Voice Lines can be POTS, VoIP, Hosted PBX, wireless, SIP Trunking, Converged Voice T1 or PRI, or UCaaS Lines
Persimmon Connections facilitates your choice of a Phone Service or Voice Plan that satisfies your situation at the best price. For options in a specific category, you can go to POTS options, VoIP options, or to Voice T1 and PRI quotes.
Nowadays, organizations normally find it beneficial to use VoIP or Hosted PBX instead of POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). Hosted Voice aka Hosted PBX Service for most organizations is evolving into UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) which includes communication services such as voice, chat, text, video, videoconferencing, and/or presence in a single platform. For more info, see Intro to VoIP or contact us for an evaluation of the best voice service for your requirements. For an example of a typical Hosted Voice offering, see Comcast Business VoiceEdge (BVE).
Offices with more than 4 phone lines have historically found that a cost-effective solution is hosted voice, an Integrated T1, bundled cable, or converged service. Converged is a term conveying that voice service is being delivered on the same circuit as data service and is often used when the circuit is an ethernet circuit. Converged service shares bandwidth between phone service and internet or network access. Nowadays, most converged services use DBA (Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation). DBA allocates all bandwidth for internet access except when one or more phone lines is off-hook, at which time the relatively small amount of bandwidth needed for each voice line off-hook is reserved for voice. To see converged options for your location, go to the T1 Real-Time Line Service Quote site and choose "Integrated (Bundled Data/Voice)" on the drop-down menu, or, for bundled cable service, at the same site, choose "Business Cable". Depending on the provider, the voice portion of a converged service might be available as one or more voice T1s, PRIs, and/or as analog lines. Some providers also provide fractional voice T1s or PRIs.
For locations with more than 8 phone lines especially with significant long distance or toll-free charges that are not ready to move to a hosted voice solution, a dedicated Voice T1 or PRI service, either as a standalone service or more likely as a converged service, may be the best solution. Details are location dependent based on the plans offered in that area by the carriers that serve the location. A full Voice T1 includes 24 voice lines. A PRI is a Voice T1 with one of the lines used for control and other information leaving 23 lines for voice; if CallerID is desired, you want a PRI rather than just a voice T1 service. Typically, calling rates are much lower on a voice T1 or PRI than on POTS.
Two flavors of Voice T1s and PRIs are local or long distance. Local versions allow free incoming calls via DIDs (Direct Inward Dialing) numbers. Long Distance versions have very attractive long distance rates for outgoing service and incoming toll free calls. Long Distance T1s and PRIs, not having DIDs, are not designed for incoming local calls. All outgoing calls, even calls to local numbers, are chargeable long distance calls
Organizations with high long distance bills, or who desire local numbers around the globe (DIDs from different locations), usually find the best voice solution to be UCaaS, hosted PBX, or SIP. Contact us to learn more about SIP Origination and SIP Termination options.
Price Quotes for Hosted Voice, standalone and converged Local and Long Distance Voice T1s, and PRIs can be obtained at T1Guy.com.
