Trixbox vs hosted services

To put it in $$ terms, you will need more bandwidth no matter what. Things live checking your voicemail, which would simply just go straight to the local trixbox, would take up bandwidth with a hosted service. Also, with a trixbox you have provider flexibility, whereas with a hosted service you are stuck with what the hosted provider will let you have.

To put it in scare-tactic terms, when the internet goes down, that's it. No phone service. No Voicemail access. Nothing. The only way you'll be able to dial 911 is if you use the fax line. With a trixbox you wouldn't have those problems as long as you have a local analog line (which you should).

To play devils advocate on this one, the hosted platform is good where you have multiple locations and are solely relying on the internet.

The reason is if you do lose your local internet connection, the calls will still ring in and complete. They may not reach a person, but a voicemail can be left. The customer thinks you are busy, not down. Some carriers can provide network down forwarding, which could be sent to a backup analog line. You could also re-route calls very easily to another location.

I am not advocating either method, but I am dealing with a hosted opportunity right now for a special case and some of these are actually beneficial to what we are trying to do. In that case, I reccomended the hosted solution instead of using our Inter-Tel solution or Shoretel.

These are some of the arguments that can be made. I hope this helps you to prepare to explain why the local solution would be beneficial over the hosted one. The points given by others thus far are very valid. I always install at least one analog line for 911 and also for network down forwarding. You are limited to one call, but at least calls can get through.