How to Choose a Business Phone Solution for Your SMB

It’s been about 100 years since telephones became commonplace, and today it’s almost impossible to consider an individual, home, or business without multiple phone options including fixed landlines and now VoIP and mobile options.  How phone calls are delivered and features available have evolved along with technology advances, giving business more options for phone service.

But what’s the best business phone service? There are many options for phone solutions for small business, including :

• Business lines
• VoIP (Voice Over IP)
• SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)
• PRI (Primary Rate Interface)

These options all do the same thing: deliver audio (voice signaling) between telephone hardware. Aside from pricing, the major difference between business phone solutions is what happens between the two handsets; in other words, how the calls are handled en route.

Business phone providers like Cable ONE Business can supply your organization with the best business phone service that meets your needs.

Business Lines

If you have a very small business (less than 20 employees), business line service (also known as Plain Old Telephone Service – POTS) may be right for you.  Business lines connect directly to the Public Switched Telephone Network for transmission—known to telecom engineers as PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network. Basically, you get a single phone line and number for each telephone handset, whether it’s a phone on a team member’s desk, or a fax or dedicated credit card line. You pay for as many as you need.

Cable ONE Business can supply your organization with the best business phone service that meets your needs.

PRI

Organizations with 20 employees or more may wish to consider a higher-capacity solution like PRI.  PRI phone solutions require a piece of equipment called a PBX, which connects internal telephones within a business to the PSTN.  Used since the 1980s, PRI can deliver up to 23 voice channels on a single line, known as a trunk or channel. You’re not limited to 23 telephone handsets, however. Let’s say your business has 48 employees, each with a phone on his or her desk. PRI business telephone systems can connect 23 active phone calls at the same time. In most cases, it’s unlikely that all 48 employees would need to be on the phone simultaneously, so the 23 connections would be sufficient.  

You can add more than one PRI trunk to your business if needed, each with 23 channels; in this way, business phone providers can supply enough phone lines to accommodate small and medium businesses alike. Since PRI service is physically connected to the PSTN, it has guaranteed quality of service.

Cable ONE Business can supply your organization with up to four PRI’s, two over coax or four over fiber, with a variety of DID and long distance options that meets your needs.

VoIP and SIP Trunking

With VoIP phone service for business, audio signals are transmitted digitally over the internet instead of copper lines that carry analog signals. SIP trunking is virtually connected to the PSTN via the internet; these business telephone systems share the organization’s existing internet connection. As a result, an organization opting for SIP or VoIP phone service needs an internet connection with sufficient bandwidth not only to handle their internet usage needs, but also their calling needs.

With SIP trunking, business phone service providers can easily add more trunks as your company grows.  With SIP trunking your business needn’t purchase more SIP trunks than it needs like PRI.  Usually you’ll need a new SIP trunk for every two or three users. You may also need to upgrade your business internet service to accommodate the additional bandwidth requirements.  SIP trunking uses the Internet which is typically best effort, meaning the call quality isn’t guaranteed like a phone call over a PRI channel.

Why Choose Cable ONE Business Phone Service?

Our business telephone service solutions are suitable for small and medium businesses in any industry. At Cable ONE Business, we want to partner with you to help you determine the right phone solution for your organization. Our Business Phone Service and PRI solutions include free local calling and attractive long distance plans including free unlimited long distance within the Continental U.S. on our Business Phone service to a variety of long distance bundles on our PRI services. Contact us today to select an affordable, reliable phone service that will keep your business connected.