Take your time while choosing a VoIP provider

By Lora VolkertIDAHO BUSINESS REVIEWVoice over Internet protocol service and equipment pro-viders said there's a lot to consider when companies plan to replace their regular phone service with VoIP.Get a demo. Look at more than one option.Make sure you compare apples to apples."They need to make sure that the features they want are included in the quote they're getting," said Christopher Hansen of Zial Networks.Scott Dike of Idacomm and Claire Mylott of Qwest said companies should take the cost of broadband into account because some providers, including Idacomm and Qwest, package VoIP and broadband together.Analyze your infrastructure."Equipment needs vary from company to company," said Ron Gudapati of Cisco Systems. "Make sure your data network is built to handle that. You may have to add bandwidth to your server to handle calls, for one thing," he said.Ask about support.With VoIP, when the server goes down, the phones go down, so support is crucial, Dike said. "Make sure the company they're working with has the support infrastructure to deal with typical network issues: outages, router issues, things like that."Gudapati recommends locally based providers so you don't have issues with the representative for your provider being unable to help you get back online because the company's data center is in another state.Keep a land-line or business cell phone for backup.Erin Olsen, a VoIP customer, said her Internet connection went down often in her first few months of service, mainly because the broadband infrastructure wasn't prepared to handle the phone system. The kinks are being worked out, but it makes sense to have a backup phone to which you can forward calls.Additionally, not all VoIP providers offer 911 service, for various reasons. The Federal Communications Commission has ordered them to do so, but that requirement isn't likely to take force until October.Find a trustworthy pro-vider. "Check out the provider at the Better Business Bureau," Hansen said.Name recognition should be a factor for customers, Gudapati said.* * *To contact the story's author, send email to: lora.volkert@idahobusiness.net.