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