Are Internet Connections Just a Commodity?
Many people think Internet access is a generic, commodity product with no differentiating features between one provider and the next.
This is simply not true, especially when it comes to providing quality transport of voice traffic.
A VoIP installation requires a higher quality circuit than you need for simple Internet access. Having implemented hundreds of VoIP installations, TeleDynamic has worked with virtually every carrier and Internet service in the Northern California market.
Over this time, we’ve grown to have a great affection for one company that we believe is the best business internet service provider in the San Francisco Bay Area – Sonic.net. They meet or exceed all of our demanding VoIP requirements and it gives us great confidence in delivering robust telecommunications solutions.
This article describes the various elements of a quality VoIP data circuit and how Sonic.net compares:
Internet Connection Speed
Speed is not usually a major impediment to quality VoIP service. Each phone call takes only 80KB of bandwidth. Usually when we confront a speed-related issue it’s on a DSL circuit.
Some DSL circuits can be as slow as 384 Kbps on upload, so four simultaneous calls can consume the entire bandwidth. While we typically don’t recommend DSL for VoIP, there are cases where it’s the only choice either due to budget or geographic availability.
Sonic.net has the perfect voice over DSL solution with their Fusion DSL service. They actually combine two ADSL+2 circuits which can provide up to 2MB of upload speed (and 20MB download!) for a very reasonable price of $89.95.
VoIP QosS (Quality of Service)
The Quality of Service for voice over data is the real defining factor for any internet connections that support voice. Prioritizing voice over all other forms of data transmission, guarantees that voice goes first and data waits its turn. The ideal way of providing QoS is through the data circuit provider. However, most carriers do not provide SLA and when they do, they charge an arm and a leg for it.
Not with Sonic.net. Sonic.net provides free QoS on all of their business circuits, except DSL.
ISP SLA’s
A SLA (Service Level Agreement) is part of an Internet service provider’s service contract where the level of service is formally defined. In and of itself, this doesn’t stop poor performance, but it does financially incent the carrier to deliver a high level of service.
Bottom Line: If a circuit has a SLA it’s considered “business class.” If it doesn’t, it’s known in the industry as “best efforts”. DSL and cable are both best efforts services. Once again, Sonic.net comes through with a guaranteed SLA on all of their business quality circuits.
ISP Customer Service
When things go wrong, that’s when the best companies shine. In our experience over the years, there is no carrier that comes close to the level of customer service as Sonic.net. You can check out Sonic.Net customer reviews on Yelp.
Is Sonic.net Paying Us? No!
With all of this crowing about Sonic.net, you might wonder about TeleDynamic’s business relationship with Sonic.net. Other carriers pay to have us sell their services, so there’s no increased financial gain for our company to recommend Sonic.net.
But we gain something even much more valuable – a great user experience for our customers. Happy TeleDynamic hosted PBX customers is our #1 goal and Sonic’s services help us deliver a solid package.
