Skype is great for casual use. But, it uses it's own proprietary protocol
and requires Skype at both ends, or you pay for Skype-out service. Skype
protocol cannot (easily) be hooked into a Asterisk PBX. There are solutions
but they require running the Skype client and hooking in to its API, and I
am not sure that they are mission-critical ready.
Do you run a VoIP system in your office today? Do you want remote users to
contact their colleagues on a telephone at their desk, or is it OK for them
to run Skype (or other SIP) client? If you run VoIP today, then setting up
remote (travelling) users to use a standards-based SIP client (like X-Lite)
and hooking them into your existing VoIP PBX might be a good way to go. If
you do not run a VoIP system already and just have a traditional PBX, with
direct dial from BT and you want office-bound to use regular telephones,
then you need Skype-out like service. You could sign up with any UK VoIP
service to give you this. If it is OK for everyone to use SIP-clients on
their computers (or SIP phones) then sure you could set up your own VoIP PBX
based on asterisk. But do you really want to do that if you are not
committed to VoIP in your office already? Mixing VoIP and non-VoIP in the
same office is not really practical. You have to keep it up 24/7/365. etc...
As an alternative consider a hosted virtual-PBX solution, someone else runs
the PBX in their data center, not yours. Take a look at www.pbxes.com for
example.
David
On Mon, Jun 9, 2008 at 4:55 AM, David Caldwell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I have a hopefully straightforward question! We have a handful of users
> on our network who want to use Skype to talk to colleagues back at the
> office from various international destinations as well as the UK. At
> what point would it be more economical (financially and bandwidth-wise)
> to sign up with a SIP provider and build our own VoIP server and set
> these users up to use our VoIP service rather than Skype? Like all
> useful technologies, once the cat's out of the bag, other people are
> going to want to use VoIP as well. I would project about 40
> semi-frequent VoIP users after about a year.
>
> For bandwidth, I'm guessing it's going to come down to the codec choices
> and Skype seem to do pretty well with quality vs bandwidth. They're
> pretty cheap too -- so, is it worth my efforts building a VoIP box at all?
>
> What do you guys think? Thoughts and suggestions welcome!
>
> Thanks,
>
> David.
>
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> David Caldwell
> Network Services
>
> Canterbury College
> New Dover Road
> Canterbury
> Kent
> CT1 3AJ
> +44(0)1227 81 1271
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
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