Westwood Village Computers

How would you like to save some money on your monthly phone bill?  Who wouldn’t, right?

Nowadays, there is a lot more competition within the local telecommunications market.  However, one facet of that competition that has remained largely untapped up until now has been the voice over IP industry.  The Voice Over IP industry consists of telecommunications providers that will route your calls over the Internet to help you save on long distance phone calls.  However, a growing segment of that market has been repositioning itself trying to market the technology to companies that spend a lot of money on calling features.  Voice Over IP phone systems can provide the calling features all on their own, and generally much cheaper than Telus, Bell, Allstream, or any of the big players.

If you’re a do it yourselfer, you can try taking a look at Asterisk.  However, the vast majority of us are not a bunch of technogeeks.  Some of us are semi-technical.  And others are not technical at all.

Let’s cover off those of you that are semi-technical.  I will assume you can figure out how to set something up, if someone tells you what needs to go where, and that you can find your way around a webform.  There are basically two competing products out there for the mid-range office market.  There is Aastra Telecom and Polycom.  Aastra Telecom and Polycom both make business desk phones that rival their analog and digital counterparts.  The Aastra 9143i will allow you to have up to 9 lines for a very reasonable price.  Aastra’s phones use the same moulding used on Nortel phones.  So, for those of you used to Nortel desk phones, you’ll find yourself right at home with Aastra.  On the other hand, Polycom has long been an industry leader in the office telecommunications market, especially for conference phones.  The Polycom SoundStation IP430 provides you with up to two lines, and is also a very attractive looking business handset.  Both it and the Aastra offer you a full duplex speaker phone.  However, business is very familiar with the Polycom name.  If you have a larger office, you might find it a hard go getting your company to approve the Aastra.  They are both very easy to set up, although I would probably lean closer to the Aastra, personally.

For the totally non-technogeeks out there, you will want to go with an ITSP (Internet Telephone Service Provider, aka VoIP Provider) that will supply you with an ATA (analog terminal adapter).  It’s basically technobabble for a device that will allow you to use your traditional analog phone on a VoIP line, and generally when you get them, the ITSP will have the black box all configured for you and ready to plug into the power bar.  You can then plug your favorite cordless or wall phone into it, and you’re good to go.

Regardless of which path you choose to take, you’ll need to find an ITSP or VoIP service provider.  One quick way to find them is to do a search on Google.  Type in ‘voip providers in city, province’.  eg.:  ‘voip providers in hamilton, ontario’.  I’ve found spelling out the state or the province works much better than using the two character abbreviation.  Your mileage may vary.  VoIP phone lines can generally run as cheap as $3.95/mo, and run as high as $50/mo.  It all depends on what calling features you want, and how many minutes a month you want of long distance, or if you want an all-you-can-eat plan.