We’re in the process of renewing our contract with our current vendor. They are at 0.05/DID and $0.001/MIN. We have around 54,000 DID. Is anyone getting a better rate out there?
As we pickup after Lala, I am curious what the real life experience with Starlink has been supporting VoIP.
I understand latency, jitter, and packet loss are going to be factors. The question is, can 1 or 2 calls of short duration be reasonably supported in an emergency situation if no other connection is available?
Even at the worst case, with the mobile app the VoIP provider offers, I would have access to transcribed voicemail and would be able to use SMS.
I am a VoIP reseller and I have a customer looking at Starlink as a cold standby for disaster recovery. If they commit, I would have the opportunity to perform a SOAK test and drop a couple phones.
I also realize other challenges, such as power, would come into play on this so any ideas there would be appreciated also. Maybe a power bank with a solar charger or a 12VDC inverter system?
In closing, I get this is not advised. The provider outright says not supported so they can punt support calls but I am really looking at the "You're my only hope" scenario and not an everyday production use. TIA!
Edit to add: Thank you for the quick responses! My gut told me this could work. Possibly not everywhere since there is never a perfect solution but, yeah...
Hey all,
First time posting here. I have the current situation: my wife's grandmother lives in another country, and both my wife and my mother in law were able to communicate with her through a smartphone. At the moment, grandma has been having a harder time managing her smartphone so my mother in law is having trouble trying to communicate with her, as of now the only mean to do so has been a close relative available for a quick visit and assistance with the call, or calling the direct line (which is long distance, so extremely expensive).
I'm trying to find an option for a phone that is connected to wifi and able to receive calls, hopefully, through WhatsApp. Bear in mind my mother in law is not so tech savy, but if whatsapp is a no go she could definitely could use another app if there's something like that available.
Any help would be appreciated.
I am attempting to repurpose this phone from the previous provider. Does anyone know the OEM so that I can flash with non ESi firmware?
Current have a Mitel 3300. 75 IP phones (6920/6940) and 80 analog phones (hotel rooms with cat3).
Time to go cloud. Need ATAs to convert analog to SIP.
Can any providers reuse our Mitel phones with custom firmware? I’m guessing no, but thought I’d try.
Current leader is ESI. Any others to look at?
I have 22 well qualified customers aged from 3 months to 6+ years. By well qualified, I mean we checked their LAN/Internet, went over what they expected compared to what can be delivered, and fulfilled those promises.
All migrated from on-prem to hosted after Toshiba and, later, NEC bailed. Yes, bailed...
The morning after, all sites were able to manage via mobile apps, tablets, or in the worst scenarios, voice mail to email.
Some clients were using Eleven Labs to create and upload status prompts to deliver current status reports to customers calling in as the situation quickly would change..
Even though I had no power, I was able to use my laptop and a mobile hotspot to support customers. They had no idea I was working with no power. I was taking calls like normal on my mobile app.
I realize that not every site is best suited for hosted but the past few days really drove home how resilient hosted can be when it is well planned.
I made a point to call every client. A few of them asked, how I got through (they were using mobile apps) and I explained the hosted is up and running so it doesn't matter if your office has power or Internet. They forgot about that resiliency we had discussed!
Such a huge game changer from our last big storm in 2014. Hosted was around then also, but it was nowhere near as robust as it is now. Internet infrastructure has also remarkably improved.
Even on a Moday morning after the hurricane, I was like that old Maytag repair tech. I had to call customers lol...
hi there. so i really don’t know what a voip is.
i just started a new work from home job that requires us to take calls through our cell phones which i really would rather not (brand new phone that i don’t want to slowly kill for work purposes). this was not in the job description, i thought they would come through my PC, but anyway. one of my teammates mentioned he was gonna get a voip and suggested that we get one too. i’ve looked them up and don’t really understand all the tech talk. i’m wondering what a voip actually is and if this is a good alternative? do you just get a phone number from it and i can plug that in to my work services and the calls will come through on my PC? i am working for a government entity - are they secure? would love some advice and a detailed, dumbed-down explanation :) tia!
Hello all, I hope this finds you well.
To make a long story short, I work at a company that has a call center and the CEO wants to expand it so that agents can work from home on their mobile phones(I think this is a horrible idea).
I wanted to know how possible this is given our tech stack and what implementation would look like? Need some advice to see if this is feasible haha.
---TECH STACK---
ViciDial as SIP Dialer through Asterisk Server
We use multiple in house web-tools (CrowdCollect, Webfin and more)
I know that Softphones exist but with our tech stack and the nature of the call center, I think this is a bad idea and not worth it.
thoughts?
EDIT - I did not see the rule about not asking for reccomendations for businesses so my apologies in advance haha. I more need advice for myself just to be sure this is actually a bad idea and not just me being picky.
Hello, I am looking for a basic headset for taking calls when I'm volunteering on the 988 helpline. I tried this one, but the button does not mute at all and the volume buttons say they're adjusting output volume on the computer (Macbook), but it did not actually do anything. In addition, the computer does not automatically switch to this headset when connected with USB. It's also small on my already small head!
When I look up recommendations, I see ones that are $150 or sometimes well over $200. I just want a good one that is comfortable and actually mutes, controls volume, and registers on the computer when plugged in without me having to find the audio settings every time.
Thank you in advance for any recommendations!
Hey Folks, new here and new to the whole VOIP systems.
I am building a small US-only setup — a handful of local DIDs, inbound calls forwarded to cell
phones, voicemail recording, some SMS. Low volume.
Deciding between Twilio Or Telnyx right now, Twillio is much more expensive than Telnyx and porting in/out is much easier from Telnyx from what I found. I still have to setup A2P 10DLC registration. I was learning to Telnyx to cut cost.
I just checked their status page while testing and most of what's open doesn't affect me
(Programmable Wireless, EU regions). But one incident has been showing as ongoing
for a month and its own description says "resolved on 15th of July but status page
incorrectly remained open." A couple of other things have sat in Monitoring for
weeks.
I understand Incidents happen everywhere, that's not the issue.
Here is my load per client per business day(m-f):
Inbound calls (total): 20
— missed → voicemail: 14
— answered -> 7
Voicemails recorded: 14
Talk minutes Total: 34
SMS segments: 75
Outbound dial attempt: 20
Outbound billable minutes: 34
What I want to know is:
Context: automotive industry with 3CX as the primary PBX.
TL;DR - call deliverability is a problem because of staff not answering calls and reporting startups are harvesting our money. Do I look at a turnkey solution for the industry, look at a higher generic UCaaS than 3CX, or look at a whitelabel solution like Wazo Platform?
We're running into a struggle right now with our management - 3CX isn't providing good enough reporting and they're signing up for AI products to manage voicemail and call reporting/sentiment analysis.
I'm at a loss as the sysadmin of what I can do. As a shot in the dark, I've been making a vibe-coded solution that taps into the 3CX Postgres database to provide a platform to better allow my management to tap in and make sure voicemails are being attended to. I've also introduced visual voicemail via the api of working with this app and it's pretty slick.
I was happy with my work that I got two of my newest 3CX setups installed with it, with great feedback from management. When we showed our C-suite though, they had a completely different take. The COO's son sold them on a(nother) vibe-coded dashboard for the phone system which just takes a call from Telnyx and transcribes with AI analysis.
That's fine and all, but already my Telnyx recording costs are high for the throughput, and for accurate transcription it is going to cost thousands a month for what they want.
Our goal with 3CX was to leverage low-cost SIP trunks to provide a system that has growth and expandability easily from older Avaya systems we were supporting. Overall, our goal was achieved, but they just want more and more data where 3CX just is falling short.
If you have any knowledge of the automotive industry, it is ripe with software startups which lock you in with tens of thousands of dollar contracts for that data. I know I can internalize this with my team, but I need a direction to go back to our in-house java dev and IT director.
I feel like for the wants explained above - a generic UCaaS like 3CX isn't going to do it anymore. Do I look at a more costly backend that can work with our Yealink hardware, look at the turnkey solutions for an industry-specific phone system, or look at Wazo Platform to just build what we need for our industry?
Hi everyone,
I am mapping out a communication system that connects User A (caller) with User B (receiver) through a central system.
System requirements:
The problem:
I need to audit this logic for vulnerabilities. Specifically, how to prevent off-system transactions where users take the conversation offline to bypass system tracking.
I have attached two routing options I designed.
Questions:
Looking for feedback purely on the architecture and system logic. Thank you!
Hi. I’m launching a business and have a question about the best communication setup to choose. We operate by referring the client directly to the worker; the worker then speaks with the client and agrees on the price. Our firm doesn't take any upfront payments; instead, we collect our fee only after the client has paid the worker for the job. I want to avoid fraud—specifically, situations where workers or call center staff might cheat me. I’d appreciate any ideas, feedback, or tips you might have.
I attached two options that I came up with.
Our company is looking at moving forward with a new method of assigning phone extensions. Our current method is kind of all over the place with assigning extensions as previously each of our buildings had some form of 1/2 digits prefix and then 2 numbers following to assign to a user. Now they are looking at a 5-digit extension, where the first 2 digits apply to the building, the next 2 apply to the room number, and the last digit applies to the desk.
This mainly came about because we have a ton of people that move throughout the year and just take their phones with them. This causes confusing as to where they are, paging gets messed up, safety concerns as if they have to call 911, they may be routed to the wrong location.
One thing we are trying to implement is that the phones do not leave the desk/office they are in. I am having trouble figuring this out overall and several of us have different ideas on how we should proceed. We would constantly need to be aware of where people are and in a company of 300+ employees, that can be hard to track. We have thought of having to go in and change each employees assigned extension but that could get tedious with multiple changes. We've thought about making them workstations and then the phones just wouldn't have their names assigned. Another thing I have looked into slightly is Hot Desking, but I am still pretty unfamiliar with it.
I am hoping someone has experienced this before or has a better idea for us before we go ahead with something and it is a bigger pain than we thought of.
Some things that may help:
- We use Cisco Webex through the Webex Control Hub
- We have over 20 locations
Please feel free to ask me any kind of clarifying questions.
Hi I'm setting up a doctor surgery in Ireland and my Internet provider offers voip free of charge. I am wondering what kind of phone to buy, would anyone please point me in the direction of brands or what to look for? Specifically I want the phone to ring and say press 1 for this, press 2 for that, eg answering machine for requesting an appointment where the voice is sent to email as text, or press 2 for general queries to another answering machine (while I am waiting for a receptionist). Thank you!
I have a restaurant that i am opening soon. I need a desk phone (with no app needed to be installed to make calls), just simple answer or dial to make a call.
On the other hand, i need the customers when they call, to be asked (press 1 to make a reservation/ order to be routed to the restaurant. Press 2 to speak to manager or talk about a private event (which it needs to forwarding them to my cell).
The question is, most of the Voip companies that i am looking at, either they require you to install an app to make calls, or the number that i get will not work on WhatsApp (for the manager number).
All i need a forwarding system to route the calls to 2 extensions, one of those numbers will be the main line for the restaurant, and the other for the manager
I talked to Que, Dialpad & Grasshopper, they all require to use an app to make calls.
Is even VOIP a good idea for me at this point? is there another system that works better for my needs?
In short
Ring > Press 1 for restaurant - Press 2 for manager
Restaurant does not need to have apps to make calls
Manager phone needs to have WhatsApp working on the phone
Someone asked for it and I thought why not!!
Reusing digital and IP Nortel, E-MetroTel, Grandstream, Panasonic, Avaya, NEC and Cisco and ringing them together on one PBX.
Note: I said CLEC in the title, then realized that for a toll-free number, the correct term is RESPORG. I can't edit the title, but I made the substitution below.
My large VOIP provider offers SMS and MMS messaging for regular phone numbers. For toll-free numbers, they offer only SMS: no MMS. They told me that their upstream carrier doesn't allow MMS on toll-free numbers, so they can't enable MMS on my toll-free number.
The RESPORG for my toll-free number is Bandwidth.com .. On this page:
https://www.bandwidth.com/support/en/articles/12823214-what-is-mms
...Bandwidth says this:
So I conclude that the upstream carrier does in fact offer MMS for toll-free numbers.
However, some possibilities:
• Maybe my VOIP provider would have to pay extra (and charge extra) for toll-free MMS, so they opted to enable just SMS on toll-free numbers.
• I assume that the RESPORG (Bandwidth) is the "upstream carrier" that my VOIP provider refers to. However, maybe the "upstream carrier" is another company that resells Bandwidth service to my VOIP provider.
Any thoughts about this?
>My client's A2P is fully verified (US local number 10DLC), but whenever someone calls their GoHighLevel number, it shows up as "Likely Scam" on the recipient's phone and they hang up before answering. Has anyone dealt with this? What actually fixed it for you?
New to VoIP troubleshooting. Tried to set up Wireshark yesterday to look at SIP/RTP traffic on our Mitel system, filtered for SIP and got literally nothing.
Looked into it a bit and think it's because our system is cloud hosted, so SIP runs over TLS which encrypts it? So I can't see inside it the normal way, is that right? Or am I filtering/looking at it wrong in Wireshark?
Anyone actually work with cloud hosted VoIP like this? Is there a real way to trace/troubleshoot calls when you don't have PBX access, just normal support level access? Or is it basically just check your own firewall (port ranges, SIP ALG) then get your provider to pull a trace on their end if that doesn't sort it?
Genuinely trying to understand this, cheers.
