Business Phone Service

Business phone service used to be high-priced, cost-inefficient sister to residential phone service. Then came the Internet. Then came VoIP.

Compare the rates below with what you're currently playing for business phone service. They're better, right? Now it just comes down to making a decision between business phone service providers: which business phone service is best for you?

Which business phone service is best for you?

We've got a few questions you should ask to figure out this question. If you'd like results as well as knowledge, use this tool to find a quote.

1. How much are you paying per month for business phone service?
2. How many people currently use my business phone service?
3. How often do they use the business phone service?
4. What kind of Internet connection do you have?
5. Do you already have a phone system?

How much are you paying per month for business phone service?

You need to know how much you're paying for business phone service before you can know how much you'll be saving.

The prices listed above are all based on one user with one phone per month. Usually, VoIP providers charge a fee for a ported phone number and for a few taxes (in addition to a contribution to the Universal Service Fund). You also may have to pay extra for toll-free numbers. In most comparisons, you can add $10 a month to the 'final' price of a comparison.

How many people currently use my business phone service?

Don't count the number of phones in your office; count the number of people in your office that need a distinct phone. Usually, VoIP providers will charge per phone per user – so make sure you don't pay for phones that you don't need or use.

How do people use your phone system?

Just as important as knowing how many people currently use your business phone service is knowing how the people use the service.

If you have a call center, you are going to need as many minutes as possible. If you only need a phone number so someone can call you if they need to, you probably want a metered phone plan.

There are two basic types of phone plan: metered and unlimited. The plans listed above are, for the most part, unlimited minutes plans. This means that you can use as many minutes as you want (although frequently you are subject to per-minutes rates once you bypass the provider's Fair Use limit).

Metered plans are usually cheaper per month, but you do get charged per month for the minutes you use. However, since VoIP charges lower rates that your traditonal business phone service, you can still save a lot of money with a metered phone system.

What kind of Internet connection do you have?

You will need a high speed Internet connection in order to use VoIP. The speed of the connection is directly based on how many VoIP calls you want to make at the same time: each VoIP call takes about 90 kb/s of connection. Make sure you have more than that, because your internet connection speed does a lot to influence call quality.

Check your connection speed on our VoIP speed test

Do you already have a phone system?

Now that you've figured out the economic benefits of VoIP and whether or not you can run VoIP (that is, if your internet is fast enough), it's time to figure out what kind of system you're going to have in order to use your business phone system.

For that information, check out our VoIP Equipment section, this page or this page on business phone systems, and our business phones page.