NB this post does get to a voip question!

I am setting up (moving to) a brand new new office and I'm investigaing options for cost saving on the phone systems and would really like some feedback on the concept I'm looking at

The users are 1 receptionist and 6 sales people who are in and out of the office and rely heavily on mobiles.I have a talkzone proposal from Vodafone for a single BRA ISDN to provide DDI to the sales staff and freecalling from office to the mobiles .

The concept I have is to to implement an IP PBX applicance (eg EPYGI/TRIXBOX) with an IPphone on each desk.
Each salesman would essentially have 2 extensions, Extension 1 would be the DDI number and would be call forwarded ( at the pbx) to their mobile (free calls for customers). Extension 2 assigned to the deskphone would only be used for dialling out through a service such as 2talk/worldexchange etc to get cheap rates.
Questions I have are:
1 Would the BRA ISDN line be too limited to handle the reception and call forwarding in this manner as there are only 2 channels ie too much conflict?
2 What options do I have for an inexpensive PBX applience if I have to go multiple ISDN lines?
3 I'm looking at an appliance cos i want to minimise support costs and problems
3 Are there any wireless IP phones so I can avoid cabling the building, the ones I have seen all make wiring very affordable.
4 As an alternative what is a good softphone that could be used with a handset attached to their PC/laptop

No I won't be implementing this myself but I want to be sure of the conept before I discuss it with the the management and suppliers.
Any feedback, advice or pointers gratefully recieved.

Cheers
Bernie

sbiddle

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#222473 7-Jun-2009 16:46

You've hit the nail on the head with the 1st limitation of a basic rate line - 2 channels really is insufficient. If you have any incoming calls that are then diverted to mobile nobody can receive or make calls while this call is in progress.

There are Epygi Quadro's that will handle additional ISDN lines and this can easily be done with an ISDN card for Asterisk/trixbox. The issue is whether it's more cost effective to use additional ISDN lines either by adding a 2nd BRA or upgrading to a primary rate cnnection or rely on the BRA for all outgoing mobile calls and then use a VoIP service for all your incoming and outgoing PSTN calls. You obviously have to weight up the costs of an internet connection suitable for VoIP vs sticking with ISDN.

Theoretically speaking any wireless bridge will allow any VoIP phone to become wireless and Linksys do make an adapter for their SPA series phones that does 802.11 b/g but I've never used one and personally would stick with a cabled solution to all phones unless running cable really is going to be a big hassle.

Zebbie

19 posts

Geek

#222497 7-Jun-2009 17:58

Thanks for such a speedy reply - you confirmed what I didn't want to hear re the call forwarding :(
The Epygi price goes from $1500 to $4000 for multiple ISDN - I recall PRA being quite expensive too.

Its good idea about using Voip service for incoming calls for all incoming/outgoing PSTN calls I think my natural caution stopped me thinking about that.

Cheers
Bernie

old3eyes

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#222503 7-Jun-2009 18:32

I know of several business using Orcon's VOIP trunk side successfully. The only caution is to ask any vendor supplying a PBX does it support T.38 fax over SIP trunking. Not all do.

Regards,

Old3eyes

sbiddle

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#222515 7-Jun-2009 19:38

old3eyes: I know of several business using Orcon's VOIP trunk side successfully. The only caution is to ask any vendor supplying a PBX does it support T.38 fax over SIP trunking. Not all do.

The Quadro's support T.38 fax over SIP trunks if the fax is plugged into one of the local FXO ports.

johnr

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#222527 7-Jun-2009 20:28

From customers PBX to the Vodafone switch is never a Basic rate line

Zebbie

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#222530 7-Jun-2009 20:48

re: From customers PBX to the Vodafone switch is never a Basic rate line

This is why geekzone is so good.
I've just checked the proposal and it specifically mentions BRA and a monthly price , so I checked the PBX proposal ( which is a Samsung Officeserv) and this is spec'ed for 4 BRA lines.

Would 4 BRA lines be a more normal connection?

Cheers
Bernie

johnr

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#222531 7-Jun-2009 20:52

Is this a proposal for a ITZ setup?

John

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Zebbie

19 posts

Geek

#222536 7-Jun-2009 21:08

The only mention is that it says the BRA line is "with ITZ" .
The pricing discusses the different Talkzone prices
This is from the proposal (with prices removed for confidentiality)

"A New talkZoneZero pricing structure encompassing free calling
between company mobiles. The pricing plan rate plan per mobile
connection will be.
  o $xx monthly rental
  o $xx per minute to any NZ network
  o Free internal calling between mobiles on the plan
  o $xx to call x nominated landline or Vodafone Mobile numbers
A Fixed line calling solution which provides free calling to
company mobiles from your company landlines."

Cheers
Bernie

johnr

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#222542 7-Jun-2009 21:20

There are 2 ITZ solutions that makes it confusing

The one I work on is with a primary rate from PBX to the Vodafone switch used by the larger company's

John

cisconz

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#222565 8-Jun-2009 01:17

Why not have your incoming calls (with ddi's) with an itsp (WxC, 2talk etc) and your Mobile calls through the BRA?
With regards to the Epygi units, feel free to give me a call about them. There are intermediate units with multi BRA's that are much less than the $4000 mark.

Hmmmm

antoniosk

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#222578 8-Jun-2009 08:10

Zebbie: Hi

(snip)

Any feedback, advice or pointers gratefully recieved.

Cheers

Bernie

Bernie

Where are you? I presume some metro area...

________

Antoniosk

Zebbie

19 posts

Geek

#222592 8-Jun-2009 09:27

re :where are you...

The site is in Helensville.... which is also adds to my caution about relying on internet....

Bernie

richeeseman

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#224337 12-Jun-2009 13:09

Hi Bernie

Just a comment on your proposal:
- Vodafone ITZ does have 2 "flavours" - yours sounds like the normal SME proposal which does use BRI lines - or indeed Analogue lines - provisioned through the ex-Ihug switch. This is basically a billing solution that zero rates calls from Land to Mobile for your on-net mobiles, and from Land to Lan between your land lines. John's comment above refers to the corporate version that used to involve putting in a dedicated PRI circuit to the PBX just to carry the Vodafone calls, which also gives free calls back to land line from mobile. Once Voda launched their land line services they were able to offer a billing solution rather than a technical solution which is much easier to implement and lower cost for customers.
- secondly the Samsung PBX with 4 BRI lines - this would be overkill for 7 people, especially if most of your staff are sales folk and hence out of the office for much of the time. Inbound calls diverted to their mobiels will use 2 channels (one coming into the PBX the other diverted out to mobile) (and a BRI has 2 channels) - so 4 BRI circuits = 8 chanels or concurrent calls - would enable you to manage for example 2 inbound diverted calls simultaneously with 4 outbound calls. That means nearly all your staff on the phone at the same time.
There are a bunch of design issues to think about here - volume of calls, cost of diverted calls etc. When we design solutions for clients like this we would tend to consider:
- support issues - not only from the telco, but also for your LAN and infrastructure
- call volumes by type ( ie mobile / local / national)
- call quality requirements - are you happy with cell phoen quality calls or do you need high quality land line calls?
- data requirements - do you need really good internet / data access in whcih case putting more money into a better data circuit, and using VoIP to a SIP trunk provider wil give you quality with cost savings on calls etc. There are some pretty good deals on UNS circuits nowadays which will give you better quality circuits than an interet based VoIP solution.

There are many VoIP providers, some with hosted PBX which would mean much less infrastructure cost - I have put a couple of customers on 2Talk where they have up to 10 staff and no PBX infrastructure at all. However support is a crucial issue - so check out the forums and blogs from the provider before committing.

Hope this helps - happy to get involved if you want to give us a bell.

Zebbie

19 posts

Geek

#224348 12-Jun-2009 13:35

Thanks to all for the helpfull responses both on here and from the proposals I received as a result of posting on here.
For closure heres where it's at-

1 Requirement for 4 lines is (2 BRI circuits) seems right based on historical use where the recptionist has been the controlling bottleneck. DDI may change requirement but the business practise may have to alter first.

2 Installling an IP Pbx or traditional PBX is similarly priced at approx $1000 per extension depending on funtionality etc.

3 VOIP looks like a more more fexible and offers lower calling rates for landlines.

4 The Vodafone Talkzone plan is less beneficial in these rural arees where the Telecom coverage is superior and it's difficult to pursuade people to migrate

My recommendation has been to go with the full IP pbx/voip solution regardeless of the mobile package and to use 2talk initially for outgoing calls and as expeinces proves successfiul to eventuallu move the incoming calls. looks even when I see the options for Skype-Sip crossover that are coming

Regards
Bernie