Shopping for small business VoIP == flea market?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. I have a phone-based business idea I've been trying to implement in the United States revolving around domestic calls.

A. I'd like to buy a number of 8xx DIDs and buy minutes in a pay-as-you-go arrangement. I'd start with a dozen numbers, doing a few thousand minutes a month, and hope to grow to hundreds of DIDs and bill 250k-750k minutes a month. I'm definitely going to use Asterisk for the PBX side of things. Clunky and confusing as it can be, Asterisk is worth the pain and can probably do anything, even if I have to write the code myself. I feel secure in my answer there. But I'm getting increasingly discouraged while trying to set up and use small-fry business-focused VoIP services. The prices are often great, but voice quality and consistency are often erratic, customer service overwhelmed, confused, or simply not available. I get the sense that everyone is oversold and understaffed. (I can name names if it is required, but really I don't want to badmouth any of the five providers I've tried. I have yet to spend real money with these guys or do much more than experiment. I'm frankly astonished that these guys can make money at all. But I do feel confident that my experiences are typical, even maybe leaning toward the "good" side of the typical experience. It just isn't adequate.) I'm willing to spent more than $0.02/minute for US domestic calls. I'm willing to spend more than $5/month for an 800 DID. I'd happily double all those figures if it meant I could actually get good quality service. I might well go higher, although at some point the original model breaks down and my idea is no longer profitable. I do realize going with VoIP does mean reduced quality somewhere. Lag, compression, etc. I would happily accept less than perfect voice quality if I could count on that service being reliable (at that degraded-but-consistent quality level) and available, and with support. Who are the larger providers all the small-fry are reselling? Would any be willing to deal with me while I'm small, charging accordingly, with price breaks as my volume grew? Who should I be talking to, if anyone? At what point should I stop looking at VoIP and start looking at TDM? How much is TDM likely to cost me for the figures I quote above? I do want to do all my own PBX work, by the way -- the business depends on this fine-grained control. The managed VoIP/PBX systems are not for me.

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