We are pleased to debunk a number of the most common myths about telecom equipment, services and new service implementations. Don't believe everything you read or everything a telecom service or equipment salesman tells you!
Equipment
I have to upgrade my phone equipment to upgrade my services.
Bunk. Let me guess, you heard this from a phone vendor who was trying to sell you a new phone system! Service providers actually provide premise equipment to break out your new services to any signaling your old phone system requires.
IP equipment is more expensive than traditional phone equipment.
Bunk. Let me guess, you heard this from an older phone vendor who is not trained in implementing more modern IP based phone systems! IP phone systems are frequently much cheaper than older traditional analog or digital phone systems. IP handsets are very comparable in pricing to digital handsets and if you are having a new office cabled, you can cut your cabling costs in half by implementing IP phones.
Service Types
Cable and DSL speeds are consistently higher than T1 speeds.
Bunk. Let me guess, you heard this from your local exchange provider or cable company representative trying to sell you some CHEAP connectivity! While Cable and DSL offer much higher maximum bandwidths than you will get from a T1, the bandwidths quoted are best effort only, and cable in particular is impacted by all the other cable customers traffic in your neighborhood (so you will see your speed fall off dramatically when the local kids come home from school and start streaming video or playing online video games.) While T1s do not provide comparable peak download bandwidths, the speed you will experience is often higher because a T1 is a dedicated circuit with much lower latency, error and re-transmission rates.
T1 voice services are not as reliable as POTs lines.
Bunk. Let me guess, you heard this from your local exchange provider or an old system phone vendor! While POTs lines have proven incredibly resilient and for that reason are still recommended for alarm lines, they do not come with any Service Level Agreement and thus, any POTs line service issues are addressed on a best-effort basis. T1 voice services, by contrast, have become the business phone service standard due to their cost efficiency, reliability and their industry standard 4 hour Service Level Agreement.
Providers
I can only order services from a provider in my building.
Bunk. Let me guess, you heard this from your building manager or tenant services representative who has very little telecom knowledge! While working with a provider who already has services within your building already (or has your building "lit") can on occasion offer you some pricing or speed of install advantages, this is more the exception than the rule. In competitive markets, services can be ordered from numerous quality service providers whether they are already in a building or not. You can frequently beat the pricing and installation timeframes of those providers already in the building.
Your current provider has a better quality network than anyone else's network.
Bunk (well 99% of the time.) Let me guess, you heard this from your current service provider representative who was keen to reinforce it is better to stick with "the devil you know" and to dissuade you from switching to another provider. There are literally hundreds of providers out there, so "you can do the math", the vast majority are lying to you when they say this!! Also you should be aware that regardless of who you order your voice or internet services from, all carriers leverage each others' networks to minimize their internal costs to complete calls over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or complete communication over the internet.
Provider Contracts
I can get out of my contract early without early termination penalties.
Bunk. Let me guess, you heard this from a competing provider representative who is trying to get you to switch to their services! The vast majority of contracts for business-class telecom services have strong contractual obligations regarding their term and onerous early termination penalties to protect the service providers' margins on the heavily discounted service pricing they have given you. Unless you have kept a careful record of all your service outages or service quality issues experienced and you can show that your provider has not met their agreed Service Level Agreement commitments, you are likely to be charged your full monthly recurring service costs times the number of months remaining on your contract as an early termination fee.
When my contract expires I will be free to shop around for more competitive rates.
Bunk. Let me guess, you heard this from your current provider representative who is trying to keep you locked in with their services! If you wait until your current contract expires, then likely your contract will have auto-renewed for another term (unless you have provided the necessary request not to do so in writing typically at least 90 days before your current contract expires.) Not only do you have to provide your current provider with advanced notice to avoid auto-renewing, you need to provide ample time to complete your shopping and also allow plenty of time for your selected new service provider to provision your new services.
VoIP
VoIP quality is not as good as traditional phone service quality.
Bunk. Let me guess, you heard this from your current provider representative who is trying to keep you locked in with your current traditional services! So long as you are using VoIP services that are running over a dedicated circuit from your VoIP service provider and your VoIP traffic is travelling over their dedicated voice network and not travelling over the public internet (mixed and not prioritized over the rest of the internet's traffic,) call quality will be guaranteed by your VoIP provider. Actually, unbeknownst to you, the backhaul of your traditional voice services has actually been completed via IP for decades by all the major PSTN backbone providers to reduce their internal operational costs.
So long as I have enough bandwidth my VoIP call quality will be fine.
Bunk. Let me guess, you heard this from your current internet service provider who is trying to keep you locked in with your current internet services! Having sufficient bandwidth is only one of many requirements to ensure VoIP call quality. Other requirements include low jitter, latency and packet loss. To guarantee the quality of your VoIP calls, VoIP providers require you to order dedicated circuits from them so they can successfully manage all these factors, ensure your voice traffic is prioritized over your data traffic and that your voice traffic never touches the public internet.
Pricing
I can beat your pricing by working direct with the provider.
Bunk. Let me guess, you heard this from a direct sales representative who is just trying to scare you to win your business! Telecom service providers flat out do not offer preferred pricing to their internal sales team. By doing so, they would lose their entire indirect sales channel, which unlike their internal sales team can take their clients' business to any number of their competitors. In actuality, while offering the same pricing through their direct and indirect channels, telecom service providers generate greater margin from their indirect sales channel, as they do not have the same level of overheads to cover for their indirect sales agents. As an example, they do not have to cover office space, health or unemployment insurance for their indirect sales agents. These factors ensure brokers and other indirect agents play on a level (if not better than level) playing field with their direct sales team counterparts.
Working with a telecom broker adds to my costs for my service.
False. Let me guess, you heard this from a direct sales representative or someone who doesn't understand much about the telecom business! You will not incur any additional costs as result of working with a telecom broker. Telecom brokers, including USA Voice & Data, are reimbursed similar to the way insurance agents do and you are not charged a cent for their services, nor their industry knowledge and procurement expertise. When you work with, and order services through, a knowledgeable telecom broker, you will gain access to a broad selection of services and at the best pricing available in the marketplace. Once your selected services have been installed, you will receive your telecom services invoice directly from your chosen service provider. When you pay your invoice, the service provider pays your broker as an approved indirect agent a small monthly commission.
Installation
I can get business services installed in less than a week.
- Businesses implementing lower end POTs, DSL or Cable services might expect an implementation timeframe between one and two weeks.
- Businesses implementing mid-tier T1 based voice or data services might expect an implementation timeframe between thirty to forty five days.
- Businesses implementing higher tier Ethernet, DS3 or OC level services might expect considerably longer implementation timeframes unless their selected provider has already fiber in their building.
There will be no downtime during a cutover to a new service.
Bunk. Let me guess, you heard this from someone who is trying to sell you new telecom services! The reality is some downtime is inevitable as worldwide databases are updated to register your phone numbers with your new service provider and your new provider's network as the final destination for your calls. Downtime can be minimized by completing thorough testing of your new circuits and equipment prior to completing the final cutover and number porting.
For more information call 312-604-3070 today or email info@usavoicedata.com.