Connect with the world's leading business experts.
Get instant access to their expertise via world–class Q&A, Research, and Events.
0
Any recommendations on a phone system for home?
Well known VC, Fred Wilson, is looking for a phone system for his home. Do any telephony experts out there have suggestions? Here are the requirements.
Events
- Social Media and Content Marketing For Business Q&A Feb 14 @ 11 am PT
- #TNLive Radio: Workforce Marketing & Recruitment Feb 14 @ 4 pm PT
- The Rise of Pinterest in B2B Feb 15 @ 11 am PT
- ERP – Priming Your Business to Deliver Value From Strategy to Operations Feb 15 @ 1 pm PT
- How Not to Coach Your Salespeople Feb 16 @ 1 pm PT
Related Activity
4 Answers
I would go simple. The decision is based on how many bells and whistles and how many lines you need.
For very simple you might go with a company such as Ring Central. The are a virtual carrier that can provide "800" number access, find me features and even provide the station equipment.
It all depends on what features you want.....
Does Fred have a wireless computing network in his home? If he does (especially if it's based on DSL technologies) and he wants cordless telephones, interference with his voice call quality should be one of his top concerns. Even with modern technology such as Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) support and DSL filters on his voice lines, he may still experience unacceptable levels of noise and interference on his voice calls. Before choosing a cordless phone system, I'd strongly recommend that Fred check with his wireless Internet access provider for clues and recommendations -- and with any friends or neighbors using the same provider. And I'd also recommend he keep at least one active, wired land line, as isolated as possible from interference sources, for conference calls, Webinars and podcasts. Once he's got the interference problem solved or avoided, he'll probably be happy with any phone that provides the features most important to him.
Saw that blog post. It seems like being able to bring any SIP phone to the service is important to him, and unfortunately, that eliminates a lot of services on the market.
I'd recommend looking into OnSIP (http://www.onsip.com). They're standards based so they're compatible with any device or 'user agent' as its sometimes called in the biz. They also support high def voice throughout their service so maybe he can get around the voice quality/ interference issue with some HD wireless phones? Hope this helps
I think the issue that Fred is going to run into is that even though there are sip standards, there are so many other add on features that phones have that a vendor generally finds it difficult to support them all.
This goes for Hosted service providers as well. I believe Fred may need to define his requirement further by identifying some specific phones that will work for the family and then building his requirements around those, since they seem to be the key to his overal success in selling this to the family.
And Personally, with that many savy users in the house, I think there will be no joy with just a 768k connection for the data traffic.
we look forward to what you come up with for a solution.
Answer This Question