Phone Systems Buying Guide
We do not sell phone systems, only phones, so we are a good source of unbiased information about phone systems purchasing.
Major trends you should take advantage of:
There is a rapid shift to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) due to its lower cost and higher performance:
- Significantly lowers communication costs, especially long distance and international.
- Gives you a choice of phones; you don’t have to purchase from the phone system manufacturer.
- Take advantage of price and features, now and in the future.
- Puts you in an excellent position to use new cloud-based technology in the future.
- Requires no additional phone lines; you use your existing, internet connection.
- Provides better voice quality when properly configured and installed.
The choice of the phone system primarily depends upon the number of lines per location. All the choices system choices give you more telephony features than you will ever likely use.
Number of Phones
(Extensions per facility)Hosted VoIP
If you have a few lines, usually fewer than 20, consider using “Hosted VoIP”. This is a system where the IP PBX is virtual; that is, it is not on your premise and is managed by your service provider.
You pay a fixed price per desk per month, usually in the range of $35 to $50 per desk. Long distance is free, and international calls are very cheap. Calls between your own facilities are free.
This is the simplest approach that lets you take advantage of future improvements without any hassle or additional costs. As new applications and services become available, they are installed on your system without hassles.
You can purchase Hosted VoIP from major phone companies, or choose from hundreds of local and national service providers.
For more information on obtaining one of these systems please contact Cloud.
Asterisk/TrixBox/ Proprietary IP PBXs
Once you get over 20 lines, you may want to consider an on-site server-based system. These are a standard server running either Asterisk or TrixBox software and are available from hundreds of suppliers. They cost around $999 installed for a 30 line system.
One advantage of a server-based system is that you no longer have to pay per seat or desk as in a Hosted VoIP system. For example, a 50 line Hosted system at $40 per seat costs $2,000 per month. With a server-based system, the cost per month can be significantly reduced. A 50 line system with ten SIP trunks (connections to the outside) could be as low as $500 per month.
Server-based systems give you the same choice of phones.
For more information on obtaining one of these systems please contact Cloud.
Enterprise
These are considered enterprise systems and are a mixture of proprietary technology and more open architectures.
We strongly recommend that you take advantage of the trend toward SIP compatible phones so you have a continued ability to upgrade to newer technology without changing the underlying system.
More traditional PBX suppliers like Avaya, Nortel, Panasonic, Shoretel and the like require you purchase their phones. SIP phone are as low as $100 for simple devices, most captive phones are more than $400 per device.
We recommend that you look at the large server based systems from Microsoft, Cisco, Siemens, Mitel and others that have made the transition to SIP standard compatibility. One note about Cisco: although they can sell you a full sip compliant solution, they will attempt to lock you into their “Thin Client” solution, which locks you into their phone as a traditional PBX supplier would.
Usually enterprise size systems should be purchased from larger suppliers that have the resources to support your IT staff well worldwide. Make sure the solution you choose can use Cloud phones as well as other SIP compatible phoens like Polycom, Aastra, and the like.
For more information on obtaining one of these systems please contact Cloud.
Traditional PBXs
For more information on obtaining one of these systems please contact Cloud.
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