3cx over mobile network

[haywardi]

A curiosity question for now.

I've been running 3cx since about v9 and over the years have not experienced many problems.

My network is what you would expect from a business and not overly complex to make support simple.

Essentially I have a main broadband link using a mobile 4g network connection as a back up.

But I've just being doing some testing and to my surprise I get better speed out of my 4g connection than I do the broadband connection, so this got me thinking, would 3cx work if rather than go for a wired broadband connection, I obtain a mobile connection with a static IP,?

Has anyone any experience of this?

 

[JohnS_3CX]

The short answer: yes - if you move to a cloud hosted PBX with a local SBC.

The long answer:
Not the best idea for on-premises systems, as 4G connections are usually behind a carrier grade NAT and your port forwards will no longer work. Also, consider that 4G being wireless in nature is fast when you appear to be downloading files or watching a video, because these operations are not real-time and any packet retransmissions or loss will not be noticeable at all to the end user.

VoIP on the other hand will not be as courteous, latency, loss and retransmissions will become much more prevalent in this type of workload.

Consider having your system hosted by 3CX, and using our SBC on your premises to act as your bridge (which can also bypass 4G CG-NAT restrictions). This way you PBX will always be online even if the office connection is down, and you can use your 4G as a fallback in case the main broadband is down or vice versa.

And as a bonus, even if the building completely loses power, your phones can still work via our mobile app (over your smartphone 4G connection) because the PBX will remain unaffected in the cloud. The mobile apps have the "SBC built in" so they are completely independent.

 

[haywardi]

I am aware of CG-NAT and that can be overcome with the right type of connection.

Latency on the other hand.... I hadn't thought about.

As I said a curiosity question at this moment in time and it will now be consigned to history as an idea.

Thanks your help.