First the disclaimers. Hosted Asterisk, IMHO is something to consider only if you are SOHO or very small businesses that don't have capital for either a TDM key-system, small Hybrid or low end IP-PBX and even then, you'd better know exactly what you are getting into. First impressions and attitude are everything. Never, regardless of how small or big you are, ever, put your dial tone on the line and get into that "we are committed" way of thinking if too many indicators or red flags sound off. You will likely have a bad experience that will stick in the users' minds for a long time afterwards even if you are successful, and usually you're just more accepting because you bought off on the concept.
First the disclaimers. Hosted Asterisk, IMHO is something to consider only if you are SOHO or very small businesses that don't have capital for either a TDM key-system, small Hybrid or low end IP-PBX and even then, you'd better know exactly what you are getting into. First impressions and attitude are everything. Never, regardless of how small or big you are, ever, put your dial tone on the line and get into that "we are committed" way of thinking if too many indicators or red flags sound off. You will likely have a bad experience that will stick in the users' minds for a long time afterwards even if you are successful, and usually you're just more accepting because you bought off on the concept.The phone shipped to me was a Polycom Soundpoint IP 430 SIP. I am unimpressed with the phone- the buttons are too small, no notable backlight on the display, and the handset seems bigger than the base of the phone. The handset cord adds too much weight to the handset and the handset is not balanced. I like nice phones and looks are everything, but so is the feel. Polycom has other models and too bad I didn't get one of them.
But I really don't care about phones as much as I care about the utility and ability to make and receive calls in lieu of other telephony methods. I have numerous ideas and configurations that this could play with and possibly create a balanced portfolio. So my motivation was to determine customer suitability and whether or not I could blend the hosted solution with customer needs and applications.
The service providers offering Asterisk or any other hosted telephony service are the glue, and you need to understand how they work. In the offer that I tested, the service was configurable in packages with "simultaneous number of calls" for each offering. Either 2, 4, 6, 8, or 16 simultaneous calls were offered in each package. So for any business that doesn't understand this or is unable to translate this into real business needs, you are stepping into a minefield. It's not as simple as saying, if I buy either of these packages then it's equivalent to purchasing the same number of dedicated lines from the local telephone company. Why? You are assuming that the host is non-blocking and you are assuming the Internet is non-blocking and the connectivity to and from you and the host are too, all of which are grave assumptions.
We made numerous test calls in and out of the service from multiple locations and devices to test a) call completion, b) call quality and c) signaling. Call completion was not 100 percent and I won't put a number on it because the provider said they were doing upgrades and even after the upgrades we got the same results. High and dry - no ringback calling to the hosted solution (Inbound); or no ringing at the station and calls immediately forwarded to voicemail (Inbound); and all circuits are busy please try your call again later messages (Inbound/Outbound). Call quality was acceptable and not better than what I am used too, but less than based upon feedback from people I called. Most common complaint was noise and some echo more common with cell phones, and callers complained that I sounded weak (low audio- poor transmit).
Music-on-hold as an offering is very cool, especially with the ability to import .wav files as long as they are in the expected format that Asterisk is compatible with. We used our GoldWav application to match the format. Audio quality was inconsistent, as the longer the music played, the more likely it would sound distorted or garbled. Signaling of answer supervision and disconnect supervision was lacking. The response from the provider was "We rarely have a "failed" call on our part..." I forwarded their CDR records, which did not show ALL the calls we made in and out of, and to and from the system. Host and customer records never jibed, including "FAILED" call records on the reports from the Asterisk system. We've tested numerous hardware platforms involving SIP to IP or IP to SIP or SIP/IP to TDM systems, and found the same issues--they lack call supervision. Recovery time after unplugging a phone and moving it, or in the event of a power outage, was 7 minutes, 20 seconds--an eternity. Once the phone was online again, music played. For that, Polycom scores one cool point.
The other thing I noted from the beginning were the numerous software layer--and really, if you've ever use a managed web provider for your website, then the surroundings are very familiar--PHP, MySQL and more. This is not for the faint-of-heart customer, and if you've worked in these areas and databases, then you know you need to know what you are doing. Some of the software, such as PHP, requires maintenance, and when the provider is forced to update the system because of security issues, vulnerabilities and upgrades--then the service is impacted and everyone feels it. (I did) As customers add some other databases to the fold for call center and other needs, it does become complicated pretty quickly. I had fun playing and I admit my behavior wasn't what you'd want, but because I could, I did. I think that's what attracts so many folks- there's so much you can do, but really, who's controlling and ensuring QoS and QoE on the Internet?
Responding to my documentation, concerns and issues: the provider emailed and said, "Do you have QoS enabled on your router? You must prioritize the voice packets going out over your router or you will experience drop outs whenever data transfers occur on your network; even when sending and receiving email."
Well, that was the point of exit for me. Yes, Hosted Asterisk is cool, but still a long way from "solid" and even further from "rock solid." Even when or if the hosts can build solid solutions, they still have a huge barrier to overcome- existing Telcos. The Telcos, in my projection, will swallow up this business model. Why? For one, they've been doing it (hosting) longer and better. Two, they have presence, capital and patience. Three, neither you the customers nor the new guys on the street make the rules.
