Local and Long Distance Telephone Service
Voice is the most common business telecom service in use today. Your business probably already uses some form of local and long distance telephone service.
However, services and contracts can be complex, invoices difficult to understand and charges prone to error. If you'd like help with a complex voice issue, please contact us.
Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) and Centrex Lines
Business phone lines provide dial-tone service, most often over 2-wire analog circuits. Common features include hunting, caller ID, call forwarding, call waiting and voice mail.
Centrex lines operate just like POTS lines, typically include a large number of calling features and can provide 3 or 4-digit inter-office dialing plans.
Analog phone lines can be connected to a 1/2/4-line business telephone set or PBX phone system equipped with an analog line card using an RJ-11 interface.
Switched Long Distance
"Switched long distance" often refers to separate local and long distance providers. When you dial a long distance number, your local phone company "switches" the call to your preferred long distance carrier who completes the connection to the called party.
Unlimited Local and Long Distance Plans
Bundled packages include unlimited local calling or unlimited long distance usage. You get a single bill, predictable monthly charges and no per-minute rates. However, depending on your calling volume, unlimited plans are not always the most cost effective option.
Unlimited usage plans can prohibit use of telemarketing devices such as predictive dialers and fax blasters. If you run a telemarketing operation and generate a high volume of outbound or inbound calls, please request a quote for a "dialer-friendly" solution.
Local T1 or ISDN PRI with DIDs
A local voice T1 provides up to 24 shared voice channels and direct inward dialing (DID) numbers. Call set-up information and DIDs are sent over each voice circuit. This signaling protocol does not support delivery of inbound caller ID number or name.
A local voice PRI is similar to a local T1. You get up 23 shared voice, bearer or B-channels. Call set-up information, DIDs and caller ID are sent over a separate data or D-channel running the ISDN PRI prootocol.
Common PRI configurations use all 24 channels on the T1 (23B+D), most providers can concatenate multiple PRIs (e.g., 46B+2D), and some can deliver a fractional PRI (11B+D.)
Voice T1s and PRIs can be connected to a PBX phone system equipped with a T1 or PRI line card and CSU using an RJ-48 interface, directly connected to the T1 smart jack.
Dedicated Long Distance T1 or PRI
A dedicated long distance T1 bypasses the Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) to directly connect with an Inter-eXchange Carrier (IXC.) You avoid local telephone surcharges and get lower usage rates - between 1.0 and 2.0 cents per minute for inter-state calls.
You do not get local telephone numbers or free incoming calls with a dedicated LD T1. Incoming calls come from Toll Free numbers and charged on a per minute basis.
Well suited for high volume long distance and telemarketing applications, where you can meet the minimum monthly usage commitments to get the lower usage rates.
Dedicated long distance T1s and PRIs can be connected to a PBX, ACD, predictive dialer, fax server or phone system equipped with a T1 or PRI line card using an RJ-48 interface.
Integrated Voice and Data T1 (IVAD)
With an IVAD T1, you get local and long distance phone service, plus T1 Internet bandwidth from a single supplier on a single bill.
Some Integrated T1s used a fixed channel assignment (12-channels voice and 12 channels 768K Internet.) Others use dynamic channel assignment (1.5M Internet when all voice channels are idle, but only 1.1M Internet when 12 phone lines are active.)
You get an Integrated Access Device (IAD) with a T1 DSU on the carrier side and voice & Ethernet connections on the customer side. Voice can be delivered as analog lines, DID CO trunks, voice T1 or PRI. Internet access is delivered with an RJ-45 Ethernet interface.
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