Frequently Asked Questions for Business Customers

What is ADEO VOIP TELECOM?
ADEO VOIP TELECOM is a business-grade Voice over IP (V0IP) provided by ADEO TECHNOLOGY, LLC. ADEO VOIP TELECOM provides customers with a fully functional, low-cost enterprise voice solution that replaces costly PBX or Centrex services. ADEO VOIP TELECOM leverages the flexibility and durability of Internet Protocol (lP). With ADEO VOIP TELECOM capability, your customers can change their communications financial model, meeting their communications needs at significant cost savings.

The service has an extensive, standard set of Class-5 features, such as voicemail, conferencing, and the Personal Locator (find me/follow me). Additional features include call center functionality, client-billing codes, and remote system access. ADEO VOIP TELECOM also features a suite of browser-based capabilities for controlling personal communications, including Personal Locator controls, Microsoft Outlook integration with click-to-call functionality, call logs, and integrated messaging.

ADEO VOIP TELECOM is a flexible, adaptive new approach to communications; it can connect to an existing dial tone network or replace it with a managed IP network — as an application, not as new infrastructure — and ADEO VOIP TELECOM can eliminate complex workarounds that require new capital. Telecommuters and small, remote offices can function in the same communications environment as headquarters.  And, it enables new services to be delivered when needed.

What features are included in ADEO VOIP TELECOM?
• 4-Way Conference Calling
• Call Forwarding
• Station-to-Station Dialing
• Call Hold
• Call Park/Pickup-Redialing
• Call Transfer
• Call Waiting
• Message Waiting Indicator
• Caller ID
• Caller ID Line Blocking
• Speaker Volume Control/Mute
• Dial Tone
• Direct Inward Dial (DID)
• Music on Hold
• Direct Outward Dial (DOD)
• Do Not Disturb
• Local and Long Distance
• Favorite Contacts (Speed Dial)
• Flexible Dial Plans
• LCD Feature Support/Soft Keys
• Flexible Feature Mapping
• Handset Volume Control
• Hunt Group
• Hands-Free Dialing
• Hook Flash
See Service Guide for entire list
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How does ADEO VOIP TELECOM work?
ADEO VOIP TELECOM is based on Voice over Internet Protocol (V0IP), a method by which voice is digitized and transmitted in digital packets rather than using traditional circuit-committed protocols of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The IP concept is similar to the PSTN, except that instead of telephones it uses computers, and instead of telephone numbers every telephone has a unique IP Address. Thus, IP telephones use IP addresses. Probably the most significant difference with VOIP, as compared to PSTN, is that backbone-trunking resources are not assigned in a dedicated, predictable manner to support a voice call. Instead, trunk bandwidth for a VOIP telephone conversation is assigned on a random, as needed basis, via packet switching.
Advanced IP telephony includes many enhanced features, such as voicemail, conferencing, presentation viewing, and unified messaging for cell and PDA devices. These service applications reside on hosted-network servers, which deliver very fast response and provide all the features of ADEO VOIP TELECOM.

Who is a potential ADEO VOIP TELECOM customer?
Residential users who have broadband internet services. Businesses with telecommuters and small, remote offices function in the same communications environment as headquarters. Industry verticals such as financial services, legal services, travel agencies, real estate offices, government, and higher-education organizations can benefit from using ADEO VOIP TELECOM.

What service components are associated with ADEO VOIP TELECOM?
ADEO VOIP TELECOM provides a complete spectrum of local, long-distance and Dedicated Internet Access functionality. Specific service components delivered to customers depend on the ADEO VOIP TELECOM package selected. Customers can choose from two service plan types: Basic Plan or Enhanced Plans.

What are the benefits of using ADEO VOIP TELECOM?
ADEO VOIP TELECOM provides the following key value elements to customers:
• Create a National campus
  o Remove physical limitations
  o Connect remote employees seamlessly without extra costs
  o Migrate easily
  o Moves, adds, and changes made simple through Web-based tools
  o Implement 4-and 5-digit dialing plans
 • Simplify User Experience
  o Shared company directory
  o Prioritized call handling
  o User-friendly conferencing service
  o A unified voice mailbox
  o Instant tie-in to remote workers and branches
  o A web-based Personal Communication Manager (PCM) for all feature management and  
                         personal preferences

• Save OpEx and CapEx
o Free on-net calling — Eliminates long distance between offices
o Reduced support costs — Instant Moves, Adds, Changes with a click of a mouse
o Built-in disaster recovery
o Bundled packaging and pricing
o Minimized service calls
o Minimized system upgrade costs
o Minimized upgrade costs for new features
o No full-time employee needed to manage phone system

• Customized to Meet Unique Needs
o Scale quickly up or down to meet staffing changes
o Adjust easily to each user through a browser-based Console
o Deliver predictable monthly costs
o Adapt rapidly to integrate newly acquired personnel
o Work from office, home, mobile, or customer site while still on the sys err

Why would an end user subscribe to this? What is the end user value proposition?
This service allows small and medium businesses and multi-site enterprises to gain control over communications expenses and management difficulties associated with PBXs and IP/PBXs by migrating to a new network-based hosted solution. ADEO VOIP TELECOM has all the features and functions of a very robust IP/PBX system, yet it has better user interfaces and features than most IP-PBXs on the market today. This hosted IP-Centrex offering promotes CapEx savings and on-going cost savings due to browser-based Moves, Adds, and Changes, on-net calling between offices, and bundled applications that businesses usually purchase separately (for example, voicemail, conferencing, and unified messaging).

What does ADEO VOIP TELECOM actually do?
ADEO VOIP TELECOM offers a new fully hosted VOIP service that replaces the need for a premises-based phone system and the multiple vendors required to provide popular applications like voicemail, conferencing, and unified messaging. The features and applications are not only delivered to a customer’s phone via a single dedicated Internet access pipe to the business, but the service can be individually customized by the user through the PCM. For businesses, the solution provides centralized management and control that allow them to perform their own moves, adds, and changes from an Internet connection.

How does this type of solution differ from other Internet-based call management solutions on the market?
ADEO VOIP TELECOM is hosted in a carrier-grade network. The applications were built with a browser-based model in mind, making it easy for the service provider and the customers to administer, manage, and update their features (such as speed dial keys, phone templates, and moves, adds, and changes) as if it’s their own system. Therefore, a PBX is not required - only phones. Other Web-based portals, such as those offered by Vonage, are simply PC-based solutions with a Web-enabled front-end for making calls over the Internet. Calls over the Internet may be satisfactory for consumer-grade calling, but businesses require a higher quality of service. ADEO VOIP TELECOM gives the user the same voice quality they have been accustomed to with their own PBX, unlike other VOIP solutions that may transport voice traffic over the Internet.

What is the difference between voicemail and Unified Messaging?
There are two options for messaging: 1) Standard voicemail solution is hosted and accessed verbally though your phone keys as most systems work today, and 2) Unified Messaging allows your customer to access their voice messages through their e-mail or from a web browser, and they can send voice messages through e-mail. They can “see” who called them and listen to their voice messages on their PC via Microsoft Outlook or any standard web browser.

What about conferencing?
Conferencing offers the end-user an on-demand conference service and the ability to schedule conference calls via the PCM. Its unique Web-enabled features such as question queue, voting, text chat, volume control, conference record and playback, and many other additional features enhance the end-user experience. Conferencing is capable of hosting 48 active participants and 400 passive, or listen-only, participants per conference call.

Who manages this service?
Once the service is ordered, the technical and/or office contact designated within the end user customer will be sent the details (via e-mail) on setting up the service for the company They will have their own Office Administrator Portal, separate from their own personalized PCM, which will allow them among other activities to perform moves, adds, changes for any user, maintain their company directory, and administer hunt groups and even ACD groups. From an operator’s perspective, this is very much like owning an in house PBX or Key system, without the difficulties of managing a physical piece of equipment. Since this is a Web-based interface the administrator can manage a remote office, or work on changes from home or anywhere he or she has access to an Internet connection. You can’t do this with an in-house system, and the ADEO VOIP TELECOM interface is much easier and intuitive to use than any PBX (or IP-PBX) on the market.

What about redundancy and fail-over capabilities?
The service is engineered to be as reliable as any other carrier-grade network product. Since all of the data is stored in the network, the data itself is intact. The system has been tested to have “five 9s” reliability (99.999% availability), including (and especially) customer data.

What happens to the voice quality when several users are using their phones, and several other users try to do large data transfers?
When you evaluate the service with the customer, we will determine the correct bandwidth that will be required for the number of employees, as well as an evaluation of the customer’s LAN. So the system will be provisioned and installed to ensure voice quality, and the number of users and/or data being transmitted won’t have an effect on voice quality.

So what about QoS? Are we able to guarantee that a user’s voice quality won’t degrade when the network or Internet is busy?
We perform traffic engineering on a per-customer basis. In addition, ADEO VOIP TELECOM is transmitted over a managed IP network. This network is engineered for voice traffic. If the Internet is busy, it will only effect the response time of your PCM, which you do not need in order to use your phone and make calls.

What do customers need?
Customers will need to go through a qualification/provisioning checklist to determine what specifically will be needed, including selecting the most appropriate service packages for the business. Once this is complete, the customer may only need new phones, or they may need additional cabling, a router arid/or Frame Relay termination device, and phones.

What phones are supported? Is any additional equipment necessary to attach those phones to the service?
The service will work with any analog phone (no LCD support possible), Cisco IP phones, Polycom IP phones, LynkSys IP phones, Sipura IP phones and just about any other SIP 2.0 compliant IP phone on the market today. If the customer has had a Toshiba DK Key system, their phones may also work with the solution, as well as a Nortel Meridian system. These can be converted to IP phones by means of an IP adapter Gateway.

What about E-911, Local Numbering Plans and well, just all the “stuff” that goes along with offering a complete solution?
We currently offer the most sophisticated e-911 on the line-side and work with the Class 5 to support the trunk-side, network-facing functions of e-911, LNP, and 800 services. Our e-91I solution has unique capabilities that, for example, address the situation in which a business has multiple locations all served by the hosted service but the business has moved a phone number from one location to another. Since 911 requires the call to be routed to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) associated with the physical location, we have a technique that allows us to ensure the 911 call is routed to the correct PSAP with the correct phone number. Here’s another example that demonstrates that what we can do with IP is much better than what a business gets with a PBX solution. As far as a local numbering plan, each phone will have a specific DID that does not need to be published in a public directory. In other words, only the customer’s main number needs to be published. A 2-, 3-, 4-, or 7-digit dialing plan is available for internal extension dialing, depending on the needs of the customer.

What about security? Could someone “hack into” my customer’s network?
The hosted communications servers are fully secured in the network, thereby ensuring that only authorized end users and network servers can access the system.

What if my customer has a firewall? How would it work?
They have multiple approaches for delivering IP telephony while keeping their firewall intact. The solution operates outside of the firewall and can utilize a Network Address Translation device (NAT) that only allows voice calls to the specific IP addresses through the firewall.

In case of failure of any component, is there any impact on service?
In the event of a failure, the impact on service is very limited, if at all perceptible. In fact, the system was designed to isolate failures from the users, so any calls that are in progress will remain “up” in the event of a failure. Extensive network monitoring ensures that any local failures (for example phones or LANs) are minimized when they do occur.

How long does it take to turn up the customer?
This depends on your customer’s current bandwidth delivered, whether LNP is required from another service provider), whether cabling upgrades arc required, and a number of other factors However, you can generally expect that the service, from the time the order is submitted to the time the customer has dial tone and training, to be between 15 and 30 days.

What kinds of reports are available to the end user to manage this service?
The Office Administrator Portal provides users with a report that allows them to view each phone number and the services assigned and provisioned to that phone number. Every time a change is made to an account, the report is automatically updated and can be viewed from any Internet connection.

Is LNP required?
LNP is required in most cases. If the service is moving from a competitive Carrier, then LNP will be required, as with any service. If the customer is an existing customer, then LNP will not be required. The DlDs must be ported to the hosted system.

What about 800 Service?
Customers will be able to keep this as they do today. It will be treated as another DID number on the hosted service.

What about customers who need call accounting codes and billing codes?
The service has the ability for your customer to assign as many codes as they like, based on users, projects, and clients, for example. At the end of the billing cycle, these calls can be separated out by account/billing code, so your customer knows where these calls are to be charged.