VOIP for small office

ronbyrne2005

im working in a small organisation with 2 telephone lines and dsl on one of them. we're considering installing a voip hardware system from www.voiceireland.ie,they sell you a piece of hardware that connects your conventional phones to their servers via broadband and secure connections. we make a lot of calls to uk and international landlines which are real cheap using VOIP.

A few questions, can we keep our geographical numbers and switch them to the voip provider? can people ring our current number and get through to us when we are using the voip provider? Are there any hidden costs to be aware of?? We wanna set up a new number so clients can call us from northern ireland at a local rate, does a new voip virtual number operate on an all ireland basis in cost terms?
Any other thoughts ?I assume the voip hardware and phones dont have to be connected to our office network in any way?? we are connected to a private network in uk using dsl and they wont let us use skype for security reasons but as this is a hardware solution there shouldnt be a problem.

Foxwood

In the short term, your best bet is to just leave your incoming calls on your existing landlines, and start using VoIP for your outbound calls. If/when you're satisfied with VoIP, you can start the process of porting your existing numbers over to VoIP.

As for servicing Northern Ireland, you should be able to get a UK non-geographic number which your NI users can call, and which you should be able to pick up with your VoIP hardware.

If you can't connect this setup to your existing network, then you'll need a new, seperate DSL line to connect it to the Internet.

joePC

Cheapest option -

IP line --> Router/switch --> ATA (Connected to Blueface/Freespeech)
|
|
v
PSTN lines --> ATA's (Connected to Blueface/Freespeech) --> Phone

This would allow you to keep your current phones & lines, allow incoming calls from PSTN and outgoing through VOIP.

I would recommend you keep your PSTN lines for failover should anything happen to your IP line or voip provider.

Best of luck, if you need more info let me know.

joePC

Double post (please delete)

Blaster99

I think you'll find that this is cheaper, easier, and works better: http://www.call13434.ie/index2.php.

They may well use VoIP to deliver the calls but you don't get the hassle of dealing with it. This doesn't deal with your UK number thing of course but it gives you immediate outgoing call savings.

ronbyrne2005

is there a theoretical risk to network in UK that we conect to with DSL by plugging ATA into the DSL modem? I dont think we could plug the ATA into the office nortell router as it may comprimise the network? If we keep the two geograpical lines and just wanna install VOIP for outbound can i plug the ATA into the DSL router which also provides internet access for office network and connects this network to private organisational one in UK? would i have to (as the person above said) get dsl on both lines? also we have a fax machine on one of the lines, whats options for this?? With keeping the two lines we arent savign that much on current bill of around 170 euro a month. Might tell boss just to use a low cost call company (one that you have to dial a special number from to make cheap calls) when we are calling the maldives and other far off destinations. Anyone know of a chea international call company that you allows you to receive a bill for calls made and allows you to keep your current provider like smart BT or eircom?

cubix

Just wondering blaster have you used 13434.ie much?,are they like voipcheap in the sense they change there prices/specials from week to week.

Cubix

Blaster99

They're basically Telestunt as CPS so they can offer better rates. I haven't used 13434 but I have used Telestunt and it's fine. Telestunt's rates change occasionally but not to the extent that it would annoy you. That 13434 service is amazingly cheap. I will in fact change to it myself. 10c to an Irish mobile during weekdays and 5c at weekends isn't half bad, 0.5c to most foreign land lines. The call setup charge is quite stiff at 5c, though.

cubix

Cheers for that, I presume unlike viopcheap you dont need to top up your account with x amout of credit they just bill your cc for the amout you made that month?

Cubix

Blaster99

Yeah, they charge your credit card monthly. I've used it a bit now and it's working well.