We took the dive about a month ago into Asterisk and VOIP. I’m really excited about the features, but the quality from our provider is marginal at best. We have a lot of conversations that cut out, and tech support is a 2 day affair, after which time I’ve usually figured it out myself.
Still, we’re paying about $175USD a month and have 4 “phone lines” for the provider to host the box. I like this setup, like the phone hardware, like everything, but want to see if there isn’t another, better hosted provider out there for the money.
Aretta.Com also provides hosted solutions. I use their SIP trunking service and it works well. The Atlanta Asterisk Users Group uses one of their hosted machines for its monthly conference calls. All work swimmingly.
If I understand you correctly, you have a hosted PBX with phones remotely connected to it. Before jumping to the conclusion that the issue is with the provider (it may be but it may not be) make sure that you have adequate bandwidth to your phones from your local site(s) where they are located. Make sure you don’t have a QoS issue there.
Try calling into the provider through a landline phone somewhere and check the audio just to the PBX (where you have cut out your local extension side). Interact with the system’s voicemail and/or setup access to an echo test to do some diagnostics. This will help isolate things to the provider side only. Then do some similar test with a single extension to the PBX. Those are some things you can try.
If the problem is on your side, going to a new provider is not necessarily going to do anything beyond more responsive support (which may still be well worth changing providers for anyhow).
I am curious as to whom this service is? I keep a Xen system with vpslink.net and I pay 17.95 a month for that ( I found a coupon ) and a good VoIP account w/DID is roughly $30 a month. So, max is (w/4 channels) 137.95. Did they supply the hand sets?
You may check with my service provider, www.therealpbx.com. Their VoIP services are affordable with best quality and you will get everything that your present provider is giving you. They provide free tech support.