[kwlug-disc] OT: Roger's phone services

[Paul Nijjar]

On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 03:35:36PM -0400, Andrew Kohlsmith (mailing lists account) wrote:
> > Now for the cost. Consider a small office with 4 lines. They keep 1 POTS
> > line for backup and perhaps one for fax. To ensure audio quality you buy a
> > DSL from your ITSP for $70 (or tell me where to buy $50 links) and you're
> > back up to the same $140 or so in "line" costs. But you'll save a little on
> > long distance, most of which you could do by switching long distance
> > carriers.
> 

> Acanac has business internet for $30/mo for the first year right
> now. Normal cost is $53/mo if a year is paid in advance. However if
> you're talking about small businesses I'm sure you're not putting in
> business internet, and that's $34/mo if paid a year in advance.
> 

> Teksavvy is $40/mo for residential (couldn't find business quickly
> on their site).

If I remember correctly Teksavvy would not give us a business Internet
package. Maybe I am wrong about this?

After hemming and hawing over Internet for this new project we decided
to go with Yak. So far I am not impressed, but these are early days. 


> Why would you pay Bell/Telus rates? The level of service is no
> better (and in terms of being able to get a hold of someone,
> sometimes much worse) and they cap their transfers on top of that.

Because you don't have to deal with two sets of technicians?


> > Now calculate the payback on replacing the perfectly good old PBX.
> > They can only really justify it for the new features, or if their
> > old PBX needed replacing anyway.

> Agreed; if you're not going to replace the PBX you're just asking for pain. 
Uh oh. 

This is exactly what we are trying (Yak DSL + Unlimitel VoIP + Linksys
ATA + old Nortel system). What kind of pain am I asking for?

We have a similar setup in another building (albeit for a much smaller
installation) and it works okay. We have had some issues with tone
length, but it seems to mostly work. Having said that this thread
makes me frightened. 

- Paul

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