Most small to medium businesses have one of two vendors for their landline service.
The most common vendor is AT&T. AT&T charges $34.00 for Business Local Calling Unlimited A. They add another $5.57 in fees. Local calling is defined as within a mile of your business. Any outbound call 5 miles or more away will be billed as long distance and cost 14 cents a minute. You can get a long distance plan for $20.00 more a month.
The other vendor is Comcast. Comcast charges $29.95 per line which includes long distance. They will charge another $3.87 in fees not including the $7.00 a month for equipment.
Honestly think about how much time you spend on the phone. I pass through from my sip wholesale provider the following charges. $1.50 per telephone number, a half a cent per inbound caller ID, $0.99 per 800 number, $1.50 for E911 and in 6 second increments, one cent per minute billed for outbound and one and a half cents per minute for inbound calls.
This compares as follows:
AT&T (making no calls outside a mile)
$34.00 + $5.57 = $39.57
SIP Wholesale vs AT&T
$1.50 + $1.50 = $3.00 Figuring all calls are 3 minutes and inbound with Caller ID. $39.57 – $3.00 = $36.57 $36.57/.017 = 2151.2 minutes or 35.8 hours on each phone per month and my charges would be the same.
Comcast (without the equipment charge)
$29.95 + $3.87 = $33.82
SIP Wholesale vs Comcast
Figuring all calls are inbound with Caller ID. $33.82 – $3.00 = $30.82 $30.82/.017 = 1813 minutes or 30.2 hours on the each phone per month and my charges would be the same.
If you work a 5 day week there are less than 22 work days a month. That means with a 30 hour equivalency you would have to spend over an hour and a half talking on each phone in your establishment each day to pay as much for my wholesale sip service as you are paying Comcast and that is assuming all of your calls are inbound. For every outbound call the time you need to spend talking on each of your phones goes up. A Pizza parlor that talks on the phone for 24 hours a month and has three lines, had their phone bill cut to a quarter of what it was with AT&T. A painting contractor’s phone bill was cut to 5% of what it was with AT&T.
Why not?