SIP Trunks Archives - Connecticut Communications

Telephone Service Fees Rise as EarthLink has Price Increase

Phone carriers have a clause in their agreements that they can increase their fees at anytime if their rates increase. You see, carriers pay other carriers for service to your business if it runs on copper lines. Someone has to maintain the copper infrastructure and get lines to your business, that costs money. If the maintaining carrier raises fees to EarthLink, they will increase your bill and there is nothing you can do about it.

However, EarthLink can also raise your phone bill if you are out of contract.

For a free phone bill analyis, contact Connecticut Communications to see if we can save you money on your monthly phone bill. A switch to SIP Trunks or simply another carrier can save you hundreds if not thousands a dollars per year.

So be warned as I just received a NOTICE OF PRICE INCREASE for all EarthLink customers. As of January 1, 2015, customer Administrative Service Fees wil increase to 10% of your monthly recurring charges.

Speak to a Connecticut Communications representative for a free phone bill analysis to see how much you are paying for phone service. 203-985-1000.

A List To Moving Your Office Communications

Moving

People say moving to a new home and moving to a new office is something you only want to do once…because it’s so painful you never want to do it again.

Call a moving company to move all your personal items to the new office. However, contact a communications specialist to coordinate your communications move. Here is list of items that you need to cover before moving your office phone system and data communications.

1. Voice & Data Cabling: As soon as you have access to your new office perform a site survey to make sure it has voice/data cabling where you need it. Make sure you account for wireless access point locations, printer/copier locations and overhead paging locations. You also need to decide if you will go with category 5e, category 6 cabling or fiber and if the cabling needs to be plenum rated or not.

2. Moving Your Phone Numbers: You have two options here. Contact your current carrier and have them move your phone number to the new office or port your phone number to a new carrier. If you are moving out of your local calling area, keeping your current carrier may be very expensive as they will charge you a per minute rate to send calls to the number outside of the local calling area. If this is the case, look into changing to a SIP trunk. SIP is VoIP and porting numbers outside of the local calling area is permitted and does not cost extra. If you are keeping your same carrier, give your phone company at least two weeks notice. If you are changing providers, allow at least 4-6 weeks.

3. Phone System: If you are keeping the same phone company in #2, moving your phone system is easy, but should you do it? The money you pay to move it could be better served going towards a brand new phone system with new features that could help your business. If you are changing phone service to a SIP trunk purchase a new system that can accommodate the newer SIP technology. You may even be surprised, most of the time changing to SIP can save you enough money to easily afford a new phone system.

4. INTERNET: You may have multiple options for internet service at your new location. Contact all the prospective internet vendors and have them do a site survey to see if they can provide service to your new locaiton. And if so, what speeds can they offer you and at what price?

5. Data Communications: You may need a new router after deciding on #4. Also, now may the time to upgrade to a Gigabit data switch, but only if you decided on Category 6 cabling in #1. Wireless access points are much better today than they were a few years ago, upgrade now to get better coverage and maybe offer a guest wireless network to keep visitors off of your business network. Is now the time to move to the cloud? You should at least look at that option now.

Moving is difficult, contact your local communications specialist for assistance…the earlier the better! If you follow the list above, the only thing you will have to worry about is if the moving company shows up.

Connecticut Communications 203.985.1000 www.ctcom.com

Unified Communications, phone systems, video surveillance and voice/data cabling.

The Unified Communications as a Service Market, what it means for your Business

What can unified communications as a service (UCaaS) bring to your business? The many companies that have deployed this technology to date answer that question with benefits like improved scalability, reliability, and collaboration among disparate work groups. For additional proof that UCaaS can benefit your organization, consider the fact that the market is experiencing considerable growth, and UCaaS solutions will continue to offer advanced solutions for communications and collaboration among your workers, partners, and customers.

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As a matter of fact, a new report from MarketsandMarkets forecasts the UCaaS market to grow from $13.1 billion in 2014 to $23.3 billion in 2019, representing a compound annual growth rate of 12.2 percent.

With hosted UC, organizations can avoid the capital expenses and maintenance responsibilities that an on-premise deployment of UC demands. Going without UC in this day and age is not a viable alternative for forward-thinking businesses. Brands trying to thrive in today’s competitive arena must be able to communicate across all mediums on any device at any time.

Below we take a more in-depth look at some of the primary benefits of UCaaS:

Deployment and Scalability: Transitioning to a new traditional telephony system typically involved a cumbersome (expensive and risky) rollout, with upgrades and new feature deployment being equally difficult. Conversely, a UCaaS solution can be made available to employees immediately, enabling distribution of new functionality depending on business needs. Moreover, UCaaS is known for its ability to quickly ramp up or scale back capabilities on an as-needed basis, with users paying only for active services.
Reliability of Business Continuity: One of the best features of UCaaS is its business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities. Since communications are the lifeblood of an organization, any downtime means losing customers, money and your hard-earned reputation. Especially for smaller companies with tight budget restraints, hosted UC can cost-effectively build redundancy into organizational architectures. A best-in-class provider even will supply automatic call forwarding to alternate phone numbers in the event of a power outage or Internet connectivity disruption.
Collaboration for Diverse Work Units: The primary goal of UC is to improve user productivity and enhance business processes. With a UC solution that unifies voice, data, and video on one network, users are able to share important information and make critical decisions quicker and more easily. No matter where your employees are located geographically, they can connect to support team agendas via a variety of devices, reducing expenses associated with business travel.
Mobility: The business case for cloud solutions is strengthened when you consider the mobility afforded by UCaaS and its ability to integrate with third-party applications. As remote and mobile workforces expand, VoIP technologies mature, and the demand for personalization of services and third-party applications grows, cloud architectures will best support access to UC and collaboration capabilities for businesses.

If you are looking to replace an aging on-premises PBX phone system with a managed cloud service, you’re not alone. According to Frost and Sullivan, spending on cloud PBX replacement solutions is forecast to rise from $3 billion this year to $10 billion by 2020. With the switch, you’ll be looking at a significant reduction in operating costs with little to no CAPEX. Furthermore, you won’t have to suffer space issues when adding new lines and you’ll be able to deliver rich features like one-number dialing to employees.

With glowing prospects for growth in the UCaaS market, your business would be wise to consider a Scalable Cloud Communications Solution from Star2Star Communications when seeking to upgrade to a more cost-effective UC system.

VoIP Phone System with Unified Communications

VoIP phone systems come in many different varieties and it’s important to understand the differences.

There is VoIP internal and VoIP external. VoIP internal is voice traveling across your internal office data network. VoIP external (SIP) is voice traveling over the internet to reach your office as an outside phone call.

The NEC unified communications server can do both, neither, or a combination of the two. NEC IP phone system can have digital terminals with SIP lines, it can have IP phones with analog lines, or it can have IP phones with SIP lines. Hosted VoIP providers, like NEC and Star2Star, offer only IP phones with SIP lines and they have to be your phone carrier as well.

Because the NEC phone system is so flexible, you can start with IP phones with analog lines until your phone carrier contract is up and then switch to SIP lines.

SIP lines give businesses the ability to have DID (direct inward dial) numbers, i.e. ten digit personal phone numbers. SIP automatically has Caller ID and you can choose the outbound caller ID number callers receive, on a per phone basis. SIP comes in over your current internet circuit and costs much less than regular analog lines. If you get Enhanced SIP service you have the ability to log into a web portal to change where your main number rings in. Can’t get to the office because of the weather? Simply point your main number to a cell phone or home phone, from anywhere, on any device.

Connecticut Communications acquired New England Communications in October, 2015. Because of this, Connecticut Communications currently has ten (10) NEC certified field technicians making us the largest NEC dealer in the state of Connecticut. We have offices in North Haven, CT and Rocky Hill, CT. Please contact us for a free consultation to see if a VoIP phone system is right for your business.

North Haven: 203.985.1000
Rocky Hill: 860.529.3200

SIP Trunks in an Hour

A customer called us when their PRI service went down. As usual, we called their carrier and reported the issue. The carrier mentioned that a fiber line was cut in the street and they will work to reroute the PRI so they can get service back. Knowing this is not an easy task and can take up to a day or two, we asked the customer if they wanted us to install SIP trunks so they can get phone service immediately. The customer said ‘yes’ and we were able to install SIP trunks within an hour. Since then, the PRI is back up but they still have the SIP trunks for redundancy.

A SIP trunk is a VoIP phone service that works over your existing internet service.

SIP allows DID (direct inward dial) for private telephone numbers and saves you money off your phone bill.

Of course, it works great as a backup to your regular phone service as well.

Contact Connecticut Communications for more information on SIP trunks for your business…203-985-1000.

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NEC Phone Systems are Versatile

The NEC Communications Server is extremely flexible and can handle a multitude of carrier line services. For instance, the NEC SV9100 can connect to regular analog copper phone lines, a PRI, BRI, DID trunks or SIP trunks. NEC does not care who the carrier is, could be Frontier, EarthLink, Comcast, Windstream or anyone else. NEC is also versatile when it comes to users. Users can be analog, digital, cordless, or IP. An IP user can be on site, remote, use an NEC phone, 3rd party IP phone or a Softphone.

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Unified Communications from NEC works with any type of phone service or phone user.

It’s easy to connect music on hold, external paging horns, a door phone, control a gate, view visitors at the door and buzz them in.

Sure, NEC has a hosted IP offering, however, a premise based NEC SV9100 communications server can be much more flexible and give you the right features for the right price.

Contact Connecticut Communications to have a representative demo the NEC at your office 203-985-1000.

January 2016 Newsletter Connecticut Communications

SIP Trunks are replacing analog copper lines very quickly. A SIP Trunk is a virtual phone line that uses the internet for VoIP calls. Customers can expect to lower their phone bill and get more features that will help them be more efficient. Don’t rely on those aging copper lines, get SIP trunks. NEC has a unified communications VoIP phone system that integrates with SIP trunks and can provide extensive unified communications features using IP phones.

SIP Trunks for Phone Lines

SIP Trunks

SIP trunking is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service based on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) by which service providers deliver telephone services to customers equipped with SIP-based phone systems.

Your expensive analog phone lines go away and are replaced with virtual lines over the internet.

SIP Trunk Benefits:
– Direct Dial Numbers
– Every phone number hunts (no busy)
– Caller ID
– Less Expensive
– Automatic Fail-over

Contact Connecticut Communications for a review of your phone bill to see how SIP Trunks can save you money and make your business more efficient. And get rid of those ugly phone lines.

Maintenance

Our Maintenance customers enjoy a much lower labor rate for moves, adds and changes.

Wireless Headset

No more neck pain with this headset…add a lifter to answer away from your desk.

Video Surveillance

Keep track of your office surroundings with high resolution video cameras. Watch live from your smartphone!

Work from home with an NEC VoIP phone

Read about this month’s Connecticut Communications newsletter. Contents include DID (direct inward dial) telephone numbers, SIP trunks and other services Connecticut Communications provides.

A big part of unified communications is DID numbers, the ability for people to reach you with a single number. That DID number can simultaneously ring your office phone and your mobile phone…first one to answer gets teh call.

SIP trunks are taking over for analog copper lines. Read about how much money your business can save.

Unified Communications Consultant

Every company needs technology in order to run their business. And with technology comes the necessary infrastructure. Voice and data cabling to each workstation provides workers with connection to the outside world for phones and computers. Do you go with CAT5e, CAT6 or fiber? The phone system needs phone lines, the computers need internet access. That will require a voice carrier and, in some cases, a different carrier for internet. Computers, do you install a premised based server on a Local Area Network, or do you subscribe to a Cloud service and get all your Microsoft licenses in the Cloud? If you want to protect your business property you will also want video surveillance. Smartphones and remote workers will require connection to the office from the outside, and it better be a secure connection so no one can steal your business secrets.

How does one go about finding all the pieces to this puzzle? There are so many options out there, how do you know what is best for your business?

Let Connecticut Communications be your technology consultant, and we do it all for FREE.

Connecticut Communications represents all the major voice & internet carriers. We can give you many different options and explain the pros and cons of each. Should you go with copper analog lines, a PRI, or SIP Trunks? For internet, is cable best, fiber, T-1 or a combination? We also represent the best phone manufacturers, NEC and Star2Star. We will explain what a hosted phones system is and if you should consider one. IP phones, digital, or a hybrid of both?

Let the professionals at Connecticut Communications help you with your technology needs, the consultation and recommendations are free. 203-985-1000.

Connecticut Communications July 2016 Newsletter

There are many unified communications features, some of which you may never knew existed. NEC’s unified communications systems have mobility, voice mail to email, SIP trunks, Presence, Video Door Phone, Conference Bridge, Appointment Reminder, Broadcast Message, Click to Dial and many more.

Unified Communications Features

Features you may not know exist?

Mobility – Callers to your NEC phone simultaneously ring your mobile phone, first one to answer gets the call.

Voice Mail to Email – All voice messages are converted to .wav files and sent to your email as attachments for easy playback on your mobile device.

SIP Trunks – Replace your expensive copper lines with SIP trunks for more features and redundancy.

Presence – View on your PC if a fellow employee is available to take a call. Simply Drag and Drop the call

Video Door Phone – View/talk to the person at the door and even unlock it from your NEC phone.

Conference Bridge – Create your own conference calls. Users call in and enter a PIN number to join. Unlimited usage.

Appointment Reminder – System can call a list of numbers to remind them of their upcoming appointment.

Broadcast Message – System can call a list of numbers and play a message of cancellation, updates, emergency, etc.

Click to Dial – Click on a phone number in your Outlook Address Book to call them

Video Conference/Screen Sharing – Have a video conference and share your PC desktop. Unlimited usage.

Contact Connecticut Communications to discuss these features in more detail. Scott@ctcom.com or 203-985-1001.

Maintenance

Our Maintenance customers enjoy free wire maintenance. We will fix any voice cable that goes bad.

Wireless Headset

No more neck pain with this headset…add a lifter to answer away from your desk.

Video Surveillance

Keep track of your office surroundings with high resolution video cameras. Watch live from your smartphone!