Nor is it just the inherent complexity of the products that makes them sometimes difficult to use. This self-provisioning capability is one of the product’s strengths, but may daunt non-technical small business owners or managers. (PSTN-based users can even be assigned a four-digit OnSIP extension.)Ĭustomers can also provision or modify applications-conference bridges, auto attendants, hunt groups, etc.-and account options online. Using the administrative portal interface, they can add new users, on the fly, including users who only have access to a PSTN phone. OnSIP offers almost endless flexibility in how you set up the PBX, and customers can do it all themselves online. ![]() Bria lets you set up one device for use in headphone mode and one for speakerphone mode, so users can switch back and forth between the two as they can with office phone sets. Most softphone clients let you set up one audio device at a time. Users can hand pick which codecs the softphone will attempt to use when setting up a call. Some codecs ship with the product and it finds others already on the computer. But it does add complexity.īria also offers complete control of audio and video codecs. This is a good thing because it provides conferencing solutions for every conceivable scenario. Part of the reason is that both are very full-featured products, which always increases complexity.īria, for example, offers not one, not two, but three different ways to set up conference calls, and OnSIP adds a fourth, an optional conference bridge for use with non-SIP-compliant PSTN callers. OnSIP is also not the easiest of systems to set up and use. In a couple of cases, one party could hear nothing, but that person could be heard loud and clear at other end points.Īs always, it is virtually impossible to determine if such sub-par results are the because of telephony service provider problems or poor broadband connections-or a combination of the two. On some test calls, quality would be less than stellar at one end, with break-up and drop outs, but excellent at the other. On the best of the test conference calls, all participants could hear all others even when they deliberately spoke over each other-a test on which other VoIP-over-Internet services often fail.īut call quality was by no means always great. When using the super-wideband HD (high-definition) codec included with Bria, it was sometimes (but not always) the best we’ve heard on any VoIP service.Ĭall quality was almost always at least acceptable, even on three- and four-way conference calls. Our overall assessment? Call quality even over standard home cable and DSL Internet connections was frequently excellent. ![]() ![]() Our PBX linked three, sometimes four, members of VoIP Planet’s highly distributed team-two in the eastern U.S., one on the west coast and one alternating between Spain and Canada. We tested just such a system recently when we set up a PBX using Junction Networks’ OnSIP, a session initiation protocol (SIP)-based hosted service, and the Bria 3.0 audio/video softphone from CounterPath Corp., which is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux platforms. Hosted PBXs work over any high-speed Internet connection (over dedicated, managed connections too) with either IP phones in an office environment or softphones on personal computers or smartphones for mobile or work-at-home users.Īnd they deliver big-company features such as automated attendant, dial by name, integrated voicemail, voicemail as e-mail, hunt groups, conference bridges, etc.-generally at fairly reasonable rates. If you’re a small business-especially a virtual business, with highly mobile employees or partners distributed across a city, state, country or the globe-hosted IP PBX services make a ton of sense.
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