Why are people using PRI connections?

[Michael_N]

When SIP is cheaper.

Is there any reason to use PRI, exept when you are on contract with phonecompany.

[gmcust3]

Like in India, VOIP is NOT legal to call within India.

So, ONLY PRI.

[williamconley]

that's good to know.

and then there is the other reason: in some cases it's knee-jerk "SIP is bad quality" and in some cases SIP *IS* bad quality, often because of the installation of the sofware in question.

and then there is "peace of mind" for solid call quality. i've honestly never had an issue with T1 Voice lines for quality. ever. and in some companies, it's NOT worth the effort to save a little money.

even on a bad day on the internet ... T1 voice will still work. router dies? so what, voice isn't going through it. all that stuff.

that being said, in many cases it is NOT "a little" savings and is well worth the switch.

(PS: and don't forget that sometimes it costs a heck of a lot of money to get the SIP license for proprietary hardware you've invested a BUNDLE in ... but the T1 is already installed).

[Michael_N]

Isnt that problem solved with a sip/pri gateway

[williamconley]

you would think so, but it's a hybrid technology and as such comes with the flaws of BOTH systems, not neither. so if you're sip provider fails (which happens more often than T1 Voice), you lose signal. It costs more than actual SIP (ordinarily you are locked into a contract because there is hardware involved) and does not have the full quality of T1.

I've had several clients attempt, but they never get past the negotiations with the provider if they have pricing available for pure internet and pure SIP.

although i can see the advantages of a "regulated, reliable" sip signal traveling through a monitored T1 pathway to ensure quality of service ... that can be accomplished without a contract and without increased monthly/per minute cost if you have a good network setup. and make no mistake, the monthly and per minute costs (together) reliably rise too much for a "dialer" environment.

if your costs are primarily minutes ... paying 2 cents per minute is unacceptable. with a long-term contract per minute over 1.5 cents is not even reasonable (1.5 may be ok for a startup, until you "demonstrate your usage and payment patterns"), but the ultimate goal is 1 cent or under average cost per minute.

[mcargile]

Also a large number of SIP carriers expect very high connect rates which predictive dialers do not generally meet. You need to have far better luck with PRI carriers.

[williamconley]

on the other hand once you sign with a pri carrier you are stuck. with sip you CAN shop around and even use several at the same time.

if you have a low ASR on 10 lines, they don't get as upset as with 46 lines. and you CAN mix in 5 sip carriers with 10 lines each on one dialer. and if ONE cuts you off, increase the other 4 by two lines each while searching for a new carrier.

try that with a PRI.