SIP Trunk/Lines Sizing question

mrbostn

Posts: 77
Member Since:
2007-05-01

Submitted by mrbostn on Thu, 02/12/2009 - 1:08pm.

Hi,

The company I work for is looking to slash telco costs.

Currently they have:
1. 1 PRI
2. 14 employees
3. 50 DID's
4. What I see as slightly lower avg call volume (IE at random times during the day, I observe no more than 4/5 people using the phone at once)
5. 1 Fax machine
6. 1 phone line for alarm
7. Separate T1 for internet
8. Phone bill of $825/month including that PRI and calls and taxes and those two analog lines.
9. Old Samsung Key system with old broken down Samsung phones.
10. TVM 2002 Telekol voice recognition system (the best part of the telco system, since it works great)

I faxed over our phone bill to bandwidth.com and they emailed back saying they couldn't save us any money...strange.

Does anyone have any suggestions? It seems to me that the company could save $$ by going all SIP. I would just need enough trunks to allow for 4-8 incoming/outgoing calls. Right?

Thank you
Scott

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ethans

Posts: 519
Member Since:
2007-01-16

Can you get a partial PRI?

Thu, 02/12/2009 - 1:13pm

Can you get a partial PRI? They are sometimes called integrated PRIs and can include half data channels half PRI. We have found that there can be significant cost savings by going this route, when available from a local CLEC. What area are you in?

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mrbostn

Posts: 77
Member Since:
2007-05-01

partial PRI

Thu, 02/12/2009 - 1:17pm

Haven't checked into that yet. I was assuming a half pri would cost only slightly less than a full PRI. A bit like buying a fractional T1, not much cost savings. We're in Malden MA.

Current PRI is with OneCommunications.

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ethans

Posts: 519
Member Since:
2007-01-16

I would call One and see if

Thu, 02/12/2009 - 1:23pm

I would call One and see if they offer it. We can get integrated PRIs for less than $300/mo including loop charges.

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mrbostn

Posts: 77
Member Since:
2007-05-01

PRI

Thu, 02/12/2009 - 1:32pm

Are you saying try to get an integrated PRI and keep everything the same? or get the PRI and implement trix, or piaf?

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ethans

Posts: 519
Member Since:
2007-01-16

I guess it depends on what

Thu, 02/12/2009 - 1:41pm

I guess it depends on what you are looking for. Theoretically you could put in an Asterisk based system and do straight IP trunking and save a bunch of money. The problem will be if you don't have very good bandwidth and peering to whatever service provider you choose, you may have a nightmarish experience with quality.

Or you could just go to an integrated PRI keep your PBX and save money on the phone bill.

If you are looking for added features plus lowered phone bill, you can drop in an Asterisk system with a PRI card and go to an integrated PRI to save money. A good PRI card will cost you $700-800.

You could also drop in an Asterisk based system and do a hybrid, offloading your long distance to a less expensive IP trunk and doing local and incoming on either an integrated PRI or analog lines.

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mrbostn

Posts: 77
Member Since:
2007-05-01

Added features...

Thu, 02/12/2009 - 1:55pm

Thank you for all your replies.

They do like the added features of an Asterisk based system. I've showed them click to call, voicemails into their inbox, and even trunking another system at the bosses home office if he chooses to work from home.

One feature I can't wrap my arms around that they have now is voice recognition. They love how a caller can call and state the name of the person and be connected. I've been reading about Lumenvox and their offerings, and it looks interesting, but I'd need to demo it before I bought anything.

Thanks again for your help.

Scott

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ethans

Posts: 519
Member Since:
2007-01-16

Now you're talking my

Thu, 02/12/2009 - 2:01pm

Now you're talking my language.

For voice recognition on Asterisk:

Check out our blog: http://schmoozecom.blogspot.com
The Magic Button: http://www.schmoozecom.com/magic_button.html

Our software integrates directly into FreePBX on Trixbox, Elastix, PBXIAF, AsteriskNOW for:

Speech-enabled IVRs
Speech-enabled personal-IVRs
Speech-enabled company directory
Magic Button

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busster8

Posts: 388
Member Since:
2006-06-25

Save Telephone Expense

Thu, 02/12/2009 - 2:02pm

I would look at the possibility of using SIP. I know of very few companies converting 100% to sip, but think it is getting there. You could either make your own gateway or purchase a gateway device to test SIP traffic over your existing internet. If the call quality is acceptable, then have the service provider port your numbers across and remove the voice t-1.
Unless you want to convert faxing to some flavor of internet faxing, remember to keep the analog line for faxing and alarms.

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mrbostn

Posts: 77
Member Since:
2007-05-01

Sip gateway

Thu, 02/12/2009 - 2:09pm

Busster8,

The boss doesn't seem afraid of 100% SIP. What do you mean make my own/purchase a gateway to test my sip traffic?
Do you mean setup an asterisk box and use it? Or what?

Ethans: I've been reading up on it I like it...I need to read more. Like I said I'd need to get a demo to work to show the boss what it can do.

Thanks guys.
Scott

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ethans

Posts: 519
Member Since:
2007-01-16

Here's what I would do: Get

Thu, 02/12/2009 - 2:14pm

Here's what I would do: Get your boss to commit to a $200 exploration budget. Find some spare computer laying around the office and install a distribution on it. Buy a SIP trunk to Vitelity or another provider and configure it on the new system. Buy a phone that you would want to reuse for the actual deployment. I would recommend one of the 5i series Aastra phones if you want to blow your boss away with functionality and then deploy the aastra-xml-scripts. I can install speech on the box for demonstration purposes.

If you haven't worked with any of this stuff in the past, it will probably take you about a week to get it ready for demonstration purposes.

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mrbostn

Posts: 77
Member Since:
2007-05-01

Now you're talking my language.

Thu, 02/12/2009 - 2:19pm

I have a working piaf box now with two phones an old snom 220 and a snom 300.

I'd need a week to get him to commit to a time for the demo anyway.

Can you work with either of those snoms?

Thanks

Scott

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ethans

Posts: 519
Member Since:
2007-01-16

The Snom support is coming,

Thu, 02/12/2009 - 2:23pm

The Snom support is coming, but it's not there yet.

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mrbostn

Posts: 77
Member Since:
2007-05-01

Aastra

Thu, 02/12/2009 - 2:25pm

I'll grab an Aastra over the next week.

Thanks

you got a pm.

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thisisalex02

Posts: 71
Member Since:
2008-04-11

Whats your network topology

Wed, 02/18/2009 - 3:25pm

Whats your network topology look like and whats in place for redundancy? If your planning on going all SIP you need to ensure your network has QOS deployed, and configure redundant routing including Not so static routing, and/or HSRP. In these type of setups, Connection is always multihomed.

I have moved over entire offices to SIP in the past, but theres one where i really wish i didnt. They had the typical cable modem type network (6X2) So i called up broadvoice and ordered 7 sip trunks and off i went. Call quality went to crap overnight.. literally After i started lookin around turns out i had terrible connection to broadvoice which has causing all of my issues. I had to change SIP providers to bandwidth.com, and upgrade my connection to 3 T1s. (all i really needed was a single T1, but i wanted some bandwidth ;)

Once i had all of that in place the system was farily stable. Having our trunks all SIP really saved us a good amount of money on our phone bill, but we had to spend a little more on the network side. Which is never a bad thing :) Just make sure you check out your connection with whatever ITSP you choose. If your connection to your ITSP sucks, your call quality is going to suck.

On a side note, how is voice quality now with the PRI. Next week i will setting up an office that will have a Integrated PRI, with two data T1s. They also will provide unlimited local calling my my area so hopefully everything goes smooth. For long distance i'm going to have 4 bandwidth.com lines. They also have a branch office 5 citys away so i plan on having that site completely hosted via the same ISP provider. This will ensure all traffic stays on their backbone and never has to get out to the public network. Once they make connection back to main office, they will use the PRI for local / incoming, and bandwidth.com lines for long distance. This is first time i will be setting up a PRI but from what i hear its the best. Whats ur exp?

Alex

Converged Technologies

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mrbostn

Posts: 77
Member Since:
2007-05-01

re:

Thu, 02/19/2009 - 10:22am

Hi,

Thank for taking the time to respond.

The office has a pri for phone, and a T1 for data. 14 users at the office, about 10 of them in on any given day. Gig switch. No qos at the time. But it seems to me that you can only control so much of the QOS. As soon as you exit the gateway, you're at the mercy of the internet. Unless of course you have a private line to the provider.

Voice quality on the PRI is fine. The only complaint is it cost too much. They have and I would keep the 2 analog lines (fax and alarm)

From looking at the phone bills they use about 3-4K minutes/month. Not a heck of a lot of calls happening during the day.

A random walkthru the office shows 1-4 people on the phone at any given point in time.
I have peaked the bosses interest by demonstrating vm into Outlook, click to call using Outcall, and showing him that I can a remote extension at his home office.
the only feature I'm struggling at is voice rec. Ethan said he'd demo it when I get an Aastra phone. (havent yet but soon).

I was looking for some real world experiences with going 100% sip. I use Broadvoice now and like their service, also ping rates to their nyc proxy is good.

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SIP Trunk/Lines Sizing question

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