2 line phones with clarity

[pcpete]

We have to lines with rollover through our local cable company. We have three of us at the shop, so we need three cordless phones. We have bought this type of phone from different manufacturers. We have been getting complaints lately about bad sound to the clients. We need to replace them. We are open to spending money for quality sound, as we believe this is an important part of the experience our clients have with us. Any suggestions? We are mainly looking for better phones to work with our current service, but may consider completely changing things out.

 

[Mike McCall]

@pcpete, Knowing what type of provider you currently have may help. I've tried to replace our DECT phone on several occasions and have had the same quality issues. I have a separate IP phone strictly for client support which works great. We will be moving our other 2 lines to it as well at some point. Gave up on ATA phones as they all seem to be garbage.

 

[pcpete]

@pcpete, Knowing what type of provider you currently have may help

We have just standard phone service bundled with our internet our cable provider offers

 

[Mike McCall]

We have just standard phone service bundled with our internet our cable provider offers

Ok, does this mean you work out of your home? I do, and we cut the cord several years ago. Now, all we get from our cable company is a connection to the internet. We use an outside antenna for broadcast stations and stream everything else. We chose to move our phone to Ooma which workes well at $14.95 a month. We ended up with an additional number while they ported our home number, and in 2015 I used that for my business number at no additional charge. Later, I added a dedicated number via VoIP.ms and use that exclusively for supporting my Managed Clients. There's lots of services to choose from.

At some point, we'll be porting our personal and main business numbers over to VoIP.ms and getting away from ATA phones altogether. As I said, I've tried to find a decent replacement several times and they all seem to be garbage now. Sounds like it might be time for you to consider making a change.

 

[pcpete]

We have a commercial place, but our cable company for internet bundles phone. I am definitely keeping an open mind. The thought of something going wrong when we port our numbers is a little worrisome. I am guessing each or our three phones would just need an ethernet line. If you get a cordless one, are you running into the same crappy issues as using standard cordless phones? In general what are the pros and cons or voip phones? I am guessing VOIP may cost less and have more features. But if cost is not the main concern, are there other advantages?

 

[Mike McCall]

Well, I suppose it's possible for something to go wrong in the porting process, but the only incidents I'm aware of have to do with the current company letting go of the number. That's usually resolved fairly quickly. I'm not aware of anyone losing service even temporarily.

Someone using a cordless IP phone will be better able to speak directly to their quality, but I suspect they will be better. The Cisco IP phone I use is the SPA303.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/produ...0-series-ip-phones/data_sheet_c78-601648.html

It's a very basic 3-line phone with very good call quality both with the handset and speakerphone. You may want to look at WIFI IP Phones. Perhaps someone can chime in with experience using them.

The problems I've seen with traditional ATA phones centers on their duplexing and noise reduction. Many claim to be full-duplex but fail when both talk at the same time. I have to wait until I'm sure the other person has stopped talking before I can talk, otherwise, they can't hear me or it's garbled. The other issue is noise reduction. The implementation seems to fail consistently. It attempts to suppress noise, but often suppresses voices. I haven't had any of that with the IP phone. My suspicion is you won't either, even with a WIFI IP Phone.

 

[Diggs]

Just a word for those who use only one line or need a few separate lines inexpensively. I run Google voice into a magicJack line for my work and home. $20 a year unlimited each. Most will scoff at Magic Jack but besides having great quality they have been the most reliable service I've ever had. I've had one line for over 10 years and another line for the last 5 years and I remember only one brief outage many years ago. I wish all my tech was as reliable (and easy) as magicJack. (I put quite a few in the seasonal homes around here.) And with Google Voice I get instant transcribed to email/text voice mail messages which I also then have a typed record of everything every customer (sorted by customer) has ever left a message about. Invaluable when the customer says "I didn't say that" - heh.

@add - I should mention that a huge benefit of Google Voice is they screen out 95% of the junk calls that come in. I see 111 calls in my junk folder right now.

Bigger shops won't want to put their eggs in these baskets but for a one-man show I couldn't ask for any better.

 

[Mike McCall]

I suspect his issues are with the phone, not the service. I'm suggesting he move away from ATA phones.

 

[Diggs]

I suspect his issues are with the phone, not the service. I'm suggesting he move away from ATA phones.

I should have stated this wasn't really for the OP. Guess I should have stayed on topic.

 

[pcpete]

I suspect normal non cordless phones would probably solve our issue, but cordless, being able to walk around to systems is a necessity

 

[Markverhyden]

I've not really used VTEC phones. But have used ATT ones and they've been very good. Another thing to do is hook up a regular handset. If someone complains just pick up the handset and see if that makes a difference.

 

[Mike McCall]

I suspect normal non cordless phones would probably solve our issue, but cordless, being able to walk around to systems is a necessity

I get the mobility aspect. What about something like this:

http://www.grandstream.com/products/ip-voice-telephony/wifi-cordless/product/wp820

It's only 2-line, but I imagine there are others which will accommodate 3-lines. The point is it gets you away from ATA phones and to an IP phone. Perhaps someone more experienced with these types can offer experiential information. You're using VOIP now since you're getting service from your cable provider. You're also using ATA phones which were originally designed to be used with POTS lines which need to be adapted (Ooma, Magic Jack, Cable Modem, etc.) to VoIP. By moving to an IP phone you eliminate that.

 

[VISA MC]

VOIP will be much cheaper. We actually sell VOIP and just took on a client. Two phone lines, one was for voice one was for fax. Paying $315 per month. For his 3CX server hosting and sip trunk costs, he is around $60 per month and gets 3 inbound calls AND 3 outbound calls. With the phone company, he had 1 call total.

The only issues we see with porting is when the receiving carrier is not ready. For example if we port a number but it is not built properly in the new PBX or phones are not registered properly when the port takes.

We use grandstream DP720 / 750 for mobility. One base station gets an Ethernet cord and up to 5 handsets can pair to it.