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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Fuze

    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    Fuze is a cloud-based unified communications platform that includes IP PBX voice service, video conferencing, and collaboration tools such as content sharing and instant messaging capabilities. It also integrates with a wide range of popular CTI, CRM, and click-to-call solutions.

    $15

    per month

    Lumen Next-Gen Voice

    Score6.2 out of 10
    N/ALumen 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…

    $8

    per month (12-month term required) per concurrent call path

    Pricing
    FuzeLumen Next-Gen Voice
    Editions & Modules
    US Outbound
    $0.02
    Per Minute
    Fuze Meetings
    $15
    Per User/Per Month
    Lumen Cloud Voice - Essentials
    starting at $11.50
    per month (minimum 60 mo term) per user (minimum 250 users)
    Lumen Cloud Voice - Plus
    starting at $17.50
    per month (minimum 60 mo term) per user (minimum 250 users)
    Lumen Cloud Voice - Premium
    starting at $22.50
    per month (minimum 60-month term) per user (minimum 250 users)
    Lumen Cloud Voice - Specialty Lines
    starting at $47.50
    per month (minimum 60-month term) per user (minimum 250 users)
    Lumen Voice Complete (SIP Trunking)
    starting at $8
    per month (12-month term required) per concurrent call path
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    FuzeLumen Next-Gen Voice
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Next‑Generation 9‑1‑1 available as an add-on (custom pricing).
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    FuzeLumen Next-Gen Voice
    Considered Both Products
    Fuze
    No answer on this topic
    Lumen Technologies
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    77%
    Would buy again
    20 Answers
    71%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    77%
    Delivers good value for the price
    17 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    23 Answers
    86%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    79%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    86%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    67%
    Implementation went as expected
    12 Answers
    43%
    Implementation went as expected
    3 Answers
    Features
    FuzeLumen Next-Gen Voice
    Cloud PBX
    Comparison of Cloud PBX features of Fuze and Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Feature
    Fuze
    5.5
    111 Ratings
    36% below category average
    Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    -
    Ratings
    Hosted PBX5.178 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)6.073 Ratings00 Ratings
    User templates5.060 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call reports6.192 Ratings00 Ratings
    Directory of employee names5.1107 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call Management
    Comparison of Call Management features of Fuze and Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Feature
    Fuze
    6.5
    107 Ratings
    23% below category average
    Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    -
    Ratings
    Answering rules7.099 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call recording6.089 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call park7.073 Ratings00 Ratings
    Message alerts6.193 Ratings00 Ratings
    VoIP system collaboration
    Comparison of VoIP system collaboration features of Fuze and Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Feature
    Fuze
    7.1
    91 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    -
    Ratings
    Video conferencing7.077 Ratings00 Ratings
    Audio conferencing7.190 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile apps
    Comparison of Mobile apps features of Fuze and Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Feature
    Fuze
    8.0
    103 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    -
    Ratings
    Mobile app for iOS8.094 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile app for Android8.077 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    FuzeLumen Next-Gen Voice
    Small Businesses
    CallFire
    Score9.7 out of 10
    CallFire
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Nextiva
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Fuze
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    Score8.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    FuzeLumen Next-Gen Voice
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (116 ratings)
    7.4
    (7 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.7
    (20 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    7.1
    (12 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Availability
    8.9
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.4
    (88 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (111 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.7
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    7.8
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.6
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    FuzeLumen Next-Gen Voice
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Fuze
    Fuze has way more capability than we need for our small office so it might be best suited for large installations, call centers, and complex environments. Our office is small and our needs [are] minimal, so when we need support we are challenged to understand the support person due to our lack of technical sophistication. We sometimes feel like we should switch to a solution more geared for consumers or SOHO. Nevertheless, Fuze provides reliable service at [a] reasonable cost that meets our needs, and because support is rarely needed we are happy with them most of the time, i.e. when support isn't needed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lumen Technologies
    CenturyLink SIP is an acceptable solution if you have an on-prem PBX (ShoreTel, Mitel, etc) that accepts SIP. I have found a better solution is to run two different carriers through SD-WAN (such as Bigleaf or Velocloud MSR) and use a provider like BCMOne (formerly NexVortex) to manage the SIP.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Fuze
    • Support Team - the best I have ever worked with. They help 24/7 on any issue I could come across. Usually it is an item I could fix myself and they fix it and show me how to fix the same issue if I have it in the future.
    • Contact Center - We do Commercial Collections involving Sales and Collections. We have 50 people on the phone at one time. Contact Center lets a Manager listen live and gives help if the rep needs help selling or collecting.
    • Pandemic 2020 - without Fuze we would have been unable to work for 3 months. They saved our "rears" since we already had all their services up and running for years.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lumen Technologies
    • Reliable service
    • Supports wide range of key features
    • They do have high levels of support where you can receive real answers
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Fuze
    • Desktop application stability and compatibility with certain hardware.
    • Better installation - Per-user and per-computer installs sometimes compete with one another and/or upgrades fail to install.
    • [The] desktop app is not best for touchscreen-enabled devices due to lack of ability to scroll through messages using a finger or stylus.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lumen Technologies
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Fuze
    Fuze is a solid application that is a great asset to the business for our sales staff to make daily calls to clients and candidates. Managers can monitor call data and times to keep up to date with team performance, as well as monitor calls for users on their team. The Fuze/MS Teams integration is an exciting prospect that would be very beneficial to us as a business, for seamless integration between the 2 platforms.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lumen Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Fuze
    Fuze was built with the end-user in mind. It was built to have a common interface on mobile and desktop. Fuze Web is new, and it also has the exact same interface as the desktop and mobile, and they are still working on the ability to make phone calls from the browser itself, currently it can do meetings just fine. Everything about Fuze was built with the end-user in mind.
    Incentivized
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    Lumen Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Reliability and Availability
    Fuze
    We've had a few outages over the past year. More than other vendors I've used. They usually have outages fixed within an hour. The downside is they do not provide root cause of outages. If they do at takes them at least a month to get it to you
    Incentivized
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    Lumen Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Fuze
    Since Fuze runs across multiple devices and platforms they really strived to make a lightweight interface that is optimized for phone calls, chat, and collaboration. The web client loads fast, the chat is always up-to-date, phone calls arrive on-time. The desktop client is the most feature rich and basically it just adds desktop sharing functionality as well as VoIP for calling, and the mobile client doesn't consume a lot of battery, and it stays running to get phone calls, chats, and can do meetings over Wifi, Cellular Data, or Cellular voice.
    Incentivized
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    Lumen Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Fuze
    Our experience with Fuze support has been overall very positive. Their technicians seem to be well trained and able to handle a variety of requests and issues without unnecessary delays or extensive troubleshooting. Fuze allows enough customer access to avoid the need to call support for every little issue but is ready to assist when issues are beyond our capabilities to resolve.
    Incentivized
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    Lumen Technologies
    SIP service support is definitely improving. A few years ago I would have rated them a 2. Now a 7. But, Lumen still needs a better portal experience to report and see a real-time status. Also to manage SIP failover functions in a WYSIWIG/GUI interface. When Lumen's network breaks in a larger outage, there are long hold times and support is not good.
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    Fuze
    At many of our sites with more than 50 users, Fuze sent someone onsite to train. This worked surprisingly well, as the trainer allowed the users to set the pace and answered TONS of questions. Fuze has a very streamlined training process, their staff is very professional, very knowledgeable and very engaging.
    Incentivized
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    Lumen Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Fuze
    Fuze has vast amounts of training videos and guides on how to use its products and services. There are literally endless-hours of training and I often point end-users to a particular video which addresses the specific needs of the user, for example: how to check voicemail. Or, how to share your desktop, etc.
    Incentivized
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    Lumen Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Fuze
    Personally, I didn't have any trouble getting started with Fuze. It was installed on my computer on my first day and I was good to go! Little to no hiccups. I was not with the company when they first adapted Fuze so I can not speak to the implementation as a whole.
    Incentivized
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    Lumen Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Fuze
    Fuze was far more expensive and more complicated to set up. Our current platform took a few days to set up with SSO. Our contact center took a bit longer but works amazingly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lumen Technologies
    CenturyLink [Enterprise Voice SIP] was the incumbent, so switching providers, particularly for our HQ was an overwhelming task for our small team. We did migrate from the legacy CenturyLink voice product EIPT to the new Voice Complete solution as well as upgrade our US and UK circuits along with a hardware upgrade of the managed PE routers in each location. We also decided to implement RingCentral in one of our very small international branches but the lack of features is problematic. We still have T1 service in our other international branches but are looking to go full cloud SaaS PBX there, likely through Microsoft Teams, which we already use for messaging. There are some complexities, as we can't port our numbers directly yet and need to set up an additional CUBE router for SIP. Eventually we hope to get to fully SaaS via Teams.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Fuze
    Fuze does have scalability limits but most of that is how many end-points they can put on a virtual PBX, or VCX as they call them, I THINK its limit is somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000, but we've not had issues with that because we have put users into various VCXs some by location, some by department or function. Either way, we have 7,000 currently deployed, and are going to end up with over 15,000 when we are done, Fuze is VERY scalable.
    Incentivized
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    Lumen Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Fuze
    • We receive constant negative feedback from mangers about the system not functioning correctly. (This is mainly due to lack of support from Fuze)
    • This has had a positive impact in that the system is cheaper and we are missing less calls due to the functionality of the system.
    Incentivized
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    Lumen Technologies
    • Faster learning
    • Increased numbers of calls
    • Organization of calls
    Incentivized
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