VoIP Connection Issues

While migrating one of our clients to a new office, we ran into an issue with deploying our VoIP system and we figured it would be good information to share in case anyone else is struggling with this. We were not able to find any other online articles that touched on this.

ZTE Only Option

Our clients new office did not have any copper or fibre running to the building, so the only option we had for Internet was the TELUS Smart Hub Rural Internet. This Hub basically acts as a SIM card hotspot over the phone lines that you can run like a normal Internet Router. However Telus treats this Internet Connection very differently.

How ZTE is different

After talking to multiple reps, I was able to gather some information about how they operate these devices. By default, most ports are closed from the Telus end and cannot be manually changed. This means that even though the router options has the ability to create port forwarding and manipulate the DMZ among other tasks, the options actually do nothing. When asked about this, the rep claimed that it was to protect the routers from DDOS attacks.

The ZTE system also does not provide a static IP address for the device. I find this interesting as they program the Smart Hubs by address so that if you attempt to move the device to another building or address it will disable itself. Assigning the device a static IP address comes at an additional $15/month.

Once the Static IP address was assigned, the VoIP phones became operational within a few minutes.

So if you are running VoIP phones in a rural area, make sure you communicate clearly and directly with Telus that you need a static IP to enable port 5060.