My small business is looking to leave AT&T analog and make the switch to SIP trunking. We have an older PBX (Fonality PBXtra Professional Edition V3.3) and were encouraged to look into SIP trunks by a sales rep at Fonality. In the past few days, I've done extensive research into the topic and have learned a lot, but I knew virtually nothing about phone systems or phone technology last Monday. I think a little hesitancy on my part is valid.
Our business: Fonality PBXtra Professional Edition V3.3 with analog and VoIP capability. Four phone lines with numbers that we must port over, five phones. DL speed 20.36 Mbps, UL 1.76 Mbps (reassured by several reps at different companies that this was more than adequate for our phone needs + internet). We must have month-to-month service and won't switch to hosted (boss wants to keep using PBX because he's comfortable with it). Approx. local minutes: 600, long distance 1500, international 160. Minutes per month about 2300.
We're looking at:
1. Nextiva - bigger company, more established, but relatively new to SIP trunking so my friend at Fonality discouraged that choice.
2. Broadvox - certified Fonality-compatible, seems like a medium sized-business so maybe could offer best of both worlds (reliability & customer service)
3. Starview - smaller and newer, recommended by my Fonality friend, very helpful and customer service could be best of the three
My concerns:
- difficulty of installation (there are a few guys in the office who are pretty technologically savvy, and my boss is competent enough to have handled the PBX setup and operation on his own, but we have no dedicated IT guy)
- customer service (again, need to make sure that we won't be left in the cold with our trunk, we'd really like help to be available right away when we need it)
- reliability (from reviews I've read, SIP service can be spotty, how common is this?)
Any advice or help you can offer is much, much appreciated! Thanks!
Amelia
Member Since:
2011-08-29