In last decade voip; voice over internet protocol, have taken center stage in business telephone communication. Chicago companies small and large are deploying voip technologies and solutions and replacing the older analog PBX phone systems. Depending on the size of business, speed of internet connection and individual needs the options are plenty to pick.
Some companies are opting for hosted pbx. This is a preferred option for smaller and multi-location types of businesses. Hosted PBX, aslo known as cloud based PBX, are ideal to be managed from a single location. Voip customers can take advantage of extension to extension calling, even across deferent locations, one common IVR and business directory. The disadvantage of Hosted PBX is lock of site survivability; If the internet connection is disrupted the phone system will simply not work. The other disadvantage of Hosted PBX, even in Chicago is an additional bandwidth requirement. Since most of the devices including IP phones are accessing the internet from behind a firewall all the conversation data traffic, including local extension to extension calls will have to go via Hosted PBX server.
Local Chicago business has also option of having onsite PBX server. In-house IT staff or IT contractor will have to setup and secure voip server. Ip phones will have to be configured and deploy, as well as managed.
Choosing a right type of Business voip system is just small part. Next challenge is to pick the right voip phones. Many Chicago Business will simply go with whatever the chosen voip provider offers or recommends. This may be a good option for small business, but for larger Chicago business, that may require additional functionality little research maybe required. VoipPlus prefers and recommends Cisco IP phones. Without going in to technical details, we simply believe in stability and durability of the Cisco platform.
And finally, every Chicago business has a choice of voip provider. For small business the price may be a deciding factor, where for larger companies stability is the priority. Since most Chicago business voip providers host their servers in large data centers with many redundant fiber optic connections the stability is no issue and all providers, big and small offers same level of service. In fact smaller companies are more responsive to any issues, customer support and service then corporate monopoly giants.
Let’s compare some pricing of Chicago Business voip providers.
At&t offers analog business unlimited phone service for $45 per month under contract and $75 per month out of contract.
Comcast offers charges $44.95, $39.95 and 34.94 per seat depending on number of seats Chicago business is willing to pay for.
Vonage business offers $39.99 for unlimited or $14.99 +$0.03 per minute for metered service with many additional service options.
8×8 has a $39.99 unlimited business voip service, $24.99 price for 1 extension and 250 minutes also with additional service options.
VoipPlus offers unlimited business voip service at $20 per month and metered at $5 per month plus $0.016 per minute. VoipPlus also includes all PBX features like paging, conference and IVR at no additional charge.
On the top of rates quoted here every Chicago business will have to pay 911 fee, Universal Connectivity Charge, state, local and federal communication tax and Regulatory Recovery. VoipPlus includes all the fees and taxes in the quoted price.
When businesses search for Chicago business voip provider using search engines keep in mind that majority of first 20 results are not voip service providers. These are companies that are acquiring leads using complicated seo; search engine optimizations, and selling these leads to voip providers often for hefty price.
Very informative blog and good to know the benefits of VoIP, it provides the more flexibility in day to day communication.
Thanks for sharing! keep it up the good work.