We too have used Vonage for one "CO" port. We use call routing for long distance calls to choose this port first; subsequent long distance calls go out a SBC port.
Most of our SBC calls are nearby long distance; which are billed at about 8.5c per minute, rather than the 3.2c we pay SBC for out of state. Using Vonage that way, we save about $170 a month, and use approx 3600 minutes a month. Disadvantages are: 1) Fax is lousy. We reprogrammed our faxes to go out a SBC trunk group only. We DO have a second, fax port on the Vonage box that works better for fax, but it only includes 500 minutes free per minute. 2) Occasional "clipping" from packet loss, which isn't really too bad. Happens on about 10% of calls. Sometimes there is a little echo or time lag on the calls. Totally garbled calls about 0.5% of time. Overall, I would say calls are excellent 90% of time, trivial problems 8% of time, annoying problems 1.5% of time, and unusable 0.5% of time. 3) Some numbers are unreachable. We could never call Tinker AFB in Oklahoma successfully, yet we were able to connect with SBC without any problems. 4) Vonage doesn't offer phone numbers for our city. As a result, we chose a phone number for Austin, TX. People we call now see that number appear on their caller ID and are completely confused at to why we are calling them from Austin, TX. Some have called us back at that number. Advantages: 1) Really low international rates. We saved another $50 a month here over SBC. 2) Works when SBC lines are down. SBC is notorious for losing service in our part of town. (It never hurts to have multiple vendors.) 3) Web site records the phone activity nicely. Essentially a web based SMDR. If you can put up with the occasional bad call, and have enough call volume, you and your customers could save some real bucks. -The End User- -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brent Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 2:09 AM To: [email protected] Subject: KX-T: VOIP I have been using Vonage as one of my lines of a KX-TD switch for about a year now. Quality is variable. I would say it is excellent about 95% of the time, but the bad 5% can drive you crazy. Working with Vonage, we increased (not perfected) the reliability by reducing the packet size used by Vonage. This way, problems are usually not audible. Brent [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ KX-T Mailing list --- http://kxthelp.com/ Subscription changes: http://kxthelp.com/mailman/listinfo/kxt _________________________________________________________________ KX-T Mailing list --- http://kxthelp.com/ Subscription changes: http://kxthelp.com/mailman/listinfo/kxt
