Comments on: Can small business count on VoIP?

Last week's Skype outage left many small businesses in the lurch and emphasized the importance of having a backup for when IP services fail.

[Stating]

Landlines Are Resilient? Cellular Is Resilient?

Let's see, a few years ago AT&T had a major service outage on the East Coast when a rollout of new switching software failed. Then there was Hurricane Katrina, which wiped out cell towers. More recently, the collapse of the bridge in Minneapolis overloaded the cell network with calls, because it could not handle peak load.

Conceptually, the Internet is more resilient than either landline or cell service. Remember, it was engineered by DARPA to survive a nuclear attack. The bottom line though is that everyone should have at least two ways to make and receive phone calls AND email. Yes, don't forget about email. Loss of email service can be almost as disruptive to business as loss of voice service.

[Leria]

Internet is more resilient

The internet is more resilient than landlines and cellular phones. Really, the internet at a business should almost never go down, unless the lines coming from the pole to the business go down. Otherwise, it can just re-route around the problem areas, and keep on trucking.

I've also read that the reason that Skype went down is because a lot of computers went down and restarted at the same time, thereby overwhelming Skype's log-in server.

[k2dave]

Internet not designed for voice

latency and dropped packets make this less then ideal for real time voice communications, better to have a dedicated line (or cellular signal) that does not suffer this issue.

Also if the phone line gets cut, yes you can't use the phone, but if your internet service line gets cut you won't be able to use the internet.

[MSSlayer]

Neither is audio/video/online gaming/etc/etc

So what is your point?

If a business uses what is basically a free service and depends on it, then they deserve what they get.

[Seaspray0]

Backup your voice system

Two tin cans: Free from the trash can
Kite string: $1.49
Look on the dumb secretary's face when she tries to install the battery into it: Priceless.

[TV James]

Not Ready for Primetime

Sorry, but you should be signing a contract with a provider that spells out uptime requirements and how they will make good in the event that they cannot fulfill their obligations. Nothing is 100% guaranteed, but you at least owe yourself that peace of mind.

Otherwise, you're just playing at business.

[kieranmullen]

Fonality based on asterisk (which is free)

Perhaps the reporter should have asked the company that made the software FOR FREE that Fonality has modified and currently sells? http://digium.com http://asterisknow.org

KieranMullen
http://360oregon.com

[df503]

Exactly

Don't forgot Trixbox which is also based on the free open source asterisk. It bundles the freepbx web interface to configure your asterisk with little to no linux knowledge.

http://trixbox.org - Free open source IP-PBX

[raphinou]

Small businesses getting ready

I think small businesses are interested and ready. but as always, you have to be cautious enough. Murphy's law is always ready to act.

When you see events like the one organised by Profoss (http://www.profoss.eu) titled "Asterisk and VoIP" ( http://www.profoss.eu/events/october-2007-asterisk/ ), I think it shows the market is ready and interested to evaluate the options available.

[rayramon]

Magicjack is an option...

Magicjack - the usb dongle that gives a dial tone is one option for telephone calls via VOIP.

Ramon Ray, Editor & Technology Evangelist, Smallbiztechnology.com

[jrothell]

Skype Outage

Skype or Hype?

The scary thing is that people actually believe that Skype is actually a small business product.
It isn't and never was intended to be. Fact is it will work on any PC that has an internet connection, but that isn't the qualifier for small business when it comes to a reliable service. Small business looks first at price, then reliability, but will always go with price until you have a 2 day outage, then and only then do they understand the damage it causes.

There are still low cost solutions to help small business's, that don't get the attention they need from a Skype. Small business, needs simplified billing, customer service, reliability, and features that will extend their business to the customer base.

Skype doesn't answer this question, and most business's know this, but the internet community doesn't understand the value proposition in this regards. Skype would barely rank as a qualified Residential product, much less run your business on it.

The answer to the question is " HYPE"

[Stating]

Consider A Hybrid Model

There's a place for Skype in business, and it doesn't have to be an all or nothing proposition. My recent experience working with a small business customer:

1) I was able to save my client $6,000 a year on phone charges by renegotiating their contract with a mainstream, traditional dialtone provider. Insteading of paying exhorbitant per-minute charges for in-state and out-of-state long distance, they now just pay one fixed price for all-you-can eat service. This is standard telephone service, regulated by the PUC, and includes 911 support.

2) Even with the new rate plan, the carrier's per minute charge for international calls is too expensive. So I bought a couple of Linksys Skype phones for the employees to use when they make those calls. Skype-to-Skype international calls are completely free. Skype-to-landline/cell calls are just a few pennies a minute vs. our carrier's 30 cents a minute. After a couple of international calls the phones have paid for themselves in LD savings. An added benefit is that the Skype phones are cordless, which is handy for walking around the office when you're on a call.

3) By having two carriers, one providing traditional dialtone and one providing VoIP, we have some measure of redundancy in case of phone failure. Not 100% redundancy, but better than a single point of failure.

[MSSlayer]

VOIP is fine if you have a reliable system

Don't depend on cheap solutions.

A well managed network can handle VOIP with no problems whatsoever.

[rdooba]

Every technology has caveats

Small business/large business - all have to understand the technology before deciding what's best for their case. If public internet IP Telepphony is OK for you, then you understand that there is no gaurenteed QoS. On the other hand, securing your own dedicated resources via a traditional vendor or from a new SIP vendor gives you PSTN quality at the same reliability as aything else out there. And please, Cell service is not in the same league. People understand and heck, even expect to drop calls/get dropped or endure long pauses or get rejecdted when trying to make calls.

It's all about understanding the caveats of the technology. Right?

[rshimizu12]

Skype a public internet service.

One has to remember that Skype is service that runs on the public internet. So therefore it is not possible to guarantee reliability. This is entirely different from running voip on a private intranet. There is some things Skype could do such as deploying it's servers at critical locations such as major ISP's.

[cdebutts]

PBXtra

I purchased a PBXtra system for our office nearly a year ago and it has proven itself to be a dependable product. As a CPA office with 13 employees, the flexabilty and ease of use has been wonderful. A similar system would have cost over $10K, but Fonality came in just under $6K out the door. The most amazing thing was the ease of setup. First you plug it in, then push the power button and it just works. My clients in the Telecom business couldn't believe it.

[Astonct]

Try Unia Telecom, VOIP alternative

Unia Telecom - sounds like they're the good guys. at least they try. visited the site http://www.uniatelecom.com and also called them and was surprised to learn their whole operation is US based, unlike the other providers quick to run to India. they seem to be very well footed and reliable..tested the service too.
Regardless, the fact that they give a percentage of their earnings to humane / humanitarian causes will definitely serve them very well in the future...thinking of signing up for the service....

Shelly G.