In the beginning, there was a monopoly - AT&T. In those days, businesses couldn't buy their business telephone systems They had to rent them from AT&T!With their monopoly status, AT&T had little incentive to innovate. Remember the flashing red light to indicate incoming calls and the buttons at the bottom for different lines?  Competition Created InnovationIn…

I’ve been in the telecommunications business since 1987. During that time I’ve seen many PBX manufacturers rise and fall. Miraculously, I can think of only one manufacturer who has survived - Mitel. But even Mitel can't honestly lay claim to that distinction as they’ve been through bankruptcy and have been bought and sold several times.…

Digium and Shoretel are two leading makers of small business business VOIP PBX communications systems and they both share a substantial following of customers. But the two take a radically different approach to providing value and cost savings to their customers.  Proprietary vs. Open Source PBX Systems Shoretel is a proprietary system, fully designed by…

Excuse me for bragging, but Digium, our leading business phone systems provider had an absolutely stellar 2011. For the past three years, I have been banging the drum about the value of business communications systems that use the telecom industry standard of SIP (Session Initiated Protocol). SIP-based systems are l

The Digium Switchvox is one of the most feature packed and affordable VOIP PBX product on the market today. Its list of features are too numerous for this blog post but we thought we'd list some of the most important Digium Switchvox features for small business.  Personal Call Rules With Switchvox, each extension owner ca

In one of our last blog posts, we covered Business VoIP installation costs. Today, we’ll describe the various elements that go into monthly costs of VoIP phone service. Each individual VoIP Premise PB

These days, Virtual PBX telephone service is all the rage. Over half of TeleDynamic customers are choosing Virtual PBX VoIP service when they replace their old Nortel and 3Com NBX equipment. They're clearly the future for many small and medium sized businesses.  But, you may have heard people complaining about the call quality of these newer…

It's true. You see a lot of crazy pricing claims from Business VoIP providers. At their best, they're difficult to understand and at their worst, they're just plain inaccurate.  No Free Lunch - Even With VoIP Make no mistake, VoIP phone service is clearly a long term money saver for your business, but switching over from a…

In our last discussion about SIP Trunk set-up and monthly charges, we covered all of the factors that go into the monthly price of SIP trunking and how that compares to traditional phone lines. Today we’ll look at how to calculate the number of SIP trunks that your 

Set-up fees  can vary by SIP Trunking provider. Some providers charge a setup fee while others recover  their setup costs over time by charging higher monthly  fees.  If the provider charges a set up fee, expect fees in the range of $50 to $250.411 Directory ListingWhen you set up your phone numbers, you're required by law to…