VOIP companies

Holy Family Communications
The Station of the Cross Catholic Radio
6325 Sheridan Drive
Williamsville, NY 14221

- Station of the Cross

- (877) 888-6279 -- main office number--with Earthlink? Time Warner?

- (877) 511-5483 -- Calling All Catholics (feeds Studio A and Studio B)

- (888) 711-6279 -- Fund drive (with VOIP provider now--PhonePower.com?)

- (716) 839-6117 -- office

- (877) 711-8500 -- FAX

- Orthodent

- (716) 839-1900

- (716) 839-9088 -- FAX

- (800) 837-1552

- EasyRX at Orthodent

- (888) 340-3751

Short list

company	contact	comments
VoicePulse
Broadvox	Brian Carney Director Channel Sales for NY, NJ 202.404.7444 bcarney@broadvox.com	I can't find a Buffalo partner on their website.
Earth Link Hosted Voice, Hosted IP PBX	Earthlink Business Sales Office Ellicott Square Bldg 295 Main Street Suite 200 Buffalo, NY 14203 EarthLink Business Sales: 1-877-355-1501	28 January 2012 Josh Hoyle Account Executive EarthLink Business E: jhoyle@corp.earthlink.com O: 360-524-9231 | F: 360-737-0518 | TF: 877-560-7381 3000 Columbia House Blvd., Suite 106 | Vancouver, WA | 98661 What Earthlink does for us now: Local telephone Long Distance Data and internet 18 x EUCL 18 x Local number portability 18 x Telephone Line Local usage On-net local usage 18 x PILD 4 x Toll Free Number 4 x Toll Free Call Pack 1000 Domestic interstate Domestic intrastate Inbound Toll Free (421 calls)

Buffalo VOIP

company	contact	comments
Voip Supply.	80 Pineview Drive Buffalo, NY 14228 Sweet Home and North French 1-800-398-8647 VOIP Supply experts Jeff Quinn 716-250-7473 Garrett Smith 716-531-4303	Many brands. Lots of hardware. 29 January 2013 Joe Shanahan SIP program just starting They resell CloudSpan service. They would send us an Asterisk-based IP-PBX -- "Elastix". The cost of the appliance varies with configuration and hours of support. $600-$800. It is an "appliance" (hardware/software combination). Cost depends on whether there is a PSTN card in it, level of support, and extended warranty ($50 a year for three years). The Elastix MiniUCS is a fully featured Unified Communication PBX in a small package. Weighing under 2 lbs, the MiniUCS will support about 50 SIP endpoints, up to 32 concurrent calls, and will allow an optional 4 FXO or FXS ports for analog connectivity. An EdgeMonitor is also required. About $524 for 10-call device. Can upgrade same device later just with license key. Voicemail Fax-to-email Support for softphones Web Interface Configuration Virtual conference rooms Call recording Least Cost Routing Extension Roaming PBX Interconnection Caller ID CRM Advance Reports Need high-speed internet connection. Our Time Warner Business class will work. One line in from internet; one line out to "switch." (I call it a server. Same or different?) They usually just deliver hardware. May be able to provide on-site installation and configuration for a price. He will talk with his engineers and get back to me. Called back 6 February 2013 with rewritten quote. 10 SIP trunks (2 x 5). Can add extra trunks one-at-a-time.
iEvolve Technology Services.	501 John James Audubon Pkwy. Suite 201 Amherst, NY 14228 716.505.8324	I-Evolve Technology Services® provides VoIP consulting and support for businesses primarily in and around Buffalo, NY, but I-Evolve can also provide VoIP services anywhere in North America.
Great Lakes IT Services	4955 Chestnut Ridge Road Orchard Park, NY 14127 716-783-3030	Great Lakes IT Services VoIP packages offer solutions to replace or improve your current business phone system with Voice-over-IP. Listed as a partner (VAR?) of Momentum (877.251.5554). Friday 11 January 2013 call from Anastasia Hardy (205-978-3405). Relaying me to Michael Fuchs (973-846-4472--New York City). Michael says they send people onsite. Cloud based. Router onsite for us. Breakout of locations. Seat count. Applications for the seats. Can your network support the bandwidth? May need two T1 lines. Nuances. mfuchs@momentumtelecom.com Will send engineers to go over the network. Get LOA: Letter of Authorization to allow folks to pull phone records from phone company to get CSR (Customer Service Record). Billing telephone number and any associated phone numbers with that account. ANO Additional Number .... DID Direct. Might have Centrex. Who knows? All the addresses for the locations. Call on Tuesday, 15 January 2013. Still wants LOA. Working Telephone Number (WTN). 800 numbers are phantom numbers. They point to WTNs. Can redirect them nearly instantaneously yourself from configuration software. Conference call with technician. Charlie. What is the bandwidth speed for Time Warner. Network diagram. Deliver services. Someone would have to implement them onsite. Site survey. Model numbers of the routers that serve the two lines.
ivoIPP.com		Seems oriented to home customers rather than business integration.
Comtel.	750 Ensminger Road #100 Tonawanda, NY 14150 716-874-5500	Comtel has been committed to serving Buffalo and Western New York community for over 20 years. Locally-owned and operated in Tonawanda, NY, Comtel has been designing, installing and servicing telephone systems for over 5,000 customers in the area and is now offering VoIP hosted IP/PBX for Buffalo businesses.
The PCA Group.	The PCA Group, Inc. 455 Cayuga Road, Suite 200 Buffalo, NY 14225 716.932.7830	Located in Buffalo, New York, The PCA Group offers I.T. services throughout Western New York (WNY), Upstate New York, Southern Ontario, and wherever our clients need us across the United States.
Alt Systems	960 Kenmore Avenue Buffalo, NY 14216 716-874-6511	Alt Systems specializes in the design, installation, and support of business VOIP and telephone systems in Western NY. ESI, Nortel, Avaya

Callbacks

Digium	Jamie Osborne josborne@digium.com 256-428-6155 EUS Networks LLC http://www.euscorp.com (212) 624-5943	Digium Switchvox is a turnkey solution. Hardware is a server with software installed. A Digium appliance.
Fonality Communications	John McCormack (877-366-2548 x6730; jmccormack@fonality.com) called me Friday 11 Jan 2013. Headquarters Fonality Inc. (Dallas, TX) 5800 Granite Parkway, Suite 550 Plano TX 75024 1 877 366 2548 Fonality Inc. (Los Angeles, CA) 200 Corporate Pointe, STE 300 Culver City, CA 90230 1 877 366 2548	Fonality offers purpose-built VoIP business communication and contact center solutions for growing small and mid-sized companies. Fonality's unique software provides an extensive breadth of communication features at a fraction of the cost and complexity of outdated legacy providers. Fonality's unique communications application unifies messaging, email and phone features into one easy-to-use interface. Fonality’s hybrid hosted solution provides a best of breed approach with the solution’s hardware residing on the customers premise while the control panel (along with service, maintenance, and configuration) remains in the cloud. Infamous moves, adds, or changes (MACs) can be addressed in a matter of minutes, not days, and without the additional fees associated with 3rd party service. Public Cloud / Hosted On Premise ("Failover to PSTN when VOIP is not available"). Private Cloud Provided a basic IP phone with the contract. 1-877-366-2548 John wanted us to sign an LOA, making Fonality our agent. I didn't like that at all!
Shortel	960 Stewart Drive Sunnyvale, CA 94085, USA Toll Free: +1.800.425.9385 Tel: +1.408.331.3300 Fax: +1.408.331.3333 300 State Street, Suite 100 Rochester, NY 14614, USA 877.776.6729	Dave (408-900-1234). dcarlson@shoretel.com
Premcom (a Shortel partner)	Paul Perrello 85 Northpointe Parkway, Suite 1 14228 Buffalo, N.Y. his cell: 716-629-3040 office: 716-691-3752 Fax: 909-693-9423	VAR. Systems integration. Buffalo Medical Group Buffalo Bills Buffalo Sabres Celino and Barnes, Brown and Chiari. BCO (small printing shop). "Rip and replace." Replace the guts of your system. New hardware. Buy or lease. Non-SIP. SIP trunks: no standard protocol. That's the problem with international lines. Recommends traditional PRIs or analogue lines that Time Warner, Earthlink, or fiber input.

Jargon

Image from SIPTrunk.org.

PBX

Private Branch eXchange

SIP trunking

Session Initiation Protocol service

siptrunk.org: What Is SIP Trunking?

- PBX with SIP-enabled trunk side

- enterprise edge device understanding SIP

- Internet telephony of SIP trunking service provider (Internet Telephone Service Provider [ITSP])

PSTN

Public switched telephone network

SBC

Session border controller

NATed LAN

NAT is short for Network Address Translation, an Internet standard that enables a local-area network (LAN) to use one set of IP addresses for internal traffic and a second set of addresses for external traffic. A NAT box located where the LAN meets the Internet makes all necessary IP address translations.

MAC address

A Media Access Control address (MAC address) is a unique identifier assigned to network interfaces for communications on the physical network segment. MAC addresses are used for numerous network technologies and most IEEE 802 network technologies, including Ethernet. Logically, MAC addresses are used in the Media Access Control protocol sub-layer of the OSI reference model.

MUX

Multiplexer: combines several data streams into one. Shares expensive resource among many users.

Astertisk

Asterisk is a free and open source framework for building communications applications and is sponsored by Digium. Asterisk turns an ordinary computer into a communications server. Asterisk powers IP PBX systems, VoIP gateways, conference servers and is used by small businesses, large businesses, call centers, carriers and governments worldwide. In short, it is an open source Linux PBX.

Digium

Digium is the creator, maintainer and sponsor of the Asterisk project. Digium offers products and services that extend the power of Asterisk. A portion of every Digium sale goes to fund Asterisk development. Support Asterisk: Buy Digium.

FXO, FXS, POTS

FXS and FXO are the name of ports used by Analog phone lines (also known as POTS - Plain Old Telephone Service) or phones.

FXS - Foreign eXchange Subscriber interface is the port that actually delivers the analog line to the subscriber. In other words it is the ‘plug on the wall’ that delivers a dialtone, battery current and ring voltage.

FXO - Foreign eXchange Office interface is the port that receives the analog line. It is the plug on the phone or fax machine, or the plug(s) on your analog phone system. It delivers an on-hook/off-hook indication (loop closure). Since the FXO port is attached to a device, such as a fax or phone, the device is often called the ‘FXO device’.

FXO and FXS are always paired, i.e similar to a male / female plug.

System requirements

• Keep current handsets and the new server.
• Keep Asterisk.
• Replace Rhino with new VOIP service (?). The Rhino has bandwidth problems during the fund drive?
• Provide international service (Canada) for all toll-free numbers. PhonePower.com let us down?

- Station of the Cross

- (877) 888-6279 -- main office number--with Earthlink? Time Warner?

- (877) 511-5483 -- Calling All Catholics (feeds Studio A and Studio B)

- (888) 711-6279 -- Fund drive (with VOIP provider now--PhonePower.com?)

- (716) 839-6117 -- office

- (877) 711-8500 -- FAX

- Orthodent

- (716) 839-1900

- (716) 839-1900

- (716) 839-9088 -- FAX

- (800) 837-1552

- EasyRX at Orthodent

- (888) 340-3751

- JMJ

- No phone.

- Any other numbers?

• Connect to mixers in Studio A and Studio B.
• Work with current fund-drive system.
• Act as PBX for 9 office phones; phone bank for fund-drives.
• Fault tolerant.
• Good support.
• Documentation: passwords, URLs, IP addresses needed to make everything work.

How the office and studio phones work, I think.

Post mortem

• Talk with unsatisfactory provider. What went wrong? Has it been fixed? Can it be fixed?

Present hardware setup

I guess that there are two different service providers: one for the Digium Switchvox system and one for the 800 number(s) for the fund drive.

What brand of equipment is already in service?

- Rhino T1 Channel Bank FXS/FXO with Data

- Asterisk open-source software

- New server: _____________________.

Who, if anyone, holds the service contracts on our equipment?

Digium Switchvox

Voip Supply.

Switchvox is Digium's family of VoIP (Voice Over IP) Phone Systems for small and medium businesses. Switchvox systems are designed to be easy to use, full of helpful features and cost less than a traditional PBX. Compare Switchvox SMB and Switchvox SOHO.

Switchvox SMB is so much more than just an office phone system. It’s a revolution in business communications, putting you in control of your most important asset in business, your voice. Switchvox is easily managed with the Switchboard, a unique web based, real-time call control panel that gives you the flexibility you need to keep your office connected.

Some VOIP service working already

• phone bank for fund drive (except Canada)
• Station phones?

Mixers

Two cards in a computer receive the VOIP call and send it to a Telos box that splits it into four lines (line in and line out for each channel).

The Telos feeds the switchboard.

The computer cards appear as extensions on the current phone system--two for each studio.

Questions

• Who is serving the station now?

- Earthlink?

- Time Warner Business class?

- SIP trunk--two trunks coming into the station?

- PhonePower.com? What service is it providing? Why PhonePower instead of our original VOIP?

• How are the handsets presently connected to outside lines?

- WAN & Rhino.

• How many companies need to be served?

- Station of the Cross

- Orthodent

- EasyRX

• How many telephones total?

- 9 downstairs

- 4 at Orthodent

• Will the system include all of the affiliates (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Elmira, Oil City, Boston)?

- Not now.

• What is the brand of the existing handsets?

- Linksys WAN phones in SotC and Orthodent.

- Polycom handset in conference room.

• Do you own or lease the phones?

- Own.

• Do you own or lease the server that runs the phone system?

- Own.

• What is the brand of the existing software for the fund drive?

- Asterisk-based.

• Do you own this software?

- It's open source.

• How does the CAC number get to the board now?

- SIP trunk --> Rhino --> WAN --> computer cards --> Telos --> mixer channels

• What are the brands of PBX or IP-PBX being used now?

- Rhino

- Something new

• Does the station own the equipment or is it leasing it?

- Owns.

• Is the equipment in the station or is it elsewhere?

- It is in the station.

• What are the current costs of the telephone system?

- Not sure. Read a phone bill to find out?

• How much will changing the system cost?

-

• How much benefit will come from changing over?

-

• What is the name of our ITS company?

- Jim Papafagos

- Buffalo Computing Solutions -- (716) 853-8255

Buffalo Computing Systems figured out the phone system and rearranged the phones for fund drives.

What does that kind of rearrangement involve?

Who is going to take care of it now?

• What software is used for the phone bank?

- CounterPath’s X-Lite softphone.

• We should contact Steve and Peter to get as much information out of them as we can while it is still fresh in their minds. What is the name and phone number of their new company?

-

- passwords

- servers

- routers

- switches

- URLs for consoles and management systems

- IP addresses for the servers, data lines, etc.

- extant documentation?

- What is the difference between the Rhino and the new server? Can the new server take over the Rhino's job?

- advice

- emergency support?

Keep It Super Simple!