Hosted PBX

MLC61

Has anybody any experience or knowledge of hosted PBX's? I know that this service is quite popular in the UK, however the only provider that I can see in Ireland is Magnet.
I believe that the limiting factor to date may have been the quality of broadband, but surely there must be some users out there?

Tomtata

Have used it in the past with a VPS from Dediserve.com - worked perfectly.

Like you said - broadband quality was and continues to be the limiting factor.
Also with hosted it’s difficult to failover on incoming calls if there is an outage.

MLC61

Sorry, I meant ha anybody committed to a contract for a hosted solution - paying per seat per month.
Would be interested to see what their experiences were.

Mr. G

pbxes.com have different packages to suit your requirements, called pbxes-pro which is per user per month.

Personally, I would prefer to have my own pbx on site unless of course every employee works from home and upload speed is not great.

Mr. G

Pbxes btw is not irish.
Perhaps you might try zentelecom, site doesn't look convincing. Suggest you try 3CX, Emutex/Blueface etc.

MLC61

Thanks for that - I have looked at both 3CX and Blueface but neither are what I am looking for.
Ideally what I require is a provider who will supply me with the handsets off a central system housed in a secure location with fail over support. I want resilience through two circuits to route the SIP over - one wireless preferably. The idea is to pay a fixed sum each month per handset to include calls - something like Microsoft 365 or Google Apps.

Mr. G

MLC61 wrote: »

Thanks for that - I have looked at both 3CX and Blueface but neither are what I am looking for.
Ideally what I require is a provider who will supply me with the handsets off a central system housed in a secure location with fail over support. I want resilience through two circuits to route the SIP over - one wireless preferably. The idea is to pay a fixed sum each month per handset to include calls - something like Microsoft 365 or Google Apps.

Ok, take a look at Microsoft Lync (I think its called).

Welltel offer managed router, phone (voip) and broadband all under the one roof. They provide phones and all equipment and can fix equipment remotely via VPN.

Tomtata

MLC61 wrote: »

Thanks for that - I have looked at both 3CX and Blueface but neither are what I am looking for.
Ideally what I require is a provider who will supply me with the handsets off a central system housed in a secure location with fail over support. I want resilience through two circuits to route the SIP over - one wireless preferably. The idea is to pay a fixed sum each month per handset to include calls - something like Microsoft 365 or Google Apps.

A couple of questions,

How many handsets?
How many incoming DDI's?
How many channels do you need at the one time?
Do you require Fax?
Why do you want to go with a hosted solution?

From the answers I will be able to give you a few options.

Petercarlos

Well, I have been using Hosted PBX service since the last seven months. You can check out with The Real PBX for services in Ireland. Quality of broadband is not so much of an issue as the soft phones are designed to work with low bandwidth.

MLC61

Tomtata wrote: »

A couple of questions,

How many handsets?
How many incoming DDI's?
How many channels do you need at the one time?
Do you require Fax?
Why do you want to go with a hosted solution?

From the answers I will be able to give you a few options.

Approx 18!handsets each with a DDI?
8 voice channels.
Fax x 1
I don't want to pay for a system upfront. In addition I hope that the number of handsets will increase over the next 12 months by 6/7 so want the flexibility.

Tomtata

What type of brandband do you have?
Do you want the PBX provider to offer you the broadband + failover option?

Magnets Voicenet product sounds like a good fit

Mr. G

I know Imagine business do it as well.

MLC61

I was considering EFM (Ethernet First Mile).
This is uncontended synchronous broadband which I was told I would need to guarantee the voice quality over SIP. This broadband will do both my voice and internet access.
I have looked at the Imagine website and can't see anything relevant.
I see that Magnet offer this service - Voicenet. Has anybody had any experience of this product?

Mr. G

MLC61 wrote: »

I was considering EFM (Ethernet First Mile).
This is uncontended synchronous broadband which I was told I would need to guarantee the voice quality over SIP. This broadband will do both my voice and internet access.
I have looked at the Imagine website and can't see anything relevant.
I see that Magnet offer this service - Voicenet. Has anybody had any experience of this product?

If you look at the customer authorisation form hosted pbx is there on the imagine website.

I have enquired about voip from magnet, they never rang back, but I could only get DSL and wireless broadband.

Have you tried BT Ireland or welltel as I mentioned above?

Vodafone have a product called OneNet, which is really a 'hosted pbx'. Eircom don't offer any voip services anymore.

HTH

MLC61

Mr_Grumpy wrote: »

If you look at the customer authorisation form hosted pbx is there on the imagine website.

I have enquired about voip from magnet, they never rang back, but I could only get DSL and wireless broadband.

Have you tried BT Ireland or welltel as I mentioned above?

Vodafone have a product called OneNet, which is really a 'hosted pbx'. Eircom don't offer any voip services anymore.

HTH

I have tried BT - nothing on offer.
The OneNet from Vodafone is based on the mobile network rather than SIP. The handsets have Sim cards in them. As I said above I am hoping to use one circuit or voice and data.

Thank you for your suggestions. What is HTH?

Mr. G

(Hope This Helps)

Not really a lot of choice here in Ireland. Vodafone One Net has mobile and desk phones. The desk phones are ip phones, that use the broadband to connect.

MLC61

Mr_Grumpy wrote: »

(Hope This Helps)

Not really a lot of choice here in Ireland. Vodafone One Net has mobile and desk phones. The desk phones are ip phones, that use the broadband to connect.

From what I can see on their website the service is delivered over the mobile network. They mention that there may be coverage black spots in your office where they may not be able to locate a desk phone. No mention of broadband.

DVD-Lots

Another one to look at is Magnetic North, they are UK based but can provide the service here no problem, I had an onsite visit to a Bank in Dublin that was using the service and it really worked well. We looked at them as an option as we were going through an upgrade tender but went against it due to complications with our current hardware.

They provide a fully hosted PBX option that can be delivered over SIP or traditional PSTN and afaik they have Data centres in 3 locations in Dublin for resilience purposes. They also support IP phones but have a very nice softphone integration if you are interested in that side of things.

More info here - http://www.magneticnorth.co.uk/moresolutions/hostedpbx.aspx

And if you need any direct contact details let me know as they are really friendly and open for discussion on requirements etc.

Petercarlos

MLC61 wrote: »

Approx 18!handsets each with a DDI?
8 voice channels.
Fax x 1
I don't want to pay for a system upfront. In addition I hope that the number of handsets will increase over the next 12 months by 6/7 so want the flexibility.

If you are looking for an inexpensive solution which is flexible enough to meet your growing demands in the near future, I would suggest that a Hosted PBX system will be best for your business. These systems will give you the flexibility that you require and the expenses involved will be less. All your basic requirements i.e. 18 handsets, each with DDI, 8 voice channels and fax (through a different number) can be fulfilled by almost all providers. Are there any extra features that you are looking for?

Mr. G

I don't see why you want a hosted pbx. I have never had an issue with Asterisk that is on a system in house.

Its much cheaper.

Try Welltel they do the whole she-bang, broadband and telephones.

MLC61

Having done some further research I am no closer to where I wanted to be than when I opened the thread. Reluctantly I will shelve the hosted solution idea for the moment.

The alternative is the traditional hardware on site, so I will engage with a couple of companies and see what they have to offer. Thanks everybody for the suggestions.

I will give some updates over the course of the project if anyone is interested.

I have short listed 3 companies and will circulate them with a profile of what we require. It is still my intention to go with a SIP trunk to carry the calls so I will need something that is IP ready.

geecee

My Company moved to magnet Total earlier this month

Very happy so far... We have around 90 handsets, FAX and 3 Polycom Analog conference phones hanging off it in addition to 20 remote users

They installed a 2MB SDSL line in the premises in addition to an ADSL2+ line

The voice traffic goes out over the SDSL, whilst the ADSL2+ is purely a data line

You can either rent or buy the handsets and POE IP switches depending on whether you prefer operational or capital expenditure

OffalyNiceFella

geecee wrote: »

My Company moved to magnet Total earlier this month

Very happy so far... We have around 90 handsets, FAX and 3 Polycom Analog conference phones hanging off it in addition to 20 remote users

They installed a 2MB SDSL line in the premises in addition to an ADSL2+ line

The voice traffic goes out over the SDSL, whilst the ADSL2+ is purely a data line

You can either rent or buy the handsets and POE IP switches depending on whether you prefer operational or capital expenditure

In the same boat myself, recently had a PBX outage in the office and after the amount of grief it caused im looking to possibly to have it hosed. @geecee what magnet offer sounds pretty good. Do you know if they the end user is given the functionality to divert a Main number to say a mobile number at any given notice? Reason being we have a 24hr support line that is manned by different remote users on a daily basis.

Mr. G

You can hunt a series of mobile numbers on your main number as well as some desk phones if you like with magnet.

Although if its IT based, each remote user will have a PC so you could get a central hosted pbx, and every desk phone connects to it. The desk phones could be anywhere and you can transfer etc easily. I'm sure Blueface might be able to assist with your requirements.

The only thing with a hosted pbx is that you are relying on your telephone provider, a third party that hosts it and your broadband as well has the third parties.

Is the likes of goldfish.ie something you would consider?

noblemetric

Hi,

I am also interested in a hosted pbx solution. Has anyone any experience with thinkgrid.ie ? (They were recently bought by Colt Telecom AFAIK)

Mr. G

Innovate are meant to be very good. They do the credit unions and manage the systems remotely as well as managed routers etc without an upfront fee. Its included monthly.

I know they do the credit unions if I can remember correctly.

OffalyNiceFella

I was speaking to Magnet and they seem to offer a good service similar to Innovate, just the thoughts of getting an additional line intot he building turned me off. I then looked at Virtualizing our astrex PBX, and even though lots have gotten to working its not recommended by astrex, but would be extremely handy.

So in the end I went for a similar hosted solution but in the form of Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series Model 560 for Small Business.
It does everything we need, and may purchase a second to have some form of DR

MLC61

OffalyNiceFella wrote: »

I was speaking to Magnet and they seem to offer a good service similar to Innovate, just the thoughts of getting an additional line intot he building turned me off. I then looked at Virtualizing our astrex PBX, and even though lots have gotten to working its not recommended by astrex, but would be extremely handy.

So in the end I went for a similar hosted solution but in the form of Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series Model 560 for Small Business.
It does everything we need, and may purchase a second to have some form of DR

When you say a similar hosted solution, is the Cisco system not on your premises?
What providor did you go with for this solution?

OffalyNiceFella

The Cisco device is on premises, I was referring to the Magnet solution being similar to the hosted PBX providers mentioned, and seem to have a good package, but just Didn't suit our needs.

MLC61

OffalyNiceFella wrote: »

The Cisco device is on premises, I was referring to the Magnet solution being similar to the hosted PBX providers mentioned, and seem to have a good package, but just Didn't suit our needs.

Understand - thanks.
Who did you purchase from?