NBN phone systems.
What phone systems can you use with the NBN to get a maximum return for your business?
There are some things that you need to know in any conversation with your provider.
First of all;
SIP (Session initiation protocol) is simply a method to connect and run multimedia over your NBN data lines at the same time. Data, voice, video etc. A SIP device may be a modem or a card inside your digital system.
Sip connects, monitors and disconnects your Voice calls over the internet.
ATA (analogue telephone adaptor) This allows your old analogue lines to convert to SIP access.
VOIP ( Voice over internet protocol) Much the same as SIP really and was the original medium for Voice over the net.
Now let’s not get hung up on acronyms other than being able to nod your head with some degree of knowledge when they talk about them using NBN phone systems.
Voice calls over the internet.
This is part of the NBN plan, all voice calls will now go over the NBN and the copper wire network will disappear. When? Tops a couple of years.
Telephone systems
With the telephone system you have now, you most likely ordered so many handsets and some Techie guy came and installed them and when they went wrong you called the guy back.
He put a big box on the wall and told you not to touch it.
If you require a small change you ring him and he charges a bundle to alter or add a feature.
That my friend is one of the advantages that the NBN and hosting have introduced. Control.
Nothing has changed really, work out what you want and get someone to do it for you. If you have an old clunker telephone system it can connect using adaptors and Sip but really give consideration to entering the new age of communications it has a bundle of advantages.
What phone systems can you have?
A traditional box on the wall type system that has a digital interface to the VOIP world. It uses all the features and benefits of the telephone system and when you are in trouble call the Techie guy. It might be a Panasonic, LG, NEC Cisco or other common brands that have been around for decades.
Live in the cloud world.
Someone somewhere has a great big industrial telephone system that has all the bells and whistles that you need.They then partition off a section just for you. You pick up your handset and over the internet it connects to your Private box and routes to the world.
If it breaks down you just yell at them to fix it, You will have a dashboard that allows you to make all the changes you can need so wave goodbye to the Techie guy.
You don’t have to pay out capital to use it as it is mostly for a monthly fee, a fee by the way that will probably include all your phone calls, so a nice fixed monthly cost.
The Cloud or hosted system is ideal for both the small user 1-15 handsets and the largest organisation.
You can link to your other offices or outlets anywhere looking like the one business.
The mid-size business may opt for a traditional system for several reasons, they already have one is the first up reason
and over 5 years it may be arguably cheaper in overall cost.
So what do you do?
First up I would ditch any old phone system over say 8 years old and consider my options. The reasons I say this are several. The boards in the old system will deteriorate overtime and cause intermittent problems. They will be out of production and hard to come by and probably expensive. Like wise handsets don’t last forever and are also hard to replace.
Remember the phone system is really a computer and things have changed dramatically over the past decade.
Your system was designed for either ISDN or PSTN networks that will not exist in a coming couple of years.
I resisted hosting in the early days based on the ability of the Internet to carry voice traffic and data in slow speed access.The NBN network can be as fast as you want it, at a cost of course.
Grab a couple of quotes from those companies that have influence in your area. Telstra is a good start and work down from there.
The critical ingredient is support. I have some horror stories at https://fig-solutions.net/nbn-horror-stories separate Blog.
Have a look at some chat about your chosen carrier and make your mind based on either data or even a recommendation.
I use and recommend The Summit group chosen because of the Australian support, The guys tend to know what they are doing and are most helpful.
Peter Hanley
Select consulting PtyLtd