atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX VoIP & Cloud Phones, Hosted PBX, General IP Phones What's all this VoIP stuff anyway?

Hosted IP PBX's? I love them! Hell, I've sold several systems to clients who got burned going down that road. Easiest sales EVER! :banana:

I've never heard that use of the term before, at least not in telephone circles. It's certainly never been "official" GPO/BT terminology.

haha... not going to get any supporters around here for a hosted solution from either camp....

have you figured out how to do a page through those "phones" yet?

Global and individual phone paging is included, using the speakerphone speakers on the phones. Overhead paging requires an interface box (between existing speaker system and iPBX).

"@ Ed....the truth in advertising should be fully enforced. Peterbu, just because you sell it doesn't make it the best for all customers.

The pocket protector crowd needs more "ED-ucation". Even at your company website, it shows you furnish VoIP boot camps. You should show both sides so the customer can make an informed (not emotional) decision.
"

Absolutely correct on the "not the best for all customers" point. There will always be a place for Local iPBX, Classic PBX and even key systems. A Hosted product should be one more arrow in the quiver for a provider. Where we DO fit, we fit very well.

The "VOIP Boot Camp" mention was from a PR regarding a presentation on marketing that we gave at Channel Partners Boston.

We do NOT expect the customer to utilize the GUI to troubleshoot problems; that is why we work exclusively through Partners. We do what we do best: provide the hosted iPBX and live customer support for that. Our Partner/Installers take care of the rest of the infrastructure. No way nohow is this a turnkey "never have to call my telephone guy again" product. But it IS a way to satisfy the little guy who needs a lot of features and flexibility but doesn't have a big chunk of change to spend all at once.

Take a break, Hal, I'll handle this one.

We don't care what the whole world calls it. (Personally I don't believe you, but that's just my opinion.) There are mis-informed people in the US who use the same wrong term.

Whenever we real telephony professionals hear that mistake, our guard goes up, for we know that we're about to encounter a conversation with a CG, or worse...a misguided customer, general contrator, architect, or interior designer.

One thing that burns me is the theory that if enough people repeat the same mistake, it becomes the truth.

I suspect that you're a CG in clever disguise, your assertions to the contrary notwithstanding.

Here are a few questions from a bloody colonial:

When the repairman ("postal engineer"...don't you just love how you got that term correct?) goes to get a thing that holds the transmitter and receiver and has a curly cord attached to one end, off the shelf to replace a defective one, what does he look for/what is stamped on the box/what does the invoice from the manufacturer say?

Same questions for the situation when the repairman needs to get that thing that has a dial, switchhook, keys, ringer, line cord on it?

What is the curly cord called? Is it called a handset cord? What does it interconnect? The handset and the...?

What is the straight cord called? What does the straight one interconnect? The wall jack and the...?

I've often dared myself to take specifications literally, and to go around a new installation and plug "handsets" into the "RJ11's".

"Oh...you wanted TELEPHONES??? The specs call for HANDSETS. Sorry!!!"

Arthur,

Take a look at this old British Post Office N-diagram and associated notes, and I think you'll see that the terms are used exactly as you would expect them to be:

https://www.samhallas.co.uk/repository/n_diagrams/1000/N1841.pdf

Like an "RJ45" computer network jack? :rolleyes:

The plugs are going to be a loose fit, aren't they?

"I'm not sure that I understand the rocket science behind that supposedly "new technology" statement made by the original poster.

I've had customers doing that on digital (TDM) systems since the late 1980's. Comdial's Digitech (long-since discontinued) offered that with no customer intervention whatsoever. Simply pick up the phone and move it to another live jack and retain that phone extension's attributes. Vodavi's systems have also offered similar flexibility for nearly two decades as well. I can even do that on my dinky Panasonic system at my home, circa 1992.

Am I missing something here or does VoIP make this same thing happen even better?
"

Yes it does. You can take your telephone home, plug it into your cable broadband and the iPBX "knows" that it is there without reconfiguration. For that matter, you can take it to France and do the same thing!

But we've had that capability with hybrid systems for years. I use IP phones at home and when I travel via our TDM system in my office. Several of us do this. One of our admins here has an IP phone on our system at his home in PA. This feature is great, but it doesn't require that the entire system be IP.

I just don't think that it is fair or honest to assume that if people want these kinds of features should be expected to pay 2-3 times the cost. Especially for a system to have features that have been around for quite some time.

You beat me to that one Paul!

Anybody remember the "Eagle" phone system? Came out about 1984. You set the extension number using a 10 place 'DIP' switch in the phone. Move the phone to a different system jack, and Ta-Da, it was still the right extension number. And you could move it immediately without confusing the KSU, unlike the 'set relocation' feature of the N/T systems. That was about the only thing I liked about the system, but that's a different story! John C.