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Lumen Next-Gen Voice

Score7.7 out of 10

11 Reviews and Ratings

What is Lumen Next-Gen Voice?

Lumen Next-Gen Voice offers cloud calling and business voice solutions that use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) to transmit calls over the internet. Lumen Next-Generation Voice Services provide Dedicated LD and/or Toll-Free Service using a SIP connection. These services leverage the company's network footprint in the U.S., EMEA and LATAM to provide more than a point solution for customers solving for operational and efficiency challenges.

Calls supported:
  • Enterprise Long Distance
  • Enterprise Managed Messaging Service
  • Enterprise Toll Free
  • International Toll-Free Service (ITFS)
  • International Local Inbound (ILI)
  • TDM/PRI and switched services

Best value for your buck

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

They have provided good, reliable service. We have incurred costs and delays in using their service vs different competitors that offer the same service. Zach is our account rep and he has been awesome and always makes sure we are getting the best bang for our buck. We find it super helpful that we are able to make international calls without extra long-distance charges.

Pros

  • Customer service
  • Open to changes
  • Streamline support

Cons

  • The wait times on queue
  • Have an online support chat agent
  • Auto pay

Most Important Features

  • International calls
  • Clear calls
  • Fast dial

Return on Investment

  • Reduce phone bill
  • Reduced company phones
  • Super affordable

Alternatives Considered

Intrado MaxxConnect SIP Trunking and Sherweb SIP Trunking

Other Software Used

Nextiva Business Phone Service, Cisco Webex Room Phone, AWS Chatbot

CenturyLink SIP - getting better, but still room for improvement

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I have multiple clients using Lumen/CenturyLink for SIP handoff. The experience is mostly positive, but there have been interruptions/downtime. I believe there are better providers/solutions out there if you are willing to spend a bit more.

The benefits of SIP are resiliency and failover that traditional PRI and traditional voice trunks don't offer. The disadvantages are that the voice quality is dependent on the ISP/carrier for quality. In this case, Lumen/CenturyLink.

Pros

  • Failover.
  • SIP handoff for SIP based on prem PBX like Mitel, ShoreTel, etc.
  • Lumen-CenturyLink is improving in communication, organization, and reliability.

Cons

  • Lumen-Centurylink has suffered from many noticeable outages in the last few years - this is a blow to their reputation that they still have to recover from.
  • Lumen-CenturyLink does not peer well enough with OTHER carriers - they depend on their own network to give you SIP, which means less true redundancy.
  • Lumen-CenturyLink needs a better customer portal/interface to handle failover, see the real-time status, etc.

Most Important Features

  • Failover.
  • SIP hand-off via reliable Adtran.
  • Lumen CenturyLink has one of the largest/best fiber networks available.

Return on Investment

  • Some improvement in failover and flexibility in outages.
  • Frustrating technical support hold time during larger Lumen CenturyLink outages.

Other Software Used

Comcast Business VOIP (VoiceEdge), Broadvoice, Nextiva Business Phone Service, CenturyLink Fiber + Internet, CenturyLink Hosted VoIP

Level3, CenturyLink, and now Lumen

Pros

  • Reliable service
  • Supports wide range of key features
  • They do have high levels of support where you can receive real answers

Cons

  • Compared to their competition, their portal is impossible to use
  • Any needed changes feel like moving a mountain
  • Although they do have qualified support people, getting in touch with them or getting anything done is very difficult

Most Important Features

  • Reliability
  • Ease of support

Return on Investment

  • They have provided good, reliable service
  • We have incurred cost and delays in using their service vs a competitor

Alternatives Considered

Bandwidth and Voxbone

Worth the price!

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

CenturyLink Enterprise Voice SIP was very reliable for the time that I used it. Compared to other phone companies it is definitely the more affordable option. It can imitate any other phone service at half the cost with just as many functions. It served very well for the time that I used it.

Pros

  • Reliable
  • Long Lasting
  • Affordable

Cons

  • Call dropping
  • Pretty difficult to navigate customer service
  • No free trials

Most Important Features

  • Call Forwarding
  • Recorded Calls
  • Fast Dials
  • Quality of the call

Return on Investment

  • Faster learning
  • Increased numbers of calls
  • Organization of calls

Alternatives Considered

Flowroute

Other Software Used

Broadcom CNA, VirtualPBX, Flowroute

Lumen provides great services and features if you can survive the implementation process and cost

Pros

  • Reliable
  • Low maintenance

Cons

  • Initially complicated
  • Took a long time to implement

Most Important Features

  • Online portal for support/ticketing
  • Large feature-set

Return on Investment

  • Neutral ROI, service is stable but cost is high
  • Neutral ROI also, given implementation was long, but maintenance is easy

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Teams and RingCentral

Other Software Used

Replicon Time & Attendance, BeyondTrust Remote Support (Legacy), Rapid7 InsightVM (Nexpose), SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM), SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM), OneNote