RH wrote:[color=blue]
> 1- While costs are lower than BT, they are not super cheap, you may
> get better with a least cost routing supplier on existing system. 2-
> if your looking at a VOIP route there are others that are cheaper 3-
> With Skype you are looking at softphone use probably, users will get
> fed up of taking calls on one phone and making on different system 4-
> Its locked into one provider[/color]

5- The call audio is compressed.

Now, while the sound is nice, and most people don't notice anything
wrong, it just isn't all there.

I'm sure that on compressed calls, there are more questions. The
listener will ask the speaker to clarify more often. To ask for
something to be repeated, or for a word to be spelt out.

Also, when I'm on a low bandwidth call, I usually find myself
concentrating really hard to hear what people are saying. I know I get
a warm ear because I'm holding the phone so close. A long G.723 call
will give me a headache [1].

As you are paying your staff, if you pay 75p an hour for them to be able
to make high quality phone calls, or 55p a minute to make crappy calls,
I know which I'd choose.

I said 55p. I know you can get unmetered calls on VoIP, but for the
foreseeable future, most people that businesses call will be to fixed
lined operators. And for internal voip, you have the cost of phones,
internet connections, servers or a service provider, setting it all up ....


But you can achieve cost savings using VoIP, but usually not on call
charges. Maybe if your traffic is almost entirely internal.

Examples, flexible routing of calls between 2 offices to make maximum
use of available staff. Yes, this has been done for years in big call
centres, but now can be done very cheaply for small organisations.

People working from home.

Realtime billing information - for instance, look at which calls your
branch offices are making to see which members of staff are chatting to
their friends, and which taking calls from customers.



[1] - yes, I can usually tell which audio codec is being used on a call,
just by listening to it. In some cases, I can say which ITSP the call
is coming through.

Tim