SIP vs. PRI and SIP provider recommendations 4

[BrownTruckTech]

We are looking at moving from a Merlin Legend served by POTS lines to an IPO 500 with PRI or SIP trunks, this brings up a few questions.

1. Is SIP matured enough and is the quality stable enough to be primary service for sales and customer interaction?
a. If so, what provider would you recommend? We plenty of internet bandwidth to work with and we are outside Santa Rosa CA (Northern SF Bay Area).

Early on the providers that have caught my eye are AT&T SIP, Comcast PRI, and 8x8, but I'm open to any recommendations.

 

[1043]

Do you plan on faxing thru the phone system? If so then faxing can troublesome thru SIP.Stay away from Broadvox SIP. I also would only use SIP on a data circuit that is designed specifically for VOIP with QOS.

We are using a Comcast PRI and its been very solid so far and very reasonably priced.

 

[amriddle01]

For flexibility and reliability ISDN will win over SIP everytime, if costs is an issue and its just voice calls then SIP should be considered



"No problem monkey socks

 

[amriddle01]

Also programming is much easier wih ISDN that SIP



"No problem monkey socks

 

[amriddle01]

*than



"No problem monkey socks

 

[Telecomboy]

PRI is still more reliable than SIP at this point so it depends on your cost savings whether it should be considered.

 

[tlpeter]

SIP is not mature at all.
Too many issues can occur at too many ways.

Some issues i have seen too much are:

Speech problems when you have no QOS on the network.
Speech problems when you have no QOS on the connection to the provider.
Internet lines have more downtime then ISDN.

Pri has more costs but also more reliability.
Do the match and make a choice.


BAZINGA!

I'm not insane, my mother had me tested!

 

[amriddle01]

Indeed, well ISDN is a dedicated and monitored connection, SIP is best effort across the Internet which can't be monitored beyond your own network devices and so there is no fault ownership



"No problem monkey socks

 

[BrownTruckTech]

Do you plan on faxing thru the phone system? If so then faxing can troublesome thru SIP.Stay away from Broadvox SIP. I also would only use SIP on a data circuit that is designed specifically for VOIP with QOS."

Not sure on the faxing issue, is it worth keeping an analog line just for fax? We have a Savin multifunction unit that can handle faxing but it's never been set up. The staff still uses a little brother unit.

Pricing on the Comcast PRI seems competitive with SIP and from what I'm hearing it's the better option.

 

[1043]

I would always take PRI over SIP if given the choice. Call quality alone makes it better.
With the PRI and DID's you can also incorporate a fax server giving everyone their own fax number and eliminating paper to a certain degree.

Places where we have SIP sevices we dedicate the fax number and in some cases dedicate an analog trunk on the phone system for 911 calls.

 

[BrownTruckTech]

We have a server running windows server 2008 is there any aditional hardware required to interface with the fax server services on the server?

 

[amriddle01]

A fax server is a dedicated hardware device/server it isn't pre installed on Microsoft OS



"No problem monkey socks

 

[phoneguy610]

just so you know Comcast pri is actually sip with a router that gives you a pri handoff

ddcommllc.com
Avaya/Toshiba/SyntelSolutions

ACIS

"Will work for stars

 

[BrownTruckTech]

Thanks for all the info, Windows Server has some built in capability for managing configuration on workstations for connections to a fax server. I gather that the primary issue is getting assurance of QOS once traffic leaves the LAN, and Comcast will do this for their own simulated PRI service.

 

[jamie77]

SIP itself is fine. It's all down to 2 things.

The provider you use. There are alot of small networks out there providing this service that can't backup thier talk with reliability of their own servers.

The circuit you run the service over. this is the most problematic. You get what you pay for here. ISDN is so good as it is a guaranteed 64kbps service to each channel. A full PRI 30 is like SIP over a 2mbps Lease Line, so should be excellent.

ISDN is easy to install. Plug and play!!!

ISDN all the way for me, but there are some very good reasons for choosing SIP. The money saving side seems to hit the enterprise market IMO.

Jamie Green

[bold]A[/bold]vaya [bold]R[/bold]egistered [bold]S[/bold]pecialist [bold]E[/bold]ngineer

 

[phoneguy610]

yea our sip to pri deal is usually about half price of traditional pri

its all about the $$$

ddcommllc.com
Avaya/Toshiba/SyntelSolutions

ACIS

"Will work for stars