VOIP channels and DTMF

I just upgraded my system to the Professional Version of BBP. I am about to get on board with getjive. They are a SIP based carrier who offer a product that can be used with a softphone. Xlite or others. They also have unlimited channels. I was told that they look like they are compatible so I am happy. I plan to get two lines. Each phone line offers me 2500 minutes per month. That will give me 5000 minutes a month. Enough for my purpose. I have a few questions:

Q: Unlimited channels means I can one SIP phone line (or two) and they can be used with all 4 of your lines and they “share the minutes”?

Yes. With unlimited channels, you should be able to start any number of lines from Voicent Gateway.

Q: How does having two SIP lines work on a 4 line system? Can I run both of the SIP phone lines off of one user account? (VISTA is what I have.) I know with Skype I had to have 4 separate user accounts.

You do not need to create extra Windows users account for different SIP account. That’s a thing for Skype. With SIP, you do not need to worry about the Windows user account. In your case, go to Voicent Gateway SIP settings, create two SIP accounts, and each to start 2 lines.

Q: Your website says that Voicent “acts as a softphone” so if I can use the SIP or VOIP service on a softphone….I can use it with your software. What needs to support DTMF tones? The SIP provider or the softphone? I am confused. I remember the DTMF feature being needed in order to work the transfer feature on the BBP?

Yes, if you can use a SIP softphone like X lite to make a call, you should be able to use Voicent to make calls.

The call transfer feature itself does not require DTMF tones. However, for autodialer, it is usually triggered by the callee pressing a touch tone key (DTMF) for call transfer. Without the support for DTMF tone from your VOIP service, Voicent software (or softphone) cannot know a key is pressed.