I have a question about what the best way to set this up would be and if it would even be cost effective. We have a branch in Canada, they had their own phone system. It just took a dive and we need a replacement. I could forward their Canadian number to our phone system (in the US). Wouldn’t this open us up to all sorts of long distance calls whenever they call anyone in Canada and also wouldn’t the incoming calls be charged long distance as they would be forwarded to our system in the US? Anyone have any ideas or 3rd party services that makes this setup freezable?
Need more info. What type of phone service provider for the Canadian and US systems. If using VOIP, most services make no pricing distinction between CAN and US for termination. If the Canadian DIDs can be ported to your US provider (or some other provider you can trunk to from your US system) that would eliminate the necessity of forwarding.
I guess I don’t have the best telephone system knowledge. The US system has a full PRI going to it. The Canadian extensions would just be SIP handsets configured to look back at the US system. Not really sure what else to explain, as I don’t have much knowledge about the topic and also I don’t know what our options would be. I’m trying to find the best solution that does not require any additional hardware (not including the handsets).
A full PRI from who? normally you will be paying for the “local loop” for the PRI (often a few hundred dollars a month) ALSO the traffic you send over it. Generally you can find a way better deal over SIP if you have an unimpeachable network (five nines is what you get from the PRI. )
If you look, you have probably been paying a few dollars a month on each number to “allow” you to port the numbers to another carrier. That goes away when you port the numbers away from Rogers or AT&T etc. . . .
I don’t suppose the Canadian system is in Calgary? If so we could probably help you out…
You should probably find a Canadian SIP trunk provider that you can point to your US PBX, that way calls from the CA office to local numbers like 311, 310XXXX, 1800XXXXXXX will work properly.
Wow, thanks for the info. Did a quick google for SIP trunking Ontario and got in touch with a SIP trunking host. This solution will be really great once it is setup!
SIPStation also has both Canadian and US numbers available, and free trials if you would like to test out our service…
We’ve been using voip.ms to service about 50 end points at our main office in Toronto for well over a year now and couldn’t be happier. They have an excellent product and great support.