Have you noticed?

Telephones and phone services have dramatically changed over the last 10 years. Homes used to have a wired phone in multiple rooms. Today many homes have no land line service at all.

Business offices still need desk phones, but the days of copper land line service are over. Today, phone services is delivered digitally via Internet service over fiber or coax (TV) cable. This type of phone service is known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), more accurately called SIP service(for Session Initiated Protocol.

VoIP has many advantages over traditional copper, including

• Consumer choice of service provider. -There are many providers that can deliver phone services using your standard internet service.
• Unique features such as an incoming call ringing simultaneously on a cell phone
• Transferring to a cell phone
• Intercom with a cell phone
• Remote Extensions - Take your desk phone home with you
• Built-in full featured voicemail
• Built-in Interactive Voice Recognition and Auto-Attendant
• Buying a local phone number from another city
• Call detail and audio recording

Unified Communications

More recently, the convergence that has occurred between digital audio, video, telephone, messaging, and security has come to be known as Unified Communications, meaning that the lines between these services and hardwares have all but disappeared. We listen to music and watch movies on our cell phones. We can message across platforms. We can keep an eye on security cameras from any computing device.

Today’s IP-PBX’s are increasingly becoming UC hubs, capable of voice and video calling, text messaging, video teleconferencing, video surveillance, building access control with video doorphones and door lock controls,

 

The Hardware

As in the old days, there is a processor that translates incoming and outgoing calls between handsets and the outside world, known as a PBX, or in this case, an IP-PBX. Today, there is a choice of locating your IP-PBX within your premises or subscribing to a “Cloud” or “Hosted”  PBX.

With an On-Premises PBX, all desktop phones (and related devices) are connected to the PBX over an Ethernet network, which can be the LAN that already exists for your computers or a separate network of CAT5e wires. The chief advantages are that you own the PBX and control and program the feature set. PBX’s used to be so expensive that most corporations would lease them. Today, a PBX that can handle hundreds of phones can cost less than a pair of show tickets.

With Hosted or Cloud service, you are sharing a larger PBX in a data center and you pay a monthly subscription for each extension phone. All the extension phones are connected through your internet service.

Either way, it is important to recognize that internet service is essential for service to work. If either your internet service or your LAN goes down, you have no phone service. Therefore high quality service and battery backups are very important.

The Service

Rather than buying phone service from your traditional phone or cable tv provider (likely Verizon or Comcast), you can purchase SIP service from many providers. Prices are generally lower, sometimes considerably lower. Compare our own rate charts with your current phone bill.

Hosted services are charged per extension phone.

On-Premises PBX’s use Trunk Service. A Trunk is traditionally a single physical line that provides multiple phone numbers. In VoIP, you purchase service based on how many conversations you want to be able to conduct concurrently, and how many phone numbers you want to have. A VoIP trunk typically starts with one phone number and 5 talk paths for 5 simultaneous outside conversations between all extensions. Phone #’s and talk paths can be added a la carte.

Hosted and Trunk services may also have a monthly time limit, or be limited to regional or national calling.

CLOUD HOSTED VoIP SERVICE

Hosted or Cloud PBX Service makes VoIP easy. Other than the desk phones there's  no equipment on the premises and no programming required. All phone extensions connect to the Cloud PBX over your Internet service, and everything is programmed by the service provider.

With Hosted Cloud Service, your desk phones are essentially computer terminals that talk to the cloud PBX. All external and internal calls travel over your Internet service. You will want to ensure that your network is configured properly and that your Internet service has sufficient bandwidth to handle the additional traffic.

ATS Communications provides Hosted services through our partnership with Broadvoice business services. We make it easy by facilitating your contract, taking care of the technical details, and being your main point of contact.

Our rates are very competitive and our service is first rate.

We can help to evaluate your needs, provide you with a customized rate quote, and take care of the telephone installations.

VoIP TRUNK SERVICE

For larger systems, or when long term cost is considered, you'll want an On-Site PBX and Trunk service.

With Trunk Service, you purchase phone numbers and call paths. A customer can have one or more phone numbers.Call paths determine the maximum number of outside calls that can happen concurrently. Extension to extension calls do not travel over trunks.

ATS Communications provides Trunk Service through our partnership with Broadvoice Business services. We make it easy by facilitating your contract, taking care of the technical details, and being your main point of contact.

Our rates are very competitive and our service is first rate.

We can help to evaluate your needs, provide you with a customized rate quote, and take care of the installation.

 

VoIP PBX SYSTEMS

Owning and locating the PBX on your premises gives you and /or your local contractor total control for a lower long term cost.

• Internet bandwidth is conserved because extension to extension calls stay on the premises (unless there's a remote extension involved).
• All extensions, trunks, and features are programmed on your equipment.
• You'll be buying SIP Trunk service which is similar to how analog phone lines were purchased, except that there are no lines from the street, they are all delivered over your internet service.
• SIP Trunks are much less expensive than analog likes or hosted VoIP service.
• We specialize in Grandstream PBX. Smaller than a notebook and able to handle up to 2000 users, these enterprise grade PBX’s start at under $400.00
• Grandstream PBX’s are fully featured right out of the box. There are no additional feature fees, and firmware updates are free.
• Free Soft Phone Apps for IOS & Android allow users to roam anywhere, any time at will.
• Free Soft Phone App for Desktops enable you to make & receive calls and keep your phone book on your desktop or laptop.
• Remote Extensions can be configured for satellite or home offices.
• Surveillance video and door access control work very much like telephone extensions. They can call you with alerts or requests, you can call them to monitor what's going on.
• Audio and Video teleconferencing becomes easy when it's done right through your phone system.

VoIP Phones, Cameras, Door phones

One of the best features of VoIP telephony is that you can use nearly any VoIP phone from any manufacturer, and we can provide many of them. There are often advantages to matching phones to the on-site PBX however, and we really like the quality, variety, and features of Grandstream products.

Choose from Basic Phones, Mid-Line feature rich phones, Cordless DECT phones, and Advanced Phones with cameras and Android screens for Internet browsing

Video Teleconferencing, Doorphone viewing, Conference room phones, Surveillance cameras, and more.