[voip] Recommend me a phone system supplier

[SpaceInvader83]

Hi all,

 

One of my primaries currently has an analogue phone system in place and would like to upgrade it to something a little more feature rich, can anyone recommend any suppliers I can get in touch with for quotes? Looking for complete installation and management from them.

 

Thanks

 

Simon

[Zoom7000]

I'd take a look at Meraki. I'm very happy with their MDM and Wireless solution. I already have VoIP and CCTV in place, otherwise I would definitely have a look those from Meraki too for ease of use and management from 1 central location. Simple to set up, so easy to use and great support.

[Meldrew]

3cx. Works a treat.

[RichCowell]

We use Russell Telecom - been looking at VOIP with them too, seem like a great company, we've been using them for several years now...

 

Independent - Informed - In Touch | Russell Telecom

[FN-GM]

We use FreePBX and purchase phones from a regular supplier. Ended up being much cheaper and we have the same amount of features.

[Chris_]

We had an NEC VOIP system installed by Incom Telecom Business Telephone Systems. Voice Phone & Data Communication Systems provided by Incom Business Systems

 

It's been bulletproof since it was installed, far more reliable than the creaky old digital system it replaced.

[mrbios]

Same as FN-GM here. FreePBX is fantastic.

 

What phones you using @FN-GM?

[FN-GM]

Same as FN-GM here. FreePBX is fantastic.

 

What phones you using @FN-GM?

 

We are using a mix. Many are Cisco 6941's inherited from the previous Cisco phone system, these are just for basic extensions and a bit of a waste to throw them. Any new purchases we use Yealink T46G. Sangoma (who runs freepbx) phones are Yealinks with their badge badge and a little more expensive. The BLF doesn't work on the Cisco phones but does on the Yealink. The T46G is quite a fancy phone, they do more cheaper basic models.

 

In total there is about 175 extensions across all sites.

Edited January 19, 2017 by FN-GM

[jdoldridge]

We are having a NEC VOIP system installed at the moment by Cobus Communications based in Hull. They're brilliant and can't do enough for us to be honest.

[m25man]

Not this one.

http://fortune.com/2017/01/19/avaya-bankruptcy/

[mrbios]

We are using a mix. Many are Cisco 6941's inherited from the previous Cisco phone system, these are just for basic extensions and a bit of a waste to throw them. Any new purchases we use Yealink T46G. Sangoma (who runs freepbx) phones are Yealinks with their badge badge and a little more expensive. The BLF doesn't work on the Cisco phones but does on the Yealink. The T46G is quite a fancy phone, they do more cheaper basic models.

 

In total there is about 175 extensions across all sites.

 

Ah didn't realise the Sangoma phones were basically Yealinks, we've got entirely Sangomas here....primarily S300s, but about 17 x S500s.....and we don't like them (Or rather to be more exact, the head doesn't like them...I could live with them, but they seem a touch buggy)

[Blue_Cookeh]

Just to throw our experience out there

 

We wanted a system an outside company could support, and that was fairly industry standard. In the end the one that won out of features/pricing in our books was the Avaya IP Office system. A really nice bit of kit that supports analogue, digital, H323, and SIP phones that can be extended to provide IM, presence, tie into Office365 etc. The guys we purchased from (https://www.exteradirect.co.uk/) have been nothing short of fantastic on working out the correct licensing, providing support etc, even answering e-mails at 9pm on a Sunday evening. I believe they do installation and maintenance too, but we opted to do that ourselves for now.

 

We went for Avaya 1616 desk phones and Avaya 3641 WiFi phones, so the various clubs after school etc can use them anywhere we have WiFi (we specifically put up various APs and antennas to cover our sports field for these).

 

Avaya's bankruptcy doesn't have much to do with their phone side of things, the business isn't going anywhere and they're still selling and supporting all products, and even if the company did go under there will still be plenty of people around to support these systems (they're very big in hospitals, hotels etc).

Edited January 20, 2017 by Blue_Cookeh

[FN-GM]

Ah didn't realise the Sangoma phones were basically Yealinks, we've got entirely Sangomas here....primarily S300s, but about 17 x S500s.....and we don't like them (Or rather to be more exact, the head doesn't like them...I could live with them, but they seem a touch buggy)

 

Whats actually up with them?

[TechMonkey]

3CX. Came in at almost half less than the other systems (not including Astrid of Free PBX but they weren't in the mix) and just works. Take a look at their website to find a local supplier or do it yourself.

[mrbios]

Whats actually up with them?

 

All sorts really, time on the phones not applying and staying at 00:00:00 on restart, audio blips (which sangoma have released a bunch of fixes for in the latest firmware from the looks of things...I did send them various logs and PCAPs to which they fixed some race condition with the SIP notify packet)

 

The most frustrating issue may not be phone specific though....our head INSISTS that he should be able to use them just like the old analogue/digital ones. He refuses to allow us to set them up so you have to press send or # (or dial then pickup the handset) to initiate the call. So i've had to put a very convoluted dial pattern into the phones, rather than just leaving them at the default and setting the dial pattern on the PBX. This breaks lots of other functionality such as BLF key call pickup and BLF attended transfer.

 

We're borrowing an old Yealink phone off someone next week to test out and see if all those issues are phone specific. Obviously the heads requirements are the most frustrating, i mean look at this:

{5xx|0[1235678]xxxxxxxxx|[123456789]xxxxx|*670[1235678]xxxxxxxxx|*67[123456789]xxxxx|00x+|9xx|1xx|6XX|*98xxx|*97}

^ that in every phone, rather than just a simpler version of that in the PBX. >_< 500 and 600 are internal ranges, then each feature code in order to work correctly has to be included in the pattern, so every time there's a feature that doesn't work, IF there's a feature code for it i have to update that pattern to use it.

[garethEds]

We use Bistech as our supplier but their system is EOL in September as Toshiba have pulled out of the UK market - so we will be looking again for a new system. The main issue I see with our current system is that everything has to be done through them - if we want a phone moved, we have t oring them; if we need an extension changing - ring them.

 

I want a system that they put in and support, but gives the freedom to complete the smaller tasks.

 

GJE

[FN-GM]

Gosh! My sympathy there!

 

I have had no issues. It mgiht be worth finding the Yealink equivalent and using their firmware?

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

All sorts really, time on the phones not applying and staying at 00:00:00 on restart, audio blips (which sangoma have released a bunch of fixes for in the latest firmware from the looks of things...I did send them various logs and PCAPs to which they fixed some race condition with the SIP notify packet)

 

The most frustrating issue may not be phone specific though....our head INSISTS that he should be able to use them just like the old analogue/digital ones. He refuses to allow us to set them up so you have to press send or # (or dial then pickup the handset) to initiate the call. So i've had to put a very convoluted dial pattern into the phones, rather than just leaving them at the default and setting the dial pattern on the PBX. This breaks lots of other functionality such as BLF key call pickup and BLF attended transfer.

 

We're borrowing an old Yealink phone off someone next week to test out and see if all those issues are phone specific. Obviously the heads requirements are the most frustrating, i mean look at this:

{5xx|0[1235678]xxxxxxxxx|[123456789]xxxxx|*670[1235678]xxxxxxxxx|*67[123456789]xxxxx|00x+|9xx|1xx|6XX|*98xxx|*97}

^ that in every phone, rather than just a simpler version of that in the PBX. >_< 500 and 600 are internal ranges, then each feature code in order to work correctly has to be included in the pattern, so every time there's a feature that doesn't work, IF there's a feature code for it i have to update that pattern to use it.

 

Gosh! My sympathy there!

 

I have had no issues. It mgiht be worth finding the Yealink equivalent and using their firmware?

[FragglePete]

Splicecom here (The Right Choice For Voice - SpliceCom) - Installed by Intech Telecoms Intech Telecom a few years back. Been pretty rock solid and their support has been very good.

 

Pete

[Willott]

The most frustrating issue may not be phone specific though....our head INSISTS that he should be able to use them just like the old analogue/digital ones. He refuses to allow us to set them up so you have to press send or # (or dial then pickup the handset) to initiate the call. So i've had to put a very convoluted dial pattern into the phones, rather than just leaving them at the default and setting the dial pattern on the PBX. This breaks lots of other functionality such as BLF key call pickup and BLF attended transfer.

 

We're borrowing an old Yealink phone off someone next week to test out and see if all those issues are phone specific. Obviously the heads requirements are the most frustrating, i mean look at this:

{5xx|0[1235678]xxxxxxxxx|[123456789]xxxxx|*670[1235678]xxxxxxxxx|*67[123456789]xxxxx|00x+|9xx|1xx|6XX|*98xxx|*97}

^ that in every phone, rather than just a simpler version of that in the PBX. >_< 500 and 600 are internal ranges, then each feature code in order to work correctly has to be included in the pattern, so every time there's a feature that doesn't work, IF there's a feature code for it i have to update that pattern to use it.

 

@mrbios Yealinks have a live dialpad setting, which appears to deal with the head's requirement of not having to press anything to dial when onhook. May be worth looking for similar on the Sangoma phone?

[mrbios]

Gosh! My sympathy there!

 

I have had no issues. It mgiht be worth finding the Yealink equivalent and using their firmware?

 

On the brightside....FreePBX has been fantastic

 

@mrbios Yealinks have a live dialpad setting, which appears to deal with the head's requirement of not having to press anything to dial when onhook. May be worth looking for similar on the Sangoma phone?

 

Interesting. I did mention the issue to the Sangoma phone support people, they just responded to my ticket basically saying what i wanted couldn't be done. I'll have a look though!

Edited January 20, 2017 by mrbios

[Wave9_Lee]

Appreciate you are looking for other schools' recommendations, but if you'd like a price/info from us, I'd be happy to oblige,

 

regards

 

Lee

[jonathon28]

@Millgate can you help?

[dhicks]

We use FreePBX and purchase phones from a regular supplier. Ended up being much cheaper and we have the same amount of features.

 

We use IQPBX, very similar to FreePBX (i.e. a web-based front end on top of Asterisk), but comes as a neat bundle of hardware that includes connectors for things like ISDN lines so you can hook up your existing phone lines and start using them right away. We then bought a bunch of Yealink phones, plugged them in and away we went. The central PXB appliance cost somewhere under £2,000, the phones (60-odd) cost another £8,000 in all, a couple of days worth of our time to set up the PBX and plug all the phones in, and that was it - the next nearest quote we had for a similar sized system was around £30,000.

[FN-GM]

We use IQPBX, very similar to FreePBX (i.e. a web-based front end on top of Asterisk), but comes as a neat bundle of hardware that includes connectors for things like ISDN lines so you can hook up your existing phone lines and start using them right away. We then bought a bunch of Yealink phones, plugged them in and away we went. The central PXB appliance cost somewhere under £2,000, the phones (60-odd) cost another £8,000 in all, a couple of days worth of our time to set up the PBX and plug all the phones in, and that was it - the next nearest quote we had for a similar sized system was around £30,000.

 

We run it on a Virtual Machine. Decided not to use any hardware and use the benefits of VM's.

[dhicks]

We run it on a Virtual Machine. Decided not to use any hardware and use the benefits of VM's.

 

Indeed - we would probably have run Asterisk on a VM, but we required some way of interfacing with the existing ISDN lines. Switching over to SIP is one of those things we keep meaning to look at, but it's working okay for the moment so it hasn't seemed important. Having a hardware PBX available does give us the option of adding a mobile SIM as a backup line should the main telephone line go down, too.