Seeking Feedback on PBX Cellular Gateway Installations
telrevu
free "video white paper" on how telecom distributors can sell PBX
cellular gateways to business clients to help their clients reduce
their business cell phone bills. My publication profiles the Aleen/ITS
Telecom cellular gateway model CGW-T and includes a brief 5-minute
video on how to do a demonstration of the cellular gateway. The
publication also includes another 5-minute video explaining how
cellular gateways can help a business customer cut their business cell
phone bill four ways.
I would like to add to the publication actual distributor, installer,
customer feedback from those who have installed a cellular gateway onto
their PBX. My questions would be as follow:
1. Which brand/model cellular gateway did you install?
2. Where their any problems with the installation and/or PBX least cost
routing programming?
3. Did the customer experience savings on their corporate cell phone
bill and if so how much?
4. What recommendations do experienced PBX cellular gateway
distributors have for business customers considering a cellular gateway
for their PBX?
simonc...@hotmail.com
I have installed several PBX Cellular Gateways in the UK - however my
understanding is that the situation in the UK is very different from
that in the US ie in the UK the person *calling* the cellphone pays for
the call.
I've installed numerous brands/models on both analogue and digital
systems - my preference is always to source 'dial-thru' models, such
that a specific line does not need to be selected when calling a
cellphone - non cellphone calls merely pass through the unit into the
normal landline network.
I have no problems with installation nowadays - *but* this is only
because I always source installers with direct experience of the
particular product!
In the UK, I have helped reduce business customers' calls from
landlines to cellphones from typically 10 pence per minute to as little
as 3 pence per minute.
Most of my installations have been fairly small ie 8 sims maximum.
In the UK, Vodafone, O2 and Orange seem OK with cellular gateways,
whereas T-Mobile seem to believe that they should not exist at all and
reserve the right to terminate *all* cellphone agreements with the
customer plus my T-Mobile dealer agreement! My only safe option at
present, if wishing to use T-Mobile, would be to use the (more consumer
orientated) Phonelabs Dock'n'Talk. In the UK, cellular gateways are
perfectly legal on a customer premises; however reselling minutes to
third parties is no longer permitted.
A possible downside for some businesses is that the only option (in the
UK at least) is to either present the number of the sim or no cli -
some businesses find this unacceptable - others simply make sure they
leave a message with their phone number if they hit cellphone
voicemail. None of my customers present cli, the main reason being that
if someone phones back on that number, that number can not then be used
at the same time for an outgoing call (this being the sole purpose of
the device - to save money on outgoing calls).
I have a cellphone with a non-UK sim in order to test network strength
(using Net Monitor) on each of the UK networks - this is crucial -
reception must be good enough so that calls are not dropped.
How busy I am with celular gateways depends entirely on what call plans
are being offered by the cellphone operators - if they're not good
enough, I stick to least cost routing and cellphones instead.
Regards
Simon Clark
Business Telecoms
Mark McGlashan
Does anybody no a way I can connect my mobile phone to my computer
abroad so I can log onto it from a computer and listen and make calls as
if I were in that country?
So in short I am in the UK and have a home in say France, I want to be
able to log onto my phone in France via my computer in the UK and speak
with my wife as if I were in France in turn all mobile calls I make
would be local for me and my wife.
I would be happy to hear of any ideas.
Thank you
Mark