VOIP for business line?

[pbxphone]

Never really used voip before. Is it a viable alternative to regular phone line for a small business? Stability?

If you need phones lines and phones for a small 2-3 line/phone office, I would suggest looking at a Hosted or Cloud PBX.
You can get the best of features that would cost an arm and a leg for the traditional alternatives.
To get the best quality, find out if the Hosted/Cloud PBX provider is having a good local presence.

[ebusinesstutor]

Another vote here for Voip.ms. I used Vonage for years and Voip.ms gives me more control and big savings. My phone number is $1.95 per month plus an unlimited calling plan for $5.95 per month.

[xtwo]

Couple of questions. My brother in law just started a small company and he's using rogers business land line right now. Is it possible to port it over to a cell phone company? Let's say koodo. Is that allowed by law or no? Also what about internet, does he have to get a business internet as well? Any recommendations for that?

If not, what are his options in terms of voip? I already called primus and they don't offer business line in that area (Barrie). Voip.ms will sure be complicated for him. Any other reliable ones?

[pbxphone]

Couple of questions. My brother in law just started a small company and he's using rogers business land line right now. Is it possible to port it over to a cell phone company? Let's say koodo. Is that allowed by law or no?

Also what about internet, does he have to get a business internet as well? Any recommendations for that?

If not, what are his options in terms of voip? I already called primus and they don't offer business line in that area (Barrie). Voip.ms will sure be complicated for him. Any other reliable ones?

Local number portability (LNP) enables customers to keep the same phone number when changing service providers or carriers. The transferring of landline numbers to other landline numbers has existed for several years. Now, thanks to wireless number portability (WNP), which is often also referred to as Local Number Portability, customers will also be able to keep the same phone number when transferring their landline phone service to wireless service and vice versa.

Business Internet is a separate service. He can choose to get one if he needs it. If its a homebased business, he could use the existing residential connection as long as it is within the usage terms set by the provider.

VOIP would be a good option, not necessarily to save money. Primus offers hosted phone service for businesses too and a hosted system can include a lot of features that you would normally see in a traditional big business multi-line PBX system.

How many phone lines would you need? How many extensions or users do you think would be needing to use the phones at the same time? Do you need Music-on-hold? Do you want an after hours messaging system that would transfer callers to your cell phone if required, or leave messages for different people or departments?

It all depends on whether you are looking for a basic line to take a call and make a call and it should display your Business Caller ID OR you are looking to get the look and feel of a big business without spending on multiple phone lines and a traditional pbx system.

For 3 lines or less & 3 phones or less, you would be well served with a good hosted pbx provider local to your city or state.or a 4-Line RCA/Panasonic/AT&T phone from Staples...., depending on what features you need !

[pbxphone]

VOIP is definitely not for everybody, especially in situations where all you need is a phone line to make and receive calls ! You do not NEED any additional features. All you need is a phone line that works and lets you have a professional business conversation over the phone !

So you have two or three or at the most 4 landlines. And lets assume you need three phone sets. Here are your options :

1. Go to Staples/London Drugs/Office Depot/Costco or eBay, and buy 2-Line Analog Phones. You should get them in the range of $20 to $60 each used or new.

In the PBX world, these phones are called Analog phones in the PBX world( even if they have digital displays !), simply because they connect to your Telus/Shaw landlines which can also be called Analog Lines.
Bear in mind, that each of your land-line has to be connected to the Line Ports of each of those 2-Line Analog phones.
( which can get quite tedious once you start with 3 or 4 lines and those 4-Line Analog Phones.)
This is the cheapest option to get your multiple lines, hooked up to multiple phones to make multiple calls !
Since it is a pretty much do-it-yourself project, you save on installation costs too.
But you lose on two important features : Call Privacy : which means anybody can barge onto any line, even if its in use. No call privacy.
Secondly, what happens if you want to put them on hold…there is NO music-on-hold input on most of these analog phones.
I have seen business owners upgrade to a PBX system simply because having music-on-hold playing while callers are on hold does lend a professional image to the business ! And I would agree that its an important feature.

2. If the above features are important to you, and/or you may need more than 2 Land-lines and 3 Phones, it may be worthwhile to get a PBX system which will serve you well ! You will need to have a budget of at least $500/- which can get you a nice used pbx system with 3 phones.

A PBX system has a separate brain unit or server and phones that will work ONLY with this brain unit.

Try to look for a used PBX that has modular connections, which means you can plug in the analog phone lines and the pbx phones yourself ! That will save you on any installation costs. The older Nortel/Norstar/Meridian PBX system are NOT the right ones for you if you are a do-it-yourself types. All Panasonic PBX systems have modular connections which makes it real easy to hook them up yourself.

Also, look for the KEY System funcationality on the PBX. Each phone at your desk will have separate buttons programed for your lines and your phones, so that you can see which line is in use and who is using it !! Just like the way you would see in the 2-4Line Analog phone at staples, but in a most advanced way !!

Make sure that any PBX system you buy,used or new, has the Caller ID capability. Having an LCD display on the phone DOES NOT mean the pbx system will SHOW caller ID information. It can be more expensive to try and upgrade a used or new pbx system with Caller ID capability. Also, find out how many phone lines and phone-sets you can connect to the system AS IS, without any further upgrades ! There is always a difference between the current configuration and the full capacity !

It doesnt make sense to buy a used PBX system that will not give you the capacity you need without additional upgrades. Not worth the money & trouble !

Unlike the 2-Line / 4-Line Analog phones from Staples or Costco, a PBX system can give you the ability to have complete Call Privacy, Ability to intercom each other if you sit in different rooms, Music-on-hold capability to begin with ! And if you buy a good system to start with, it can last you many many years ! I have seen business customers using pbx systems that were installed in the late 80s and they still work !

The Auto-attendant Greeting with Menu Options for after-hours & Personal Mailbox Feature is another add-on that most pbx systems support.