[Wolves] VoIP phones and SIP providers

[Alastair Battrick]

Hi Adam

> The end game is that I'd like a to be able to point a couple of numbers
> at an Asterisk box over SIP, some non-geographic, some geographic but
> not necessarily 01902, with the potential to migrate the numbers to
> another provider if need be. Who would you recommend?

We use Voiptalk / Telappliant. They worked out the cheapest, and work 
well most of the time, but I'm not sure if we shouldn't have gone with 
Gradwell.

> Also I'm looking for a couple of SIP phones, free or cheap/second-hand
> is good :) I played with some generic no-name ones in the past and they
> were awful. I've used a couple of Snoms which were very good, albeit
> expensive and a cheap Aastra which was perfectly serviceable. I've not
> used Cisco, Polycom, Grandstream or Linksys so advice on what is
> good/bad would be helpful too.

We've about 5 Grandstream GXP2000's which work well. I've just had to 
RMA some Snom M9 DECT phones, as they have problems, but I'm 
expecting/hoping the replacements are better.

> I wouldn't be against the idea of using softphones if it weren't for the
> fact that you have to dial an extension to transfer a call and the
> person on the other end hears the tones, which sounds pretty rubbish.

They don't with our softphones - Counterpath's Eyebeam. I think you 
might hear the tones if you used in band transfer/dialling, but the TXFR 
button on the softphone takes care of this, and puts the user on hold 
while you transfer them too

Tarra
Al