Couldn't agree with you more. I just want to add one thing, I do have a colocated server that has a PRI in it, that I use for customers to call out using VoIP from them to my colocated server. It seem to be much better than before I had the PRI (I used VoIP LD before that), based on customer feed back. Even over the Internet (DSL/Cable doesn't matter), from office to office within a company things work very well and customers don't complain (even when they are using a PRI and/or POTS on the other side of Asterisk), could be it's because of the fact that they know it's a VoIP connection, but because I never hear that "it sounds like a VoIP connection" which I used to hear when using VoIP LD I doubt that it sounds like one (minus the occasional hickups, which I think would have been accepted on VoIP LD as well).
On 3/9/06, Voip Xpress <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Since the original posting a few days ago, I have had a huge response from > the mailing list. (Is VoIP a case of "the emperors new clothes".) > Interestingly, the majoriity of respondents chose to reply directly to me > without posting to the rest of the mailing list, so I will summarise the > responses: > > - With the exception of a few (extremely smart, lucky or delusional Asterisk > users), the response has been that outside the enterprise (or at least > anywhere neat the public internet), Asterisk is at best cellphone quality. > > - The quality of DSL/cable access is an easy place to start pointing the > blame. It is definitely a factor, but not the only one. Most users > experienced success with point to point, presumably including DSL/cable so > it can't be all bad. Our experience would tend to agree with this. > > - Within the enterprise, there seem to be few VoIP problems. > > - The jury seems to be out on whether putting an Asterisk server in the > path does any harm. When there is no transcoding, the concensus is it does > not do any harm. > > - I did not receive one response saying that there is VoIP LD termination > out there that is any better than the rest. Our experience seems to be > typical. > > - Received quite a few responses from providers and users of TDM > termination. Although more expensive than VoIP termination, this would seem > to remove some of the internet variables. I would be interested to hear > what others' experience has been like with this type of service. > > Is cellphone quality really good enough? Firstly, most people would be > happy if they could reach cell quality over VoIP. On cellphone, people pay > a premium for convenience and in many cases, the service deterioraition is > predictable: we know which areas have dodgy coverage and live with it. > VoIp can be dodgy anytime any place. > > Conclusion...unless anyone can talk me out of it: > > VoIP LD calls can be cheap, but rarely worth it for business. For > N.America and western Europe, business customers may be able to save a few > c/min, but most will not accept the quality trade off. Calliing a customer > back 3 times to complete a 10 minute transaction doesn't fly. They will > walk. Calls to more exotic locations where customers can save 50c/min may > still be worth the trade off, but those customers arent that easy to find. > As TDM prices continue to fall, and in N.America tend to zero, I don't see > this improving any time soon. > > > If you are starting a business predicated on VoIP reducing business > customers LD bills, think again. > > VX > > > > >From: "Voip Xpress" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Reply-To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk > >Discussion<[email protected]> > >To: [email protected] > >Subject: [asterisk-biz] Does VoIP Really Work for Serious Business? > >Date: Tue, 07 Mar 2006 10:43:05 -0800 > > > >Discussion...is VoIP really ready for serious business use. > > > >We have been installing Asterisk for customers for about a year now, and we > >are beginning to wonder if parts of VoIP are really ready for serious > >business. Long Distance in particular is a problem. > > > >We use 3 LD providers, one a Tier 2 provider (ie buys from L3, Sprint etc) > >and a couple of others lower down the food tree (that are often discussed > >on this message board). We still find that almost all customers complain > >about dropped calls, echo, dead connections from time to time. My guess is > >that maybe 75-90% of calls are connected with decent quality. The rest are > >problems for various reasons, and customers are getting fed up with it. > > > >We have a primary carrier for each route based on quality and cost, and > >fallback to another carrier if the call cannot be connected, but we find > >invariably that carriers take calls and then dont connect them. > > > >We are at the point of stopping offering LD service. We make a few c/min, > >but the customer disatisfaction is just not worth it. People wont accept > >Skype quality 10-20% of the time. There is still a good business case for > >customers to install VoIP within the enterprise, and for Off premise users, > >but to save a few c/min on LD is not worth the trouble. We have considered > >connecting customers up directly to a carrier to cut out the connection > >through our own servers. > > > >We have also have mixed success with origination...busy signals, missed > >calls and have stopped taking new users. > > > >So...are we alone. Is it possible to get VoIP LD to be as good as TDM 95% > >of the time, and if so how? We dont have the time to try calls with every > >carrier to every area code every day! > > > >(and please, no responses from VoIPjet, Voxee, Junction, broadvoice etc etc > >saying how you are different. We know that you all suck to varying > >degrees!) > > > >Help! VoipXpress > > > >_________________________________________________________________ > >Don't just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! > >http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/ > > > >_______________________________________________ > >--Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- > > > >asterisk-biz mailing list > >To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz > > _________________________________________________________________ > Don't just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! > http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/ > > _______________________________________________ > --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- > > asterisk-biz mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz > _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-biz mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
