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.
-
@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
-
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).
-
@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.
-
@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.
-
@scottalanmiller Yeah, this was 2010 when I started and our building is on the edge of a business park flanked by agriculture
-
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.
-
@eddiejennings We are on Windstream SIP service. AVOID!!!!
-
@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.
-
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?
-
@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
-
@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.
-
@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
No, that is not how it works.
The carrier holding the existing number has no legal recourse to deny a port.
The carrier you are porting to though has to have access to the number. They are not allowed to buy single numbers. Carriers have to buy into porting in blocks. If they have not bought into a rate center where your number belongs, they will not be able to port it.
Most VoIP provider buy access to DID from a carrier that already has access and that is how they can get into most rate centers.
-
@jaredbusch said in Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?:
@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
No, that is not how it works.
The carrier holding the existing number has no legal recourse to deny a port.
Actually they do. We have carriers that do just that. Not all numbers are regulated in the US, sadly.
-
Circling back to this. I saw a thread from @JaredBusch regarding comparisons between legacy and SIP providers that I am going to have to study. Is everyone still recommending voip.ms and Twillio (also Flowroute, Vodex and Inteleeper).
We are also looking at moving our call center of about 12-15 reps to a hosted solution, as our new CS manager is not happy with the workgroup functionality in Mitel (ShoreTel) Connect and doesn't seem to liek the upgraded (more expensive) call center package features either.
-
@wrx7m Yes, those are good SIP providers but can you describe a little about your call/usage patterns? It will help with which providers I'd recommend.
Did you want the call center to be connected to your regular phone system? What workgroup functionality (ideally) is you CS manager looking for?
-
@mikesmithsbrain said in Choosing a SIP Provider - What Should I Look For?:
@wrx7m Yes, those are good SIP providers but can you describe a little about your call/usage patterns? It will help with which providers I'd recommend.
Did you want the call center to be connected to your regular phone system? What workgroup functionality (ideally) is you CS manager looking for?
We will probably have two solutions. At least, for now; keeping Shoretel on-prem (but migrate to a SIP trunk) for everyone but the call center and have an unknown hosted solution for the call center.
The call center is inbound for tech support and customer service. We don't do any outbound campaigns or transfer many calls from the call center to other internal extensions.
I will be meeting with the CS manager to discuss what she is looking for. She has told me that she has been looking at Nice-InContact, Mitel’s MiCC Flex, and then zentalk.
-
I've been playing around hard with my home lab Asterisk build the past few months and have been testing various SIP trunk providers. My preferred provider is Flowroute with VoIP.ms coming in as a close second.
What I like about Flowroute is that they pass you the media stream from the media gateway that is terminating the call. So, in theory, you have the most direct audio path possible. In my testing, this seems to be true. When comparing latency with Flowroute vs VoIP.ms. In most cases Flowroute's latency is lower. In cases where it's not lower, it's unnoticeable equal to VoIP.ms (to my ear at any rate).
Pricing wise they are pretty similar. Flowroute is slightly cheaper outbound, but their inbound rate and monthly DID rates are higher (not by much, but depending on your usage could be exponential). Also, VoIP.ms has a lot more rate centers to choose from when buying DIDs via the web portal. Flowroute's can be limited depending on the NPA you desire, but I haven't reached out to their support (which is really good, as is VoIP.ms') to see if you can request rate centers in NPAs not listed on the portal.
I ported my home number to Flowroute and the process went without a hiccup. Was completed on the date and within the time window they provided.
A decent provider to play around with if you want something cheap and/or as backup is DID Logic. Their inbound/outbound rates are around $0.005/min and the cal quality/latency is good. However establishing an account is tough as they have this "anti fraud" process you have to hoop through.
-
@anthonyh I appreciate the detailed information.
