Category: Blog

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Blog Knowledge Base

BT outage on 20th July 2016

BT have confirmed that their recent outage has been ‘resolved and services restored’.

We can also confirm this as we have slowly seen all customer alarms clearing. As many customers are aware that we operate a 24×7 monitoring platform so saw this issue start and checked that there was nothing we could do in most cases but also contacted key customers to warn them that they might be issues.
Therefore, any issues that Customers have experienced this morning when connecting to services using BT connectivity (including quality issues) should now be resolved. In the event that issues are still occurring, please reboot equipment on the BT line such as Firewalls or Routers and retest. Nagios monitor screen

If you have any questions whatsoever please do not hesitate to contact us, Also if you are a
Asterisk / Freepbx reseller or user and would like affordable monitoring please get in touch as we provide Asterisk Monitoring from £25 per year.

Categories
Blog

Mobile roaming, Brexit, and unintended consequences

Click here to view the original on Bruegel By J Scott Marcus  

The intermediate and long-term consequences of the UK “Brexit” referendum of 23 June 2016 are numerous and far-reaching. There has been much discussion of the impact on financial services, but very little to date on the likely implications for telecommunications regulation.

The impacts of Brexit on mobile roaming are by no means large in overall economic terms, but they provide an example of the breadth of ripple effects that can be expected after the UK referendum result, and also of the degree to which the end results are difficult to predict with certainty.

The overall approach to regulation of telecommunications within the UK will not necessarily change much. The Regulatory Framework for Electronic Communications (RFEC) that the European Union enacted in 2002 was largely based on procompetitive UK ideas in the first place.

Certain international aspects are, however, likely to change. The most obvious examples are (1) the relationship of the UK and its national regulatory authority (NRA) Ofcom to its European counterparts; (2) the wholesale payments that UK network operators make to their European counterparts for interconnection; and (3) wholesale and retail arrangements between the UK and the European Union. Our focus here is on roaming.

If the UK were to become a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) (comprised of all EU Member States plus Norway, Liechtenstein, and Iceland), the applicability of the European regulatory framework  for electronic communications would be clear.

Joining the EEA could be expected to oblige the UK to accept most of the burdens of EU membership (including freedom of movement), with fewer of the privileges than the UK currently enjoys. In the discussion that follows, we assume that a UK membership in the EEA will not happen, but it cannot be categorically ruled out.

The UK might still selectively conclude bilateral agreements with the EU (and also with its member states). The implications for telecommunications regulation would depend on exactly which agreements were concluded.

Since Switzerland is in precisely this position (having rejected membership in the EEA in a referendum in 1992), it is perhaps useful to draw a few comparisons.

The Swiss choose to voluntarily participate in the EU’s Board of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC). In this role, they also participate voluntarily in BEREC’s collection of statistics on international mobile roaming; however, they are not subject to the various EU Roaming Regulations, and consequently do not benefit from them.

The prices that consumers pay for roaming reflect wholesale international payments between the mobile network operators, since the actual service has to be provided in the visited country. Among EU/EEA members, these payments at wholesale level are subject to price caps. Since Switzerland is neither an EU nor an EEA member, Swiss mobile operators are not entitled to the benefits of these price caps. If the EU were to offer these advantageous wholesale arrangements to a third country such as Switzerland or the UK in the absence of a comprehensive free trade agreement, it would likely raise WTO concerns.

Since the higher prices that Swiss mobile operators pay are a real cost, their retail prices are also higher than for mobile network operators in EU/EEA countries, as is visible in the figure below. The high price of roaming in the EU has been a constant source of irritation for Swiss consumers, and has frequently been featured in the Swiss press. One can argue that their retail prices in Switzerland are elevated more than the wholesale charges would strictly require; be that as it may, it is clear that the prices of Swiss mobile network operators cannot be the same as those of mobile network operators in EU/EEA countries.

As long as Swiss mobile network operators (MNOs) pay more at wholesale level for roaming in the EU/EEA than MNOs in EU/EEA Member States, retail prices in Switzerland for EU/EEA roaming can be expected to remain higher than those in EU/EEA Member States. It appears that the UK will shortly find itself in the same position.

[1]  Average retail price per MB of roaming data

JSM-28-6-Fig1

The EU is expecting to migrate over the next year to so-called Roam Like at Home (RLAH) arrangements over the next year, where international roaming prices will be the same as domestic prices. If this indeed comes into play, roaming prices will be even lower than they are today; however, the basic linkages between wholesale charges and retail prices will remain.

To the extent that UK mobile network operators such as Vodafone and O2 (Telefónica) have international affiliates, they have some ability to internalise these wholesale costs. It is nonetheless the case that no MNO covers all EU/EEA Member States; moreover, the ability of MNOs to steer traffic onto their preferred network in the Visited Country is good, but not perfect. The cost of the roaming service will in the end be somewhat higher for UK mobile network operators than for EU/EEA mobile network operators.

Taking all of this into account, it is a safe bet that UK residents with UK mobile subscriptions will pay more for use of the mobile services when roaming in EU/EEA countries than will EU/EEA residents.

[1] Based on both prepaid and postpaid usage in Q2 2015.

 

Categories
Blog

Sangoma’s Commitment to Open Source software

In January of 2015, the FreePBX project became part of the Sangoma family. Being a commercial entity charged with maintaining an open source project can be a challenging endeavor at times. Furthermore, the fact that major open source projects are normally in the care of commercial organizations is usually not given much thought.

Before Sangoma, FreePBX was overseen by Schmooze Com Inc., before that Bandwidth and before that Coalescent Systems Inc. These companies have all done their parts to ensure the survival of the FreePBX project. Sangoma has been dedicated to the open source community, including FreePBX, for many years. In the last year, the FreePBX project has seen great strides, including the release of FreePBX 13 with accelerated development and bug fixes.

Sangoma has also empowered FreePBX with new open source features such as: synchronizing Active Directory with user manager, a complete rewrite of Sound Recordings, the overhaul of the FreePBX interface, playback of recordings in your browser, the addition of the firewall module, sound languages module and so much more.

More recently they have kicked off development on FreePBX 14, Their next major release. One of the major new open sourced features they are bringing to the table is a calendaring system which will become a replacement for many of the scheduling components you use today, like Time Conditions. But They’ll be able to talk more about that in a few weeks.

FreePBX has historically been funded through professional training, professional support services, and commercial modules. These commercial modules tend to enhance the already provided open source functionality. These modules usually require special development or maintenance considerations, so they become paid modules. Over time, they constantly review our collection of commercial modules to see if any meet the requirements to become open sourced.

Thus, they have decided to release several of these commercial modules under the AGPLv3 as open sourced. Some of these modules have been unmaintained for a few years and will be put into the contributed repository to allow community members to build off of the code and revive or enhance the functions for the open source community.

They have also thrown in a few actively maintained modules such as XMPP, RESTapi and Text-To-Speech Engines that will allow broader use and community contributions. Moving forward these modules will still be maintained by Sangoma. In the coming months, They hope to have some great new features regarding RESTapi.

It is  hoped that the release of this code will inspire users to take FreePBX to the next level!

 

Categories
Blog Knowledge Base

Planning for a Successful VoIP deployment

Before you deploy voice-over-IP or a Hosted PBX service in your office there are a few considerations you must first address.  Switching from traditional telephone service to voice-over-IP (VoIP) requires sufficient bandwidth, a proper switch and router, and a good battery backup solution to protect you from power failures.

The key voice-over-IP requirements discussed in this article are:

Bandwidth – Determining how much bandwidth you will need for voice-over-IP in your office is your first step.

The Router – Choosing a low quality or under performing router is a costly mistake which will degrade your call quality.

Quality of Service – You must decide whether voice traffic will be separated from regular internet users or if it will share the same network.

VoIP Equipment – There are many digital office phones, soft phones, headsets and telephone adapters on the market to choose from.

Power Failures – Voice over IP does not work when the power goes out so you should install a battery backup system and possibly a Power-over-Ethernet switch if your budget permits it.

How much bandwidth do I need?
Voice over IP needs a certain amount of bandwidth in order to keep your conversations clear and free of disruptions.  Bandwidth is the amount of information which your internet connection can send and receive in a certain period of time.  Your first step should be to use an online speed test to find out what your maximum upload stream and download stream is.  We suggest you do this test using a fixed connection to the internet rather than using your wifi (wireless) connection to get accurate results.  Try to use numerous tests during different times of the day to get a good average of what you can expect from your internet connection.  Bandwidth is normally measured in kbps or kilobits per second.
You will need to have a high speed (broadband) connection to use voice-over-IP.  A typical DSL connection will be rated at 600 kbps for the upload stream and 5000 kbps on the download stream.  You will notice that your upload stream is almost always smaller than your download stream which becomes your limiting factor for using VoIP service.
Your next step is to determine how many people in your office are likely going to be using the phone at the same time.  For instance, having ten people on the phone will require ten times as much bandwidth as having one person on the phone.  Below is a chart which will help you calculate how many people can be on the phone at one time:
Ask your voice-over-IP service provider what audio codecs they offer as there is a trade off between audio quality and bandwidth usage…

Full Quality Audio (G711 Codec)\- Uses 87 kbps for each concurrent phone call (NEB)
Compressed Audio (G729 Codec)\- Uses 33 kbps for each concurrent phone call (NEB)

So the calculation for a typical DSL connection would be:

DSL connection:600 kbps upload / 5000 kbps download
Gives us (Full Quality):600 kbps / 87 kbps = 6 concurrent calls
Gives us (Compressed Quality):600 kbps / 33 kbps = 18 concurrent calls

Notice we used the upload bandwidth in our calculation as this is the limiting factor for voice-over-IP.  You also don’t want to push your connection to the limit as most cable and DSL connections do not have guarantees in terms of how much bandwidth they will deliver.  If you Internet connection drops in bandwidth at some point during the day you don’t want your call quality to be affected.  Other factors affecting voice-over-IP are the latency of your connection and how much packet loss there is on it.

Choosing a router
A router is the device that connects all your computers and network equipment to your Internet connection.  It is an often overlooked piece of the puzzle that can have a major impact on the success or failure of your voice-over-IP implementation.  There are many routers on the market, some are very cheap (less than $40) and others can cost you thousands of dollars.  There is nothing worse than putting a poor quality or underpowered router in your office which could cause an otherwise good VoIP installation to go bad.
Your router needs to be powerful enough to handle the number of phones you will have in your office and should also work flawlessly with voice-over-IP equipment.  A good place to start when deciding on your router is to speak with your voice-over-IP service provider. We also recommend checking to make sure that your router is compatible with voice-over-IP services.
The following is a list items which will help you to determine whether your router is right for voice-over-IP:
How many voice-over-IP phones will you be connecting to the router? The more phones you will be connecting, the more powerful the router needs to be. Don’t use a £40 router to run an office with 10 IP Telephones.
Will your voice-over-IP phones have their own dedicated Internet connection? If not, a router with a quality of service (QoS) setting to prioritize voice traffic over regular traffic is an absolute must. Without QoS you will encounter poor quality telephone calls regularly.
What other functions will the router need to perform? You might need your router to handle VPN connections, allow wifi (wireless) connections or perform other tasks.
Make sure you can bridge your router to your modem. Routers that are not bridged can cause problems with voice-over-IP installations.
Never use more than one router or nat gateway on the network at a time as this will cause problems for IP Telephones when they attempt to do NAT.
Make sure your router is compatible.
It is always best to get a recommendation from your voice-over-IP service provider as some routers are known to perform very poorly with VoIP phones.

Quality of service
Call quality is a function of your network and the public internet. Some delays and network congestion cannot be avoided due to information traveling over the public internet while other types can be avoided. Good network design is critical to a stable and reliable voice-over-IP implementation.
Quality of service (QoS) refers to the ability for your router to prioritize voice traffic (VoIP) differently than regular internet traffic on your network or the separation of voice traffic.  Voice over ip is a real-time protocol which means that if information is lost or delayed it will result in a noticeable drop in call quality or a complete loss of it. Symptoms of network congestion include garbled audio, dropped calls and echo.   When setting up voice-over-IP in your office there are three possible ways handle voice traffic. Some customers report perfectly good results without any quality of service (especially in a small 1-2 person office) and others report worse results with quality of service enabled on their router as some routers do a poor job of implementing this. Generally speaking however the best way to deliver reliable voice-over-IP service is through a dedicated internet connection that is only used by the voice-over-IP equipment rather than sharing the internet with computers. Below are the different methods of doing quality of service:

No QoS – Voice traffic and regular internet traffic in your office are sharing the same internet connection.  No prioritization of voice traffic over regular traffic is being performed and thus there is the high potential that voice quality could be degraded if there is insufficient bandwidth for both voice and regular traffic. Some customers experience very few problems using this method while others report a high frequency of poor quality calls, dropped calls and garbled voices. It all depends on how much network congestion your office has. Most internet connections are more likely to be upload bound which generally results in people not being able to hear you, because all of your upload bandwidth is being consumed by something on your network.

Router enabled QoS – Voice traffic and regular internet traffic in your office are sharing the same internet connection, but your router is able to distinguish between voice traffic and regular internet traffic and give the voice traffic a higher priority.  The problem with this method is that routers can only prioritize upload bandwidth which means your voice will be clear but the router cannot ensure that download bandwidth will be prioritized. If employees on your network are downloading often this will cause a noticeable drop in call quality but this method is better than no quality of service. Some internet providers can prioritize the download bandwidth using TOS or COS methods from their end which will create an end to end quality of service solution. Most customers find that even prioritising upload bandwidth for voice-over-IP offers a dramatic improvement in call quality because most internet connections are limited by their upload bandwidth and have lots of download bandwidth free.

Separated Traffic – Voice traffic and regular internet traffic are separated onto two different internet connections and networks. This is especially critical for larger offices with 5 or more employees.  Voice traffic is carried on one internet connection and data from computers is carried on the other connection. In this case no prioritization is required by your router because voice traffic has its own dedicated internet connection.  This is the best way to ensure clear voice communications and the method we generally recommend customers whenever possible.

The method you decide on largely depends on how much bandwidth you have, what you are using your internet connection for besides voice-over-IP and the level of call quality desired.  Many offices report perfectly good results without using any QoS, while others find that it makes a major difference in the quality of their calls.

Choosing VoIP phones and equipment
Before deploying voice-over-IP in your office you will need to decide how each employee will be connected to your voice-over-IP provider.  There are many choices on the market today.
Digital IP Telephones – These types of phones look just like regular multi-line business telephones except that they connect directly to your internet connection using a network cable.
Soft Phones – A soft phone is a software program running on your computer that looks and feels just like a real telephone.  This requires you to purchase a USB headset which connects to your desktop or laptop so you can make and receive calls.
Wifi Phones – A wifi phone looks and feels very much like a regular cell phone except that it connects to your wireless router in the office.
Analog Telephone Adapters (ATA) – An ATA is a small box which connects to your router and allows you to plug in regular analog telephones so they can work with voice-over-IP.  ATAs are generally low cost alternatives to digital office phones and are easy to take with you when you travel.
Battery backup and Power-over-Ethernet
With voice-over-IP and most office telephone systems you must consider what happens when the power goes out.  For some offices this can be a regular occurrence and for others it might happen with a very low frequency.  Once of the things you will need to decide is whether or not you will install a battery backup system.
Here are a few important terms your should know:
Power over Ethernet (PoE) – Is a technology that allows VoIP over ip telephones to be powered using regular network cables rather than power adapters which plug into the wall.  This has the advantage that you can power all the phones in your office from a single source and makes installing a battery backup unit much easier.
Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) – Is a device that powers your equipment when you lose power at the office.  The system has a built in battery which keeps your network devices operational when the power goes out.
The easiest way to protect your phone system from a power outage is to power all the phones using a Power-over-Ethernet switch that would normally be connected in the back room where your router and cable/DSL modem is located.  This has the advantage that all your phones are drawing power from a single source which you can backup using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).  All you need to do is plug in your PoE switch, router, and DSL/cable modem into a sufficiently powerful UPS device so that when the power goes out all your phones remain up and running.

Categories
Blog Calls and Lines

Revised call charges.

Gradwell has moved to a new carrier for outgoing phone services, giving us the opportunity to offer a simpler and clearer pricing structure for our call charges.

In summary, the current standard rate charges remain the same as before; however, new levels of detail have now been added to help give clarity regarding how call tariffs are being charged.

The table below outlines the standard rate tariffs currently in place and now includes the new ones that have been added for UK calls.

Gradwell’s Standard UK Call Charges (pence per minute):    

Call TypePeak*Off-peakWeekend
Geographic (01, 02, 03)1.251.001.00
Mobile**9.008.006.00
Local rate (0845)**3.003.003.00
National rate (0870)**1.251.001.00
National rate (0871)**12.0012.0012.00
Directory Enquiriesdependent on the route, use the telephone lookup tool to establish exact cost
NEW   
Isle of Man6.004.004.00
Geographic Islands (Jersey/Guernsey)3.002.002.00
Premium Mobile
07520, 07744, 07755, 078222, 074416, 07777, 078228		20.0020.0020.0

Bundled minutes.

PPM Number of MinutesPrice
1p 500 £5.00
0.8p1,000£8.00
0.6p2,500£15.00
0.5p5,000£25.00
0.4p10,000£40.00
0.35p25,000£87.50
0.3p50,000£150.00
0.25p100,000£250.00
UK Landline Minutes
Number of MinutesPrice
250 £20.00
500 £30.00
1,000£55.00
2,000£100.00
4,000 £160.00
10,000 £350.00
20,000 £600.50
40,000 £1,200.00
60,000 £1,500.00
80,000 £2,000.00
100,000 £2,500.00
Mobile Minute Bundles

*Peak: 8am-6pm UK London time.

**Calls to numbers in these ranges start at the specified prices. Charges to some numbers will vary. To find the exact cost of any number we encourage you to use the telephone lookup tool as featured on the Gradwell call charges webpage.

Key Information Regarding Call Charges:    

•    Calls between your VoIP-enabled offices are free
•    Call to anyone else on Gradwell VoIP are free
•    0845 numbers have a 3p per call charge in addition to the pence per minute rate
•    0871 numbers for Services Fixed Fee FF15, FF28 and FF29 are charged at a flat 12p per call only
•    Calls are billed by the second, with a minimum call charge of 1.5 pence on all calls except Freephone calls
•    Inbound calls to 0800 numbers cost 3 pence per minute
•    Calls that are diverted to landlines are charged at standard rates

Charges for Directory Enquiry services will vary dependent on the route used and may be subject to a per call charge and / or a pence per minute rate. There are a large number of Directory Enquiry routes from which to choose, each with specific charges that can be viewed using the telephone lookup tool. Listed below are the most popular route charges per minute:

RoutePeakOff-peakWeekendPer Call Charge
1181185p5p£6.505p
(£3.85 weekend)
118226£1.00£1.00£1.0055p
118365£1.50£1.50£1.5045p
118212£5.50£5.50£5.50£3.20
118500£6.50£6.50£6.50£1.05


International Call Charges:    

International call charges to the 34 headline countries have been simplified, not only are the landline calls currently set at the low cost of 1.5 pence per minute, but the mobile charges to these countries have now been set at a flat 11 pence per minute. The qualifying 34 headline countries are listed below:

ArgentinaChinaHungaryMalaysiaSouth Korea
AustraliaCzech RepublicIndiaNetherlandsSpain
AustriaDenmarkIrelandNew ZealandSweden
BelgiumFranceIsraelNorwaySwitzerland
BrazilGermanyItalyPolandTaiwan
CanadaGreeceJapanPortugalUnited States
ChileHong KongLuxembourgSingapore 

Please note that Estonia and Finland are no longer part of the headline country group and  Brazil and India have been added.

In addition to the headline countries listed above, Call charging rates to other International destinations have been simplified and now offer lower cost calls for both landline and mobile:

CountryLandlineMobileCountryLandlineMobile
Afghanistan£0.30£0.30Macedonia£0.20£0.60
Albania£0.20£0.50Madagascar£1.00£1.00
Algeria£0.10£0.50Malawi£0.25£0.45
American Samoa£0.05 Maldives£1.50£1.50
Andorra£0.05£0.25Mali£0.45£0.45
Angola£0.10£0.15Malta£0.05£0.15
Anguilla£0.15£0.35Marshall Islands£0.35 
Antarctica£7.00 Martinique£0.05£0.15
Antigua & Barbuda£0.25£0.45Mauritania£0.70£0.80
Armenia£0.15£0.30Mauritius£0.15£0.15
Aruba£0.15£0.35Mayotte£0.30£0.15
Ascension£3.00 Mexico£0.05£0.15
Azerbaijan£0.30£0.50Micronesia£0.35 
Bahamas£0.15£0.15Moldova£0.35£0.35
Bahrain£0.10£0.15Monaco£0.10£0.50
Bangladesh£0.05£0.15Mongolia£0.05£0.15
Barbados£0.20£0.40Montenegro£0.20£0.60
Belarus£0.50£0.50Montserrat£0.45£0.45
Belize£0.35£0.35Morocco£0.05£0.60
Benin£0.40£0.40Mozambique£0.10£0.20
Bermuda£0.05£0.15Myanmar£0.40£0.40
Bhutan£0.10£0.15Namibia£0.05£0.15
Bolivia£0.20£0.30Nauru£1.50 
Bosnia and Herzegowina£0.20£0.50Nepal£0.20£0.15
Botswana£0.10£0.35Netherlands Antilles£0.20£0.20
Brunei Darussalam£0.05£0.15New Caledonia£0.30 
Bulgaria£0.05£0.20Nicaragua£0.35£0.40
Burkina Faso£0.40£0.45Niger£0.50£0.50
Burundi£0.70£0.70Nigeria£0.10£0.15
Cambodia£0.10£0.15Niue£1.50 
Cameroon£0.25£0.45North Korea£1.00 
Cape Verde£0.30£0.40Northern Cyprus£0.10£0.25
Cayman Islands£0.10£0.30Northern Mariana Islands£0.05 
Central African Republic£0.60£0.60Oman£0.15£0.40
Chad£0.60£0.60Pakistan£0.20£0.20
Colombia£0.05£0.15Palau£0.40 
Comoros£0.60£0.60Palestinian Territories£0.30£0.30
Congo£0.70£0.70Panama£0.05£0.20
Cook Islands£1.50 Papua New Guinea£0.90 
Costa Rica£0.05£0.15Paraguay£0.05£0.15
Cote D’Ivoire£0.80£0.45Peru£0.05£0.15
Croatia£0.05£0.15Philippines£0.20£0.25
Cuba£1.00£1.00Puerto Rico£0.05 
Cyprus£0.05£0.15Qatar£0.25£0.25
Diego Garcia£2.00 Reunion£0.05£0.15
Djibouti£0.60£0.60Romania£0.05£0.15
Dominica£0.15£0.35Russia£0.05£0.30
Dominican Republic£0.05£0.15Rwanda£0.50£0.50
DR Congo£0.60£0.45Saint Kitts And Nevis£0.20£0.45
East Timor£1.50 Saint Lucia£0.30£0.45
Ecuador£0.15£0.30Samoa£1.00£1.00
Egypt£0.15£0.15San Marino£0.05£0.35
El Salvador£0.30£0.30Sao Tome And Principe£1.50£1.50
Equatorial Guinea£0.40 Saudi Arabia£0.15£0.20
Eritrea£0.35£0.35Senegal£0.60£0.60
Estonia£1.00£0.70Serbia£0.20£0.60
Ethiopia£0.35£0.40Seychelles£0.80£0.80
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)£2.50 Sierra Leone£0.80£0.70
Faroe Islands£0.10£0.35Slovakia£0.05£0.15
Fiji£0.30£0.30Slovenia£0.05£0.35
Finland£0.05£0.15Solomon Islands£1.50 
French Guiana£0.05£0.15Somalia£0.70£0.70
French Polynesia£0.30£0.50South Africa£0.05£0.15
Gabon£0.70£0.70South Sudan£1.50£1.50
Gambia£0.90£1.00Sri Lanka£0.20£0.15
Georgia£0.10£0.15St. Helena£3.00 
Ghana£0.35£0.35St. Pierre And Miquelon£0.40£0.70
Gibraltar£0.05£0.35St. Vincents£0.25£0.45
Greenland£0.90£0.90Sudan£0.25£0.25
Grenada£0.25£0.40Suriname£0.20£0.30
Guadeloupe£0.05£0.15Swaziland£0.10£0.25
Guam£0.05 Syrian Arab Republic£0.15£0.25
Guatemala£0.15£0.20Tajikistan£0.20£0.25
Guinea£0.70£0.70Tanzania£0.50£0.45
Guinea-Bissau£0.60£0.90Thailand£0.05£0.15
Guyana£0.40£0.40Togo£0.60£0.60
Haiti£0.45£0.45Tokelau£2.50 
Honduras£0.15£0.25Tonga£0.70 
Iceland£0.05£0.15Trinidad And Tobago£0.10£0.30
Indonesia£0.05£0.15Tunisia£0.70£0.70
Iran£0.10£0.15Turkey£0.05£0.25
Iraq£0.20£0.30Turkmenistan£0.15 
Jamaica£0.20£0.35Turks And Caicos Islands£0.20£0.40
Jordan£0.15£0.15Tuvalu£1.50 
Kazakhstan£0.05£0.25Uganda£0.50£0.50
Kenya£0.20£0.20Ukraine£0.20£0.35
Kiribati£1.50 United Arab Emirates£0.25£0.25
Kuwait£0.05£0.15Uruguay£0.10£0.25
Kyrgyzstan£0.25£0.25Uzbekistan£0.10£0.15
Laos£0.05£0.15Vanuatu£0.80 
Latvia£0.05£0.30Vatican£0.05 
Lebanon£0.15£0.25Venezuela£0.05£0.15
Lesotho£0.30£0.30Viet Nam£0.10£0.15
Liberia£0.70£0.70Virgin Islands (British)£0.25£0.45
Libya£0.35£0.45Virgin Islands (U.S.)£0.05 
Liechtenstein£0.10£0.30Wallis & Futuna£1.50 
Lithuania£0.05£0.15Yemen£0.20£0.20
Macau£0.10£0.15Zambia£0.10£0.20
   Zimbabwe£0.15£0.70
Categories
Blog Products and services

Eartec Headsets

We are pleased to announce that we are now adding Eartec office headsets to our portfolio

We have been testing the Eartec office 710 pro and can confirm that the build quality matches and exceeds many other comparable headsets.

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Eartec 710 Pro £55 +Vat

 

Eartec Office Pro 710 Monaural Flex Boom Headset Features

The Eartec Office Pro range of premium quality headsets using innovative acoustic technology to deliver speech clarity and an excellent audio experience. Coupled with our sleek design that focuses on comfort and durability, and offers a new level of experience to call center professionals.

Taking engineering and product design to new levels, this Danish designed acoustic equalizer structure, maximises the benefits of HD speakers to create a headset that excels in its class for clarity and performance.

Providing every headset user the ultimate experience with innovative technology, our goal is to create headsets that not only offer hearing protection but excel in comfort when worn all day.

Wiring is the most important component within the headset. Without this communication would not be possible. All Eartec Office Pro headsets are supplied with shielded wiring to dissipate unwanted signal interference for clearer conversation. With the Pro models, the use of Tin plated copper wire and Kevlar wiring ensures greater tension and flexibility – ideal for intensive call centre usage. The connection lead is compatible with Plantronics quickconnect leads so you wound have to replace all your disconnect leads

The T-Bar is a simple but vital part of the headset. A single piece T-Bar, padded for comfort and hard set on the outer offers rigidity to prevent slippage when worn.
The twin-injection moulded design of the T-Bar means there are no components to pull apart or clip together – minimising damage caused by wear and tear, and offers

Technical Specifications:

Connection: QD Cable. Strong and durable wiring to withstand daily bending.
Ear Cushion: Premium Leatherette with buffer pad
Microphone: Cardioid directional, Noise Cancelling microphone
Noise-Cancellation: Two tier noise -cancelling system with ambient noise filter
Speaker:A neodymium magnet system for accurate sound reproduction and balanced audio
Acoustic Shock Protection: Meets international standards for ASP
Acoustic Shock Protection 2: Sound Pressure balancing technology
EMI Shield: Comprehensive triple shield design
Wearing Style: Monaural
Audio Characteristics: High Definition, Ultra Clear
Speaker sensitivity: 85-90db
Speaker characteristics: Optimises accuracy in speech recognition
Warranty: 2 years
Certification and Standards: CE FCC RoHS

Please contact us to order or enquire about qty discounts

Categories
Asterisk Support Blog Elastix Support Knowledge Base Security

Shellshocked by Bash !

Well any one in IT and many people who never have anything todo with dirty working of *nix operating systems including Apples OSX cant have missed the news about the latest venerability. This is hot on the heels of teh OpenSSl one and the NTP one before that.

All these have different levels of risk, The NTP one was just a pain easily fixed and could cause little damage, The Openssl one was more of a risk as it allowed hackers to read the memory of systems using certain versions of OpenSSL nicknamed Heartbleed. Now the Bash one is fairly simple to exploit and has been now seen in the wild which in the case of Heartbleed it wasn’t really exploited in the wild.

So how do you test. simple , just type

env x='() { :;}; echo vulnerable’ bash -c “test”

and if it comes back saying Vulnerable update bash.

Great easy you say, well it was spent half a day checking 40 odd servers and updating bash. But then the update they rolled out want enough so today went back round updating again.

It has to be noted that some repositories were running slow and in teh case of one (SCHMOOZE) they hadn’t got the latest patch live by mid day.

It was pleasing how most suppliers were open and concise on what to check and how to fix. I was rather disappointed with  another Asterisk Based PBX distro who instead of publishing how to check and what to do, told users to download a script and run that, I don’t think its a good idea to hide security measures, If people deploy systems they need to know how to secure them.

I wonder whats next? , After spending 2 days on this now looking at setting up a Puppet server, This has cost me a day of my time and i’m meant to be installing a queuemetrics call center for a customer…

Categories
Blog

Simple cardboard tablet stand

I came up with this idea while on holiday many years ago and wanting to watch catchup tv on my ipad. But with everyone now wanting to make video calls thought would revive it

Its a simple cardboard stand that lets the tablet stand up.

The best cardboard to use is the “twin” walled type with a corrugated core. You can adjust the size so can be used with tablets or when made smaller with phones.

corrugated-cardboard1

Make sure the folds are in line with the corrugations as this adds the strength

Hope you enjoy it.

Categories
Blog

A new patent troll.

SIP Trunking

In the last few weeks a large sleeping troll has come out of hibernation and seems set on disrupting the whole voip market.

Quote

“BT is engaged in licensing an extensive range of standards related patents that address the key features of SIP Trunking providers and VOIP operators providers.

BT’s Patents address a wide range of fundamental capabilities now in widespread deployment, such as:

  • Setting up a call
  • Breaking out to other networks
  • Managing resources efficiently
  • Registering terminal to a network
  • Cost effective call completion
  • Monitoring and alerting of IP call quality”

Well that pretty much covers all of the workings of a SIP network. A full list of the patents is here  .

But its not Just BT, AT&T also have claims over SIP as well see here for a list.

It seems that some of the major patent holders see more money in the licencing of the now ubiquitous SIP protocol than maybe supplying it to customer. Which is a shame as the only ones who will make any money will be the Lawyers in the end.

More to follow on this I’m sure….

Categories
Blog

Zen like pondering about telephony and Asterisk