dw31220

We are not using Vonage or any of the Internet based carriers, but we are doing VOIP over cable and DSL to our remote offices. As with all Internet services, these are delivered on a "best-effort" basis. While you can prioritize traffic outbound from the location, those markings are pretty much discarded once they leave the site. This means that voice quality can suffer at any time for long periods. We have a site that is periodically experiencing problems as we speak.

If you are running business class services, you should look into some of the business class VOIP offerings that are emerging. There are alot of carriers offering native SIP or H.323 interfaces over traditional Point-to-Point, Frame, or MPLS data circuits. If you have an office that is already using a Frame circuit for data and a PRI for voice, you can remove the PRI and provision a new data circuit and then use each as a backup for the other with little or no extra cost to the site. These services are guaranteed and usually honor your COS/DSCP settings to ensure good voice quality.

The Vonages,Skypes, and Net2Phones are great for the road warrier/work from home types, but I would be wary of putting an office behind them without some kind of reliable backup in the event your cable/DSl service goes in the dirt.


-DW