Tips on Choosing Broadband & Phone Systems for Your New Office Space

Posted by: Mariange R.

You’ve just spent months searching for an office space to rent for your company. You finally decide on a location and then ask the landlord/broker/property manager “can you recommend a telecom vendor who services this building”. If it were only that easy. Here some helpful advice:

Timing: How quickly you need service is going to drive a lot of decisions. When we moved earlier this year the whole process was fast tracked with just 3 weeks from lease signing to move-in. Budget constraints and bandwidth requirements were important, but the deal breaker was having service on move-in day. To meet our deadlines, we started by asking our landlord for a list of telecom providers who were already authorized to service the building and were in a position to get to work quickly. We were interested in a dedicated circuit (like a T-1), but almost all providers indicated a minimum 4 week lead-time, so we looked for a short term solution. The simplest move for us was to get basic phone lines and DSL service from our local phone company AT&T. The DSL was installed within 10 days and we had a solution for day one and an in expensive back up solution going forward.

Type of internet service: Fast speeds can be had through a number of different options including inexpensive alternatives like DSL, Cable, and some new Fiber Optic services. If you are looking for guaranteed upload and download speeds with service level agreements, you are probably looking for a dedicated circuit. Dedicated circuits start at higher price point (usually north of $400/mo) and often require a long term contract, but they are the solution of choice for businesses where internet is mission critical.

Type of phone system: We decided to explore a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone system which offered us a few key benefits. First off we could avoid an investment in a PBX and instead pay a monthly fee for a full featured business phone (the price is in neighborhood of $30 per phone including voice mail and all the bells and whistles). VoIP phones also offered some flexibility for us in terms of growth – plugging in a new phone for a new employee is simple and does not require a technician visit. The VoIP features are great, but we have discovered that we have lost some of the reliability of a traditional phone line, and our initial experiment using VoIP phones connected to our DSL proved unsatisfactory. We ultimately decided to order VoIP service from SpeakEasy who also provides our T-1 connection – we now have one party controlling the quality of the service and that seems to have made a difference.

Last updated: 09.23.2010 03:47 PM