Coms.com

Few businesses can manage without telephones and possibly an in-house exchange or PBX, but sourcing the equipment, renting lines and paying for calls can be costly. And if you move, you will probably have to start again from scratch.

However, with the Coms.com Business Internet Telephony Service, all you need to connect the Voice over IP (VoIP) handsets, supplied to a virtual PBX in the cloud, is a broadband connection.

We were sent a Polycom Soundpoint IP 330, exactly like that provided in a standard subscription to the Coms.com hosted telephony service. Normally selling for around £80 ex Vat, this Sip-based handset is capable of handling two lines with three-way local conferencing and hands-free calling.

A small AC adapter is included, with support for 802.3af Power over Ethernet (PoE) also available ­ plus two Ethernet ports ­ one to attach to the Lan, the other to connect a PC via the same socket.

Another neat feature of the Polycom phone is support for remote provisioning. So rather than configure manually, all we had to do was plug the handset into our test network, wait a couple of minutes for it to set up over the internet, then start making calls.

Our setup had an extension on the Coms.com PBX with an 0207 number. However, it’s possible to choose numbers from an extensive geographical list to give a virtual presence almost anywhere in the country.

Thereafter, calls to other users and anyone with a Sip phone are free with low-rate calls to PSTN numbers via the Coms.com gateway ­ plus a choice of all-inclusive calling plans starting at £24.99/month for 2,500 minutes.

A number of alternative handsets can also be purchased and added to the service including wireless phones and operator consoles.

As well as being able to make and receive calls, you can hold and transfer to other extensions, like using an in-house PBX. Voicemail, similarly, comes as standard, complete with the ability to forward voice messages using email, with a simple web-based control panel for users to manage their own call forwarding and voicemail settings.

Administrators get even more functionality via a similar web-based interface, including the ability to program the built-in auto attendant (Press ‘1’ for sales etc) and manage user extensions.

It’s a pretty comprehensive telephony service and we encountered very few problems getting it to work, the only issue being the need to re-program our ISP-supplied router which, as delivered, blocked the Sip protocol on in-bound connections.

Still, it wasn’t difficult to change and for the most part we were impressed both by the quality of the calls and the reliability of the solution.

The Coms.com telephony service can also be purchased as part of Coms Office, complete with a bundled broadband service.

Subject to availability in the local exchange that could be either a 1Mbit/sec or 2Mbits/sec SDSL connection, provisioned by Tiscali and capable of handling up to 100 telephony users from just £39 per month, per user, with volume discounts available.

Finally it’s important to understand that, with this kind of hosted service, you’re totally reliant on broadband for your telephony needs. However, backup provision can be made to cope with outages and if all else fails there’s always the mobile.

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