Welcome to the "little black box" in the
middle of nowhere.
|
| HOME » |
|
| About » |
|
| Contact » |
|
| Links » |
|
| PBF Archive » |
|
Gizmo
5 (SIP)
309-481-4383
SIP Phone Service:
We are testing out some new computer based phone services here. Well actually VoIP (Voice over IP) SIP based phone service has been around for some time, so hardly new. Maybe some of you view it as the ugly grandfather to the proprietary Skype service (not compatible with true SIP) but in fact SIP is what most every other Voice over IP based provider utilizes (Vontage for one).
The current service we are investigating here is Gizmo5. Let me preface that with the Gizmo 5 "soft phone" (PC software phone using speakers and microphone plus on screen phone like display) is the usual jack of all trades phone, chat, instant messaging client, very much like skype, however you can use alternative SIP soft phone programs or in our case actual hardware based WiFi phones for that phone only alternative to your POTs service (Plain Old Telephone company)
One plus to Gizmo 5 is the "back door" enhancement. What this means is there is a Voice over IP back door into about 11% of the traditional phone system, thus we have found about 75% of the people we know with cell service are a free call !!! That is a big difference from Skype. On the down side rates, although similar, Does not include an "unlimited" call out plan like the current $3/month Skype service offering. Although at 2¢ a minute and free to a lot of cell numbers, the trade offs arguable.
In our case we have a Call In number so plain old phones (POT users) can still call us. That is prices very similar to Skype (without the requirements for Skype Pro call out plans to basically match fees) but getting one seems to have been more of a pain and availability in the 309 area a bit questionable (but we have one !)
One big plus to SIP is if you know where to dig, there is a lot more options and tweaks you can do to implement hardware both for mobile phone needs (we love the 3CX.com simple softphone client for ez of use and can explain configuration for Gizmo 5 accounts) as well as road warriors (in our case an Engenius EnQue iQ WiFi phone with the same basic footprint as the Netgear Skype dedicated unit) and home users who just want to pick up something that looks like a phone (Several vendors have phones that simply plug into a router rather then the wall, or units that convert standard POT analog phones to Internet based SIP VoIP hardware)
As an ISP we have a bit of a philosophic aversion to some of the Skype license fine print and basically lean away from peer to peer type software that looks to set up shop on unsuspecting PCs (those who don't read the fine print and risk) rather then have true services and servers. And although we will admit a proprietary solution that has built in phone conversation encryption security has it's place too, the web was built on open source solutions where software and hardware to mix and match with has so many more possibilities when services are built to be shared upon.
That said the answer to the fine print basically is use only Skype hardware based phones (and let some other poor sap's computer become your phone server ;-) or we can gear you with the more traditional SIP VoIP technology if you rather. There is a zoo of hundreds of services out there. After much digging this one seems to have the most potential to mix and match hardware/software plus adds a few more bells and whistles to the traditional services out there!
"Welcome to the next level...."
Preston
| World Wide Web Corporate Support
Links: | www.WestIL.net | www.AFePub.com | www.WestILMall.com | FAQ's | |
|