atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX VoIP & Cloud Phones, Hosted PBX, General IP Phones VoIP is Dead

Wow!! Lane, you obviously travel in circles that I don't even have a chance of working in. My largest customer has maybe 150 stations.

We went up to scope a prospect that had maybe 600 stations and was linked to corporate and to 2 or 3 other locations---but his network was such a mishmash of switches--we decided to back out. I couldn't even envision working on the scale that you have. Very impressive!!

Mostly Maritime clients and large schools.

It keeps 3 guys plus me busy yearround but allot of international travel.

Given the US economy and market it keeps all of our creditors happy though.

It is a very different world - we just did a software and hardware upgrade on a ship with 2300 extensions a couple of weeks ago with less than 30 minutes of downtime; of course about 40 hours of prep time in our lab and nearly 60 years of experience between us to achieve that goal.


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I have worked strictly with VOIP systems for the past three years and don't see it coming to an end. I think its a train and the traditional PBX techs or companies are going to have to jump on,
no matter what the pros and cons are.
Because companies are asking for it and moving to it and there is no way in hell anyone person, company or technology is going to stop it, right or wrong.
So why would you fight it when you can profit from it, its sink or swim.

There is always a viable solution with VOIP if it is called for. I for one love the whole VOIP technology and the company I work for is pushing to change Nortel systems to IPT platforms all across the U.S, Canada and Europe... Lucky me...

We are Also looking to remove the desktop phones and replace them with the Office Communicator. Pretty sweet I think..

It hasn't been easy, but I've been positioning myself to maintain the mid to large size hybrid systems (CS2100 and CS1000), versus the more traditional TDM PBXs and end offices. I'm also impressed by the developments made with desktop messaging, remote notification, and video conferencing.

I got a stack of trouble calls today via the fax machine - all for the VOIP phones on site. Then I noticed that I couldn't access anything on my PC.

Turns out there was a power problem. Both UPS's shorted out and knocked out both main & backup power to the data center. Lost every server in the building (25 floors, 3,500 hosts & printers).

We've got about 15-20 VOIP phones in the building - two departments that need ACD (the old 5ESS doesn't offer anything fancy enough).

Well, when the servers went down, so did the ACDs and the VOIP phones. The beat up old Centrex sets kept on plugging.

We used to install a line of industrial PCs with dual power supplies that took a -48VDC feed (that we supplied from the telephone power plant). That probably would have saved their butts here. Any body ever use those bad boys? Are they still around?

Just another problem with VOIP as far as I can see.

Sam

Sam,

There are issues and the VOIP system is only as good as the design and implementation. It sounds to me the design of the backup power was not thought out well. I started my telecom experience on 1A2 and Centrex but I also have embraced the evolution on the industry. Don't worry we will bring you and rest of the guys along with us kicking and screaming! haha!

I have to give Sam some credit though, power is a customer issue in IP telephony, whereas before it was a carrier issue. In defense of VOIP though, all digital telephony has customer-side power requirements.

Sam, in industrial settings, pure-DC powered computers are old news, and still widely used, especially in embedded devices, DC power is also used in data centers, due to its inherent stability and overall reliability relative to AC. In localized installations, transmission is not an issue and AC loses its advantage.

<rant>
Again, please be careful that you're not -- in making arguments that X sucks -- conflating Voice Over Internet *Protocol* (which as several BCM fans noted, can work very well) with Voice Over The Internet (which is a completely different, and potentially much dodgier issue).

You can *do* VoN, and reasonably well, but you do have to understand the territory, and you can't guarantee the carriers in the middle won't screw you. But you probably can't do it to higher than 2 or 3 9's over a year.
</rant>

@ Silversam

I think power problems will affect anything with a power cord not just VoIP systems... :shrug: