When you decide to purchase, or install a IP PBX phone server in your home or business, one of the most important decisions to make will be to pick your VoIP service provider or providers (VoSP). One of the great things about owning your own system is that you have many choices out there, and if you decide your original selection is not working out for you, it's fairly quick and easy to try another one without any interruption to your phone service. With so many different types of VoIP plans floating around out there, you should become familiar with what's available, and which of those plans fit your calling needs.
Your first step will be to make an assessment of your calling requirements. Do you make a lot of outgoing calls, which might be the case if you have a busy sales team. How about incoming calls? Do you receive a lot of sales or customer support calls? Are most of your calls local, or long distance? Do you have a need for an incoming toll free number, and how many toll free minutes per month on average do you use? Finally, if you make a lot of long distance calls, are most of those made to the US and Canada, or do you also make international calls. As you can see, your first step is to determine just what types of calls you will be making and receiving, and then go out and match up VoIP service plans that work best for your requirements.
Something you should understand about having your own IP PBX phone server is that, unlike a normal POTS (plain old telephone service) provider, you don't have to settle for one telephone number, and then use that for both your incoming and outgoing calls. An IP PBX allows you to choose different providers for your incoming and outgoing needs. This flexibility works great for matching up your calling habits with plans that provide the most economic sense for your use. Typically, with a POTS line, you get a single number and a single line. This means, if you are using that line, if someone tries to call in, they 1) get a busy signal; 2) hear ringing because you have call waiting; 3) get sent to your voicemail or another number, since you pay extra for "call busy, not answered" forwarding. None of these are great for business.
Before we get into the various types of VoIP service plan options available, there are a couple of very important terms you should become familiar with. The first is what is known as a DID which stands for Direct Inward Dialing. In essence, this is simply a telephone number similar to the number you receive with a traditional POTS line. You must have a DID in order for people to call you (well, most of the time, but that's another subject). You can have one, or many DIDs associated with your company or server.
The second very important term is what's know as "channels". A channel can be compared to a single POTS line in that, a single channel allows for a single call to be received or made. If you only had one channel, you could only make or receive one phone call. The beauty of VoIP is, (and this is where a lot of the cost savings can be recognized) that most plans allow for at least two or more channels of incoming and/or outgoing calls. If you have two channels on your incoming, you can receive two phone calls on a single DID. Likewise, if you have two channels on your outoing service, you can make two phone calls at the same time. With this configuration, you could have four phones going at the same time (two in and two out).
Since most VoIP servers utilize multiple office phones assigned as extensions, if one phone (channel) is in use, the idle phones will ring when another call comes in, or can be used to make a second outgoing call. Many VoIP plans are out there that allow for as many channels as you think you might need. The money savings comes into play, as now you can get rid of those multiple POTS lines you previously had in a hunt group to handle your call volume, and go with a single telephone number (DID) with multiple channels to handle that same volume.
Now for the plans. Once you've determined your inbound and outbound calling requirements, you are ready to make choices. You may be a very small company, and only use your phone for local and very limited long distance. Your total monthly minutes required may be low, or, you may be a sales and support company that receives a high number of inbound calls, but you don't have as much of a need for outbound calling. Your high inbound usage may require that your incoming telephone number (DID) be toll free for your clients or customers. Based on your particular needs, here are some of the many plans available to you:
Pay as You Go (PAYG) - Pay as you go plans are great for those with low monthly minute requirements or as a back up to other plans. You pay for only the minutes you use. Pay as you go can be applied to both outgoing, and incoming usage. Many pay as you go plans are free with no additional charges except for the time used. Per minute rates for US local and long distance are very similar for many providers, and generally range between 1 and 2 cents per minute. You can provide a credit card for automatic recharge of your account, or select a manual recharge, where you monitor your account balance and add funds when needed. Great for businesses with low calling volumes.
Unlimited Fixed Monthly Plans or "All You Can Eat" - Fixed monthly plans are good for medium to high volume users that desire a fixed monthly bill each month. These plans are generally classified as "residential" or "business". Residential plans are generally just that...to be used only for home use. Some businesses that don't use a lot of monthly minutes may get away with signing up for a residential plan (almost always cheaper), but if you start using a lot of minutes, your provider may scrutinize your usage and terminate your service, or require you to switch to a more expensive business plan.
Don't let the term "Unlimited" fool you when you're looking at a residential plan. Just like the broadband internet business, and cellular providers, unlimited does not truly mean unlimited for outgoing calling. Most of these plans have limits in the 3000 to 5000 minutes per month range for ougoing calls. Residential unlimited plans can range from about $13.50 per month, to around $24.95 per month. Business unlimited plans are a little more expensive, but do allow for true unlimited outbound calling. These plans can range from $25 to $50 per month.
DIDs (or telephone numbers) - You will need at least one DID, and with many fixed rate plans, you get one when you sign up. If you like pay as you go, or need more than one DID, you can pick up additional ones as needed. You can usually pick up a DID for a small initial charge of just a couple of bucks, and sometimes even free. If you go with a PAYG DID, no additional monthy charges are assessed except for the minutes you use. If you'd like unlimited inbound minutes on a DID, you can usually get that for a small monthly charge of between $2.95 and $5.95 per month. If you have a ton of incoming calls, there is even one particular provider that allows for 20 channels of unlimited incoming for only $8.95 a month.
Most DIDs come with two incoming channels, and for many of the pay as you go plans, you get multiple or unlimited incoming channels. As long as you're paying by the minute, the provider allows for as many inbound phone calls as you can handle. Extra channels can usually be added to unlimited DIDs for a small monthly fee each. The nice thing about DIDs is, you are not limited to obtaining them in your own area code. If you have a particular area code you do business in, you can obain a DID there and have it ring to your server. The calls are free for your clients or business associates, and very cheap for you. This might be an alternative to having an incoming toll free number. You can also get DIDs in other countries if you have a client base in foreign location and would like to offer them a method of reaching you for free.
Incoming Toll Free Number - An incoming toll free number is just a toll free DID. This is an area in VoIP where a significant amount of savings compared to POTS lines can be realized. All incoming toll free numbers typically come with a small monthly charge of around 99 cents to $1.99 per month, and then you pay for the incoming minutes consumed. Per minute rates may range from 2.4 to 3.0 cents per minute. If you don't use any incoming minutes, you pay only the small monthly charge.
As you can see, there are many ways to set up your IP PBX server for inbound and outbound calling plans. Pick one or more, try them out, and if they don't work for you, try others. One of the most beneficial aspects of owning your own server is that you have absolute control of which providers you use, and the ability to mix and match several all at the same time.
You can have several plans where one works best for domestic calling, another works better for international calling. You can have back ups that don't cost a dime unless you use them. Using what is generally described as "least cost routing", by signing up with several providers your system can be set up so that the service with the lowest per minute calling rate is used based on the destination of the call. Flexibility, along with the ability to make changes quickly according to your changing needs is what makes an on premise IP PBX VoIP server well worth the cost.
