Internet Phone calls
- Thread starter Richie N
- Start date
Hi Richie,
VoIP is feature rich, flexible and cost effective. This video may answer some questions: http://www.tptele.com/videos/voip-up-to-date-telecoms-for-the-global-village.html
The thing to remember is that your business is unique and you are best off getting advice based on your circumstances. If you would like to discuss your requirements with someone who works with traditional and VoIP systems then please feel free to give me a call on 033 33 58 33 33.
Stuart
VoIP is feature rich, flexible and cost effective. This video may answer some questions: http://www.tptele.com/videos/voip-up-to-date-telecoms-for-the-global-village.html
The thing to remember is that your business is unique and you are best off getting advice based on your circumstances. If you would like to discuss your requirements with someone who works with traditional and VoIP systems then please feel free to give me a call on 033 33 58 33 33.
Stuart
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Amy Willis
We use Voipfone, have done since 2011 and cannot find a single fault with the service. Very low rates with hold music, several extensions, call groups, etc. though they provide free software to make and receive calls with, we purchased Cisco phones from ebuyer (around £65 each) that we can use the voip account for and they feel like real call centre phones.
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Watch out for providers with low monthly rental fees. normally there is hidden fees which will catch you out later.
Example. a company offering extensions for £1.00 will often have setup fees. if you then change / move offices they will charge you to update the details.
They will then charge you extra for features such as ring groups etc.
my advise is look for a provider who may charge higher monthly extension fees. you will then find there is no setup fees, no fees for updating your address if you move and quite often the call charges will be lower.
So for example a provider who charge £1.00 per extension, £1.00 per ring group, £1 per number will also have higher call charges to make up for it. and then there will be setup fees. like £1. per number, ring-group, etc.
now if you calculate all the fees to get a total over 12 months. you will often find the total cost over 12 months to be way expensive then a provider who does not provide services based on low costs.
Some providers who are good and do not have hidden prices are the likes of voiptalk.org
There is so many providers out there. there is only a handful of providers who own their networks and a large amount are resellers who do not comply with ofcom regs.
One of the posters here for example (no names given) resell for VoiceHost. this given provider does not publish their company registration details on their website and do not have an external Dispute Resolution Scheme a requirement by ofcom.
what i am saying is don't settle for the lowest price you see. look at reviews as well.
another provider ive just looked at charge £150.00 to remove / cancel a 0207 & 0208 number from your account. there is no such charge to the provider. Ofcom allocate 0207 / 0208 numbers to providers at no cost. they normally are given 10,000 numbers so they can provide to their customers.if a customer cancels the number. this is not returned to ofcom. the provider will reallocate to another customer and then charge yet another setup fee / disconnection fee.
I think this industry needs some serious tidy up.
Example. a company offering extensions for £1.00 will often have setup fees. if you then change / move offices they will charge you to update the details.
They will then charge you extra for features such as ring groups etc.
my advise is look for a provider who may charge higher monthly extension fees. you will then find there is no setup fees, no fees for updating your address if you move and quite often the call charges will be lower.
So for example a provider who charge £1.00 per extension, £1.00 per ring group, £1 per number will also have higher call charges to make up for it. and then there will be setup fees. like £1. per number, ring-group, etc.
now if you calculate all the fees to get a total over 12 months. you will often find the total cost over 12 months to be way expensive then a provider who does not provide services based on low costs.
Some providers who are good and do not have hidden prices are the likes of voiptalk.org
There is so many providers out there. there is only a handful of providers who own their networks and a large amount are resellers who do not comply with ofcom regs.
One of the posters here for example (no names given) resell for VoiceHost. this given provider does not publish their company registration details on their website and do not have an external Dispute Resolution Scheme a requirement by ofcom.
what i am saying is don't settle for the lowest price you see. look at reviews as well.
another provider ive just looked at charge £150.00 to remove / cancel a 0207 & 0208 number from your account. there is no such charge to the provider. Ofcom allocate 0207 / 0208 numbers to providers at no cost. they normally are given 10,000 numbers so they can provide to their customers.if a customer cancels the number. this is not returned to ofcom. the provider will reallocate to another customer and then charge yet another setup fee / disconnection fee.
I think this industry needs some serious tidy up.
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Amy Willis
@uk26 The company we use, Voipfone, only adds on VAT and has no hidden rates, everything is as clear as day, and we've been with them since 2011, one of the reasons being that they have low rates. However they do cater for small companies, if the company using the service is large that need dozens of extensions, hundreds and hundreds of minutes then the cost can bump up of course but we use no more than 1500 minutes per month and have under 10 extensions so the cost is low as we are a small company and get most of our business from advertising and networking so a lot of our phone activity is inbound.
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I was not having a dig at Voipfone
What is better in the below options.
Option 1
£1.00 per Extension, £1.00 per Ring Group, £2.00 per Ring Queue, £3.00 per Queue, £3.00 per IVR and a setup fee for each item with the setup fee being the same amount as per the item. Example an Extension being a £1.00 per month will have a setup fee of £1.00
Call Charges to UK Landlines will be £0.01p and Mobiles £0.10p per minute.
Option 2
£4.99 per Extension, No Setup Fees, No add on fees for Ring Groups, Ring Queues etc.
Call Charges to UK Landlines will be £0.01p and Mobiles £0.065p per minute.
Scenario
All will have 5 extensions and use 1500 minutes mobiles per month, 2 Ring Groups and 1 IVR - Based over 12 months usage
Company A, is attracted to Option 1 due to low monthly rental
£10.00 per month
£10.00 Setup Fee
£150.00 per month for 1500 used minutes to UK Mobiles
Total cost for 12 months £1930.00 + VAT
Company B, is attracted to Option 2 due to low cost to mobiles
£24.95 per month
£0.00 Setup Fee
£97.50 per month for 1500 used minutes to UK Mobiles
Total cost for 12 months £1469.40 + VAT
Company B would save £460.60 per year (£38 per month) and have the freedom to add extra ring groups, IVRs etc at no extra cost.
Company C wants the same as company B (Option 2) but spends 5000 minutes to UK Mobiles and his provider
£24.95 per month
£0.00 Setup Fee
£325 per month for 5000 used minutes to UK Mobiles
Total cost for 12 months £4199.40 + VAT
If company C want with Option 1 they would pay
£10.00 per month
£10.00 Setup Fee
£500 per month for 5000 used minutes to UK Mobiles
Total Cost for 12 months would be £6130.00 which is £1930.60 more expensive.
Providers with low monthly service fees will normally make up for it with increased phone call costs. wears providers who charge a higher rental fee normally have lower call costs.
What is better in the below options.
Option 1
£1.00 per Extension, £1.00 per Ring Group, £2.00 per Ring Queue, £3.00 per Queue, £3.00 per IVR and a setup fee for each item with the setup fee being the same amount as per the item. Example an Extension being a £1.00 per month will have a setup fee of £1.00
Call Charges to UK Landlines will be £0.01p and Mobiles £0.10p per minute.
Option 2
£4.99 per Extension, No Setup Fees, No add on fees for Ring Groups, Ring Queues etc.
Call Charges to UK Landlines will be £0.01p and Mobiles £0.065p per minute.
Scenario
All will have 5 extensions and use 1500 minutes mobiles per month, 2 Ring Groups and 1 IVR - Based over 12 months usage
Company A, is attracted to Option 1 due to low monthly rental
£10.00 per month
£10.00 Setup Fee
£150.00 per month for 1500 used minutes to UK Mobiles
Total cost for 12 months £1930.00 + VAT
Company B, is attracted to Option 2 due to low cost to mobiles
£24.95 per month
£0.00 Setup Fee
£97.50 per month for 1500 used minutes to UK Mobiles
Total cost for 12 months £1469.40 + VAT
Company B would save £460.60 per year (£38 per month) and have the freedom to add extra ring groups, IVRs etc at no extra cost.
Company C wants the same as company B (Option 2) but spends 5000 minutes to UK Mobiles and his provider
£24.95 per month
£0.00 Setup Fee
£325 per month for 5000 used minutes to UK Mobiles
Total cost for 12 months £4199.40 + VAT
If company C want with Option 1 they would pay
£10.00 per month
£10.00 Setup Fee
£500 per month for 5000 used minutes to UK Mobiles
Total Cost for 12 months would be £6130.00 which is £1930.60 more expensive.
Providers with low monthly service fees will normally make up for it with increased phone call costs. wears providers who charge a higher rental fee normally have lower call costs.
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Mobile Call Minutes Packages
Before someone says about the above post that you could add on a mobile call package for 5000 minutes per month for £300.00 which is then £25.00 cheaper for the same usage so would then work out cheaper then option 2.
wrong, this is another catch that will end up costing you more.
Look at the terms and conditions. most providers who sell call plans have the following terms.
2. When calls are made to destinations covered by your package, call minutes are deducted from them (rounded up to whole minutes).
3. Your packages are automatically renewed and rebilled every month and unused minutes are not carried over.
What this means is if you make alot of short calls lasting less then 1 minute or do not make calls to the full minute you will then lose out.
most business cannot use more then 60-70% of their actual true allowance.
So you order the 5000 minute package but due to the terms of the package your usage before the package runs out would be near 3000 minutes.
So you just paid £300 for 5000 packaged minutes but if you had not. you would have been billed per second of which your actual usage of 3000 minutes would have cost you £300
Very Cleaver these providers. So the package you took costing £300.00 would have still cost you £300 if you used the full 5000 allowance.
now it gets worse then this.
what happens if you did actually use 5000 actual minutes. you would have been billed for an additional 2000 minutes at £0.10p per minute costing £200.00 so you are now back to the £500 again for 5000 minutes.
Before someone says about the above post that you could add on a mobile call package for 5000 minutes per month for £300.00 which is then £25.00 cheaper for the same usage so would then work out cheaper then option 2.
wrong, this is another catch that will end up costing you more.
Look at the terms and conditions. most providers who sell call plans have the following terms.
2. When calls are made to destinations covered by your package, call minutes are deducted from them (rounded up to whole minutes).
3. Your packages are automatically renewed and rebilled every month and unused minutes are not carried over.
What this means is if you make alot of short calls lasting less then 1 minute or do not make calls to the full minute you will then lose out.
most business cannot use more then 60-70% of their actual true allowance.
So you order the 5000 minute package but due to the terms of the package your usage before the package runs out would be near 3000 minutes.
So you just paid £300 for 5000 packaged minutes but if you had not. you would have been billed per second of which your actual usage of 3000 minutes would have cost you £300
Very Cleaver these providers. So the package you took costing £300.00 would have still cost you £300 if you used the full 5000 allowance.
now it gets worse then this.
what happens if you did actually use 5000 actual minutes. you would have been billed for an additional 2000 minutes at £0.10p per minute costing £200.00 so you are now back to the £500 again for 5000 minutes.
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Suggest you read this:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/scams-of-the-telephony-trade.php
But really, these kind of discussions really frustrate me, they spend so much time worrying about pennies. All telephony is cheap these days, VoIP tends to be much cheaper because the saving are mostly gained on telephone line rentals and when extensions are used outside the office so that those calls are actually free.
No-one talks about quality, reliability and service - all the things you find out about when something goes wrong because their 'network' is in the garden shed or you can't work out how to do something.
Don't chose your supplier on price - there's sod all difference in it anyway.
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/scams-of-the-telephony-trade.php
But really, these kind of discussions really frustrate me, they spend so much time worrying about pennies. All telephony is cheap these days, VoIP tends to be much cheaper because the saving are mostly gained on telephone line rentals and when extensions are used outside the office so that those calls are actually free.
No-one talks about quality, reliability and service - all the things you find out about when something goes wrong because their 'network' is in the garden shed or you can't work out how to do something.
Don't chose your supplier on price - there's sod all difference in it anyway.
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- Original Poster
- #13
Thanks guys, it's not about choosing a supplier, I wish we had a choice. The issue is that we have a serviced office, they have internet phones but are charging BT standard call charges.
They seem to think this is acceptable but I know internet call charges are cheaper. We also experienced issues for 2 out of the 4 weeks in February.
They seem to think this is acceptable but I know internet call charges are cheaper. We also experienced issues for 2 out of the 4 weeks in February.
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If you have an internet connection, can't you just plug your own VOIP phone in using your choice of supplier?
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My first foray into the world of VoIP was a SkypeIn number. Although this works well I didn't see it as a long term solution. I've since shifted across to Voipfone and haven't looked back.
They admin side of things is a doddle to manage and the quality of service and support is fantastic. I'm sure there are plenty of others out there but I'd quite happily recommend them to anybody.
They admin side of things is a doddle to manage and the quality of service and support is fantastic. I'm sure there are plenty of others out there but I'd quite happily recommend them to anybody.
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