Hosted telephony FAQ's
 

How does PumaIP Hosted Telephony Work?
PumaIP Hosted Telephony utilises broadband and other data connections to deliver hosted voice services and supplementary applications to end user businesses. The PumaIP Hosted Telephony platform is built on BroadWorks SIP based soft-switch, distributed across two London data centres.

Is This Voice Over The Internet?
Not necessarily. Where an existing customer DSL connection is used, yes the traffic is over the Internet. Where a PumaIP Hosted Telephony WAN circuit is installed, this is only Voice over Internet Protocol [VoIP]. Customer call traffic is not carried over the public Internet and is “on-net” to us. This enables us to control the quality of the call from the network core out to the end user telephone. In this way PumaIP sidesteps the tricky issue with VoIP, namely, how to prioritise voice quality across the Internet.

Can I retain my existing BT numbers?
In most cases yes, though this depends on the local customer exchange. Further exchanges and Service Providers are continually being added.

What cost savings should I expect?
It varies depending on the type of deployment, the opportunity to centralise resource, number of sites, total number of endpoints and the application requirement within your business. Generally speaking, PumaIP will reduce customer costs by 20-30% through BT trunk replacement, economies of scale in call billing, free on-net calling, reduced capital costs and reduction of administration and support costs.

Can PumaIP Hosted Telephony interconnect with an existing PBX?
Yes – it is expected that some customers will want a phased deployment or a longer internal trial of the service. Or they may have a new PBX in a branch that it doesn’t make sense to decommission. For whatever reason, PumaIP Hosted Telephony offers full interconnection with any PBX that supports QSIG [all PBX’s manufactured in the last 6 years should support this]. Using an intermediate gateway, we can provide full desk-to-desk dialing and feature transparency.

How many users can be supported?
There is no real limit. For PumaIP Hosted Telephony there is no difference between 10 and 1000 users per site. As size increases the complexity lies predominantly in the LAN; considerations include internal traffic routing, securing sufficient bandwidth and building in appropriate fail over mechanisms.

Do customers need a separate DSL connection to PumaIP?
Not for smaller deployments. There are two factors to consider; bandwidth and assured call quality. We need to allow 30k for each call, so there must be enough bandwidth to support the required simultaneous calls. In most cases where there are more than 5-10 users, we will advise a separate connection that has priority for our network and will not traverse the public Internet.

How quickly can the service be installed?
Almost immediately if required. Users are live as soon as they are provisioned. Additional lead time would be for number porting and DSL installation, if a separate DSL was being used.

What local redundancy/survivability options are there?
Survivability options are many and varied. Inbound call rerouting is available. Local router survivability, redundant DSL lines and fail-over PSTN access are also available on a range of router options, though this adds cost to the overall solution. It should also be stressed that PumaIP offers levels of availability and business continuity that are simply not available on a PBX, regardless of the level of customer investment.

Is PumaIP Hosted Telephony secure?
There are an array of security measures in place to protect our customers and ourselves. The IP telephones are a closed environment and are not susceptible to PC and other viruses. Nor are they a back-door for hackers to access the customer or PumaIP network. User access to the system is strictly partitioned and there is rigorous, multi – layer authentication to the network core. The PumaIP Hosted Telephony network is distributed between two London data centres and is patrolled 24/7.

What IP phones does PumaIP Hosted Telephony support?
Any SIP based IP phone can be used. Our preference is Polycom SoundPoint range for the best balance of features, accessibility and cost.

 

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