I havent dealt with those guys, but at $39 per month per user it seems a little exy... 5 users@ $39 x 12 = $2340 a year!!
It's been a while, but I had setup a couple asterisk servers with a couple of FXS and VOIP accounts for between 20 and 30 users quite easily. Going with Fonality, that would be about $12k per year!! Unless I am reading their pricing incorrectly, but the systems I setup only cost about $7k for everything!
Be mindful of "open source systems" as they sometimes require certain ports to be open on your router, to improve call quality, and are open to hacking / insecure.
I have even seen a few windows systems, but have not tried them due to the vulnerabilites in Windows.
There are some articles on hacked systems with tens of thousands in call costs to premium o/seas numbers. Check that out before making any hasty decisions.
We've been running Freeswitch for a small office without significant problems. It's a great system, but I'm not sure what professional installation and support are like.
Whilst I don't completely disagree with Phoenix, with proper configuration and setup, along with ongoing maintenance, monitoring and system administration (including updates) Open Source Systems can be far superior to those of a professional "sale".
How many devices do you think are connected to the internet that have been purchased off shelf, and have not been updated for years - and I am pretty certain that their software is a long way from being perfect.
As long as the user is aware they are investing in open source technology and the ramifications of incorrect administration, I see no disadvantage of open source
I have an Asteriks box with Elastix I set up 18 months ago on an low end fanless Atom board with an ssd drive. It runs local and remote extensions even out on vsat links. I only added vpn to the original install. The whole setup and install was pretty painless. If you wish the open source setups can do nearly anything you imagine. I doubt any commercial items could be as flexible.
I only use medium price range phones (Yealinks) which support vpn. The only public port into the box is the vpn and each extension has a unique vpn ssh key can also be ip locked. like wise the only route through the router to the pbx box is the vpn port which I set to be non standard. Block all web admin, etc, ports once the configuration is as you desire. Allow an open vpn port to your desktop ip and use that for online interaction with the pbx sever.
This means not using a basic DHCP server for extension IP locking, I use all static IPs for security but there are DHCP server options that only pass a given ip to a device by mac address.
There are all sorts of hack tools out there that hammer the normal sip and other web/ssh ports on ANY type of pbx setup where the port numbers are publicly known. They chew up machine time and network bandwidth! Take active steps to stop that and its pretty much set and forget, the only cost is the pots access for which I use MNF.
Successful hacks will dive on high cost call rerouting rackets, limit your international call plans to only whats needed, if you don't need international consider blocking it at the voip provider
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