VOIP Phone System

[Edu-IT]

Just gone through this exercise. We went VOIP using 3CX. We have a large system and so use a partner for support (I believe we might be one of the largest school installs in UK). We use Yealink phones, a mix of T42s and T46G deskphones and W52P DECT. We increased the number of extensions and purchased a load of DDIs. We give an extension to all staff, even teachers without physical handsets and they get their voicemails through outlook.

 

I can't emphasize how good the system is and how easy it is to setup and support. Although not essential, we used PoE switches so this was a big cost, however, we are projecting a £30k revenue saving on our previous ISDN/BT solution year on year.

 

If you want a provider recommendation, PM me.

 

Thanks

Any particular reason you chose those handsets, which seem quite costly, in comparison to some of the others. Just curious.

[Davit2005]

We faced a similar decision here recently. We are moving from Asterisk/FreePBX to 3CX. From Grandstream handsets to Yealink. And for the lines, we're going from analog lines to SIP trunks.

 

3cx seems really good. Got the free version at home connected to SIP trunk. Just installed and up and running within 60mins. Can't believe I spent so long trying to setup asterisk via CLI and conf files on Linux.

 

15Mbps uplink via FTTC should be able to handle a few lines.

[CAWJames]

I pay £35 ish per handset for colour 7970's now, we used to have 7961's but they are getting scarcer these days. We went with the FreePBX distro, as 3CX is only free up to a point. then you have to pay. Currently 100 odd phyical extensions, 20 soft phones and some analogue faxy and alarmy things, all over 4 sites, with a VPN between them all, works seamlessly A lot of the former asterisk based distros, incrediblePBX, Elastix etc are now going 3CX based, but only free for I think 20 extensions,

[FN-GM]

Can't believe I spent so long trying to setup asterisk via CLI and conf files on Linux.

 

Should have used FreePBX Distro....

[pcstru]

3cx seems really good. Got the free version at home connected to SIP trunk. Just installed and up and running within 60mins. Can't believe I spent so long trying to setup asterisk via CLI and conf files on Linux.

The upside to that is you then (hopefully) understand how the underlying systems hang together so the myriad of options that FreePBX throw at you will seem a little less intimidating. On the other hand, I ruled out going down that road here because support continuity can become difficult for the school if the expert/s leave. I'd rather pay for 3CX or at worst have some external support we could fall back on.

[Davit2005]

Should have used FreePBX Distro....

 

I did try Asterisk@HOME but the VM crashed and wouldn't reload after a few restarts.

 

Also had a go with the Asterisk GUI but that was a bit of a mare to even get running. Internal calls and internal to external worked but jus couldn't get incoming calls working.

 

3cx was so easy in comparison but I'd given up on Asterisk after spending hours trying to get incoming calls working but I'd prob mucked up quite a bit in conf files.

 

I think their is a windows version of Asterisk but installing on Linux seemed more sense some how, less resources and no license to worry about.

Edited April 21, 2017 by Davit2005

[1066girl]

Yes agree with TechMonkey, only 6 months in now, but savings for us will be approaching 50%.

 

System size: 192 phone handsets (including two conference consoles) and 367 extensions (all DDIs). 172 extensions either voicemail only or softphone. We also have around 200 softphone apps installed on school and staff mobiles. Our original annual costs for telephony were in excess of £80k and the system was a hybrid of an ancient BT BCM with Nortel and Avaya handsets and a very expensive proof of concept Mitel system. We also had around 34 BT "residential" lines for various reasons which were really expensive. I reduced these down to a minimal critical incident number (no mobile signal here in places) and moved them to a more competitively priced provider.

 

My team struggled to support the old system. The ISDN costs alone were £7500 per quarter! This was for two geographically split schools. Now we are on the same telephone system and just about to start testing a SNOM PA system using 3CX too. The new system is so much easier to manage.

[Progress]

Yea! All installed and working.

The biggest thing was filling out the spreadsheets - Each phone has to have a active user with email and you decide what happens when someone rings.

There are options for "Hunt Groups", and loads of other options that probably won't be required for a small Primary School.

Essentially all we wanted was a system that receives a call - If there is no answer it moves on to the next phone and eventually if no one picks up goes to answerphone.

There are open and closed hours settings and stuff that might be useful later on..

 

hardware arrived pre-configured as per the spreadsheet, but a sticker on the box would have been useful to say which was which.

 

Other points - If you havent got a POE switch with enough ports, you will need one. Get it yourself as you will probably get a better deal. We bought a sub £100 Netgear ProSafe 8 port PoE Smart Switch (GS110TP), which works great, with room to expand.

The switchover is handled firstly by a divert, so make sure you have that feature enabled or it's a half hour of your life wasted trying to talk to the relevant department. BT quoted 4-24 hours, but it switched over in under 20 minutes. The full porting of the number is likely to take longer,

 

Useful to know.. If the call is answered, any subsequent call can be diverted to the next phone on the list and yes you can also make calls while one is in process. Obvious to some, but seems like a miracle to some users.Each phone also has a "direct dial" number, where the last 3 digits allow a call directly to an extension.

Sound quality is better than the old system - and they are easy to move - Just patch the relevant socket into your POE switch and you are away.

 

Early days - But so far highly recommended and cheaper than the old system.

[Edu-IT]

Thanks for the update @Progress. Did you use a seperate port on your SB router so traffic is entirely separate?

 

As a side, for anyone looking for SIP/VOIP, there's some great offers on at Schools Broadband. Hope it's OK to post.

 

https://www.schoolsbroadband.co.uk/sip-10-year-offer

 

Useful to know.. If the call is answered, any subsequent call can be diverted to the next phone on the list and yes you can also make calls while one is in process. Obvious to some, but seems like a miracle to some users.Each phone also has a "direct dial" number, where the last 3 digits allow a call directly to an extension.

Are the DDI numbers local area code?

Edited May 24, 2017 by Edu-IT

[SchoolsBroadband]

yes can you believe we are 10 years old?!!?!? The special 10 year anniversary deal was released yesterday.

 

You can have DDI numbers from any local area code in the UK

 

Dave

[Progress]

Hi - Nope, it all goes through the same "hole"

 

Still no major problems, just getting it as we want it, currently reading the user guide for the web interface, we deactivated part of the hunt feature as after a couple of days we found it was just ignored so had to make the full round trip before going to voicemail - So a lesson learned, be realistic as to who will actually pick up the phone..

 

All DDI's are local - Waiting for the final BT number port next week, I also have a phone at the end of a wireless P2P with no issues.