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Lumen Next-Gen Voice vs. Microsoft Forefront (Discontinued Product)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    Microsoft Forefront (Discontinued Product)

    Score9.5 out of 10
    N/AForefront is Microsoft's antivirus offering.N/A
    Pricing
    Lumen Next-Gen VoiceMicrosoft Forefront (Discontinued Product)
    Editions & Modules
    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
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Lumen Next-Gen VoiceMicrosoft Forefront (Discontinued Product)
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsNext‑Generation 9‑1‑1 available as an add-on (custom pricing).—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Lumen Next-Gen VoiceMicrosoft Forefront (Discontinued Product)
    Considered Both Products
    Lumen Technologies
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    71%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    86%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    86%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    43%
    Implementation went as expected
    3 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Best Alternatives
    Lumen Next-Gen VoiceMicrosoft Forefront (Discontinued Product)
    Small Businesses
    CallFire
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Norton 360
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Fuze
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Malwarebytes
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    Score8.3 out of 10
    AVG AntiVirus Business Edition
    Score8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Lumen Next-Gen VoiceMicrosoft Forefront (Discontinued Product)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.4
    (7 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Lumen Next-Gen VoiceMicrosoft Forefront (Discontinued Product)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    Discontinued Products
    In large deployments, I have found Microsoft Forefront to be very effective at combating the majority of threats faced by our users. It provides the base platform for catching threats that would otherwise threaten our users and their data. If you have an environment that is under constant malware threat, then a secondary program may be needed as required.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • SCEP is a light weight client which is minimally impactful on the user end.
    • Forefront's management console provides excellent monitoring and reporting.
    • Setup and configuration is very easy.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • Malware detection is not quite 100%. We have to use a secondary program occasionally.
    • On low ram and weak CPU systems scanning can freeze the machine.
    • The same reporting tools that are on the console version, aren't on the client.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    The biggest advantage that MSF and SCEP provide over Norton is: One: Far less client overhead required. Both Norton and McAfee are highly intensive client side when in use. Two: We've had far better luck using the Microsoft system with its detection capabilities, versus the others. Three: It is tied right into the Microsoft updating system, which provides central updating capabilities of av/mal/windows updates.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Lumen Technologies
    • Faster learning
    • Increased numbers of calls
    • Organization of calls
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Less turnaround on virus based issues.
    • Helps reduce malware issues over time.
    • Can breed overconfidence in the system, so people don't always try a second tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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