Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?
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My company is anticipating much higher call volume for our customer/tech support departments and so I am thinking this is a great time to move off of our single PRI and over to a SIP trunk. I don't have too much experience with SIP so what are the specifics I should look for when choosing a provider?
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Ping times between your PBX and the SIP providers points of presence as well as ping times between your office and the PBX (if the PBX is off site).
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NEver get SIP from an incumbent line carrier. They "own" you and will leverage it later. It's too dangerous.
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Voip.ms and Twilio are the plances to look first.
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@scottalanmiller said in Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?:
Voip.ms and Twilio are the plances to look first.
I'd consider Intelepeer as well. We used them at my previous company, and they were very good.
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I recommend VoIP.ms and Flowroute.
As soon as I have time to spin up Twilio at a site, I will test it out and likely recommend it also.
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@scottalanmiller said in Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?:
NEver get SIP from an incumbent line carrier. They "own" you and will leverage it later. It's too dangerous.
Ha! Got my customer service record from Windstream today, and the rep tried to sell me their SIP service
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@eddiejennings said in Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?:
@scottalanmiller said in Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?:
NEver get SIP from an incumbent line carrier. They "own" you and will leverage it later. It's too dangerous.
Ha! Got my customer service record from Windstream today, and the rep tried to sell me their SIP service
I dealt with Windstream for a branch office in FL for several years. We had a T1 and PRI with them. What a PITA. I was glad when management realized that it isn't worth the money to have an office for 3 people, 3000+ miles away who were almost always traveling.
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@wrx7m said in Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?:
@eddiejennings said in Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?:
@scottalanmiller said in Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?:
NEver get SIP from an incumbent line carrier. They "own" you and will leverage it later. It's too dangerous.
Ha! Got my customer service record from Windstream today, and the rep tried to sell me their SIP service
I dealt with Windstream for a branch office in FL for several years. We had a T1 and PRI with them. What a PITA. I was glad when management realized that it isn't worth the money to have an office for 3 people, 3000+ miles away who were almost always traveling.
Well.... Windstream. ha ha
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Also look at the way things are priced. Some carriers charge based on number of concurrent calls, while other charge a low per-minute fee or give you a bucket of minutes and charge a small overage fee if you go over that bucket amount. Find out how much the new carrier charges for things like inbound / outbound CNAM, how much they charge per DID you have using their service, etc.
Knowing the max concurrent calls happening right now can help you plan for how much bandwidth gets used. If you plan for 100 Kbps per concurrent call of internet bandwidth needed, that's a decent estimate if the provider is using G711u as the codec (less if G729).
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@scottalanmiller - I can also add TelePacific, now TPX Communications to the list of carriers I would never recommend. We had them for bonded T1s when I first got here, because there was no fiber for miles. We needed more bandwidth and the only option was to go fixed wireless. Ugh. That was a frustrating 3 years.
I was so happy to get our current ISP, Impulse with a 50/50 dedicated circuit. Now we have a 150/150 dedicated circuit. Finally and ISP that I would recommend.
We still have TPX for our PRI and some analog fax lines (yeah, I know). I will be happy to get rid of them forever.
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@wrx7m said in Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?:
@scottalanmiller - I can also add TelePacific, now TPX Communications to the list of carriers I would never recommend. We had them for bonded T1s when I first got here, because there was no fiber for miles. We needed more bandwidth and the only option was to go fixed wireless. Ugh. That was a frustrating 3 years.
I was so happy to get our current ISP, Impulse with a 50/50 dedicated circuit. Now we have a 150/150 dedicated circuit. Finally and ISP that I would recommend.
We still have TPX for our PRI and some analog fax lines (yeah, I know). I will be happy to get rid of them forever.
Pretty much if someone offers a T1, they probably suck.
Not always, but generally.
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@scottalanmiller Yeah, this was 2010 when I started and our building is on the edge of a business park flanked by agriculture
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I wasn't involved in the vetting of SIP providers, but we use Vodex Communications (based out of SoCal) and have had a great 3 years so far. I can't speak to their pricing or anything as I'm not involved with that, but in terms of service and support they've been top notch.
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@eddiejennings We are on Windstream SIP service. AVOID!!!!
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@jt1001001 said in Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?:
@eddiejennings We are on Windstream SIP service. AVOID!!!!
Ha!
That message made my day! -
@anthonyh said in Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?:
I wasn't involved in the vetting of SIP providers, but we use Vodex Communications (based out of SoCal) and have had a great 3 years so far. I can't speak to their pricing or anything as I'm not involved with that, but in terms of service and support they've been top notch.
Thanks, I am also in SoCal so I would imagine that they would have decent connectivity here.
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I am checking out voip.ms and they have a number portability tester. I tested several and they seem to be OK. What would make the numbers not portable?
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@wrx7m said in Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?:
I am checking out voip.ms and they have a number portability tester. I tested several and they seem to be OK. What would make the numbers not portable?
asshole vendor
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@dashrender said in Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?:
@wrx7m said in Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?:
I am checking out voip.ms and they have a number portability tester. I tested several and they seem to be OK. What would make the numbers not portable?
asshole vendor
That pretty much sums it up. It is who currently owns the numbers.
