Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Does Vonage work safely, effectively and reliably for a small business?

I have a medical clinic where we are dependent on our phone and internet system for success.  Is Vonage something we should consider or would we be making a big mistake with this?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 
Thanks.

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R. Kakar, MD

 

 

Dr. Kakar,

BEWARE - VOIP is NOT ready for business use.  I did not use Vonage.  I now have the extreme upgrade to Vonage which is a BellSouth Full T-1/PRI dedicated phone line for my office.  I have a second office which also runs the same VOIP phone system. 

It does not work well.  There is consistently a buzz or hiss or crackle in the background.  I made the switch because my phone bill was cut dramatically in cost, however, I am sorry I did.  The investment in a VOIP compliant phone system and the very hard transition into the technology to just get it working was not worth the cost.  Now I need to go back to twisted pair cables (regular phone lines) for the satalite office because the VOIP simply is not working well.

I wish you luck.

Brian LaBovick

 

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Brian F. LaBovick, Esq.
LaBovick LaBovick & Wald, PA
866-LABOVICK

Dr. kakar,

I also had this question a while back and had a lot of SUN members respond.  Check out this forum post for all of their responses.

http://www.startupnation.com/pages/community/forum_posts.asp ?TID=960

Good Luck!

I am using Vonage and so far it has worked just fine.

Yes this has already been addressed before.. It works until you grow and need more service, but as a start up yes it works

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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

Dr. Kakar,

First of all kudos on trying to create a great practice.  Too many doctors don`t provide great service and don`t run a good business.  I don`t know if it`s true but there is the stereotype that many doctor`s have bad finances even though they make plenty of money. 

So congrats to you for doing it right.

 

One of the many hats I wear happens to be a Vonage Dealer and end user myself (3 lines and 1 dedicated fax).

Vonage works well for businesses as long as you understand its limitations and yours.

Vonage requires 110-128k of upload bandwith per line active at any one time.  www.vonage.com recommends 90k, but at the 110+ range the calls are crystal clear.  If you have 2-3 phones all going at the same time, you need to have the bandwidth available for each line.

Your "typical" home (read lite, express, etc.) DSL or Cable service will cap out around 128k upload.  You will need to check with whatever service provider you are or will be using and make sure you are getting the upload speeds that you will need.

 

 

 

My friend has a jewelry business and calls me all the time on Vonage. I made extra effort to try to listent to a  hiss or crackle but to my surprise, there weren`t any. If the business is home based, then go for it.

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Giovanna Villanueva
iWebCom

The typical "crackle or hiss" that people often complain about will be on the Vonage users end, not on the opposite.

Vonage is quite viable for storefront businesses as well, you just need to make sure your getting the upload bandwidth you need to support it.

 

The two largest complaints I hear are the power goes out or the audio is poor.

Upstream bandwidth, mention earlier in this chain, is important.  Check with your cable or phone provider for the upload bandwidth.  A minimum of 384 kbps is needed to cleanly pass VoIP and data traffic through simultaneously.  Small business and residential environments typically have low-cost routers.  One feature they usually lack is known as “quality of service.”  QoS routers can prioritize the information passing through and place VoIP traffic on the “top-of-the-stack.”  Upstream and QoS are the keys to audio clarity.

The second issue is power.  The VoIP phone goes down when the power does.  Two solutions for this issue:  UPS and call redirection.  A UPS (uninterrupted power supply), is a battery for network devices and computers.  If the power goes down the VoIP phone will continue to work; the router and all network components need a UPS too. 

VoIP companies have a free feature referred to as “outage call redirection.”  This is just call-forwarding to a preconfigured phone number when the power goes down.  When power goes out your Provider (Vonage, etc), will redirect your calls to another phone.  I use my mobile phone.   Lastly, it is still a must to keep one local phone for faxing and calls should the VoIP go down completely.

This information is often enough to scare people away.  Have an IT service provider install and configure a solution for you.  You can go with any VoIP telephone company.  The service provider will configure your router and phone.  A couple hundred dollars spent is paid off quickly.

Most small business owners want fortune 500 call phone services with a residential checkbook.  This is thinking irrational.  Vonage does NOT provide reliable business class services.  A basement home office will save substantially with a Skype or Vonage account.  A small business, with multiple phones, can get fortune 500 class features and flat-rate pricing by investing capital upfront.  Take a look at broadvoice dot com.

Good luck!


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If the power goes out you`ll most likely not be able to use any phone, unless it`s an old corded model with no features.  We use Vonage and it works great.

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