Below you will find some thoughts offered to a customer of ours while helping them to coordinate the phone and internet service portion of their move. I thought this might be helpful to our blog readers as they plan to coordinate their own office relocations.
How much phone service do I need?
A single PRI should be more than enough service for you – this will provide with 23 incoming lines and unlimited DID’s (cost per 20). The only two factors to consider are 1) the 6-reomte phones will also be using incoming and outgoing lines from the PRI (total of 36 phones for 23 simultaneous trunks) and 2) the Avaya IP Office has a 64-party conference bridge; this would require you to have sufficient lines in addition to the ones needed for everyday calls (if you want to use it).
Dynamic T1/PRI’s and how they work
Paetec has a dynamic product where you can bond two T1’s together giving you up to 32 simultaneous calls and 3.0 Meg of internet when you are not on the phone. Each phone call would step the bandwidth down about 32meg and you could provision the circuit to always have a minimum of 1.5meg if you would like. The disadvantage of this is you cannot run your faxes through it so there would be a challenge using the fax server.
Extended Loop Charges and Foreign Exchange (FX) Numbers
Because you will be moving to a more rural part of Maryland, Paetec will have an extended loop charge for the voice circuit as well as Foreign Exchange (FX) fees for each phone number that will need to be ported (from Ellicott City to Eldersburg). Typically you will pay $10-15 extra per month for every phone number (DID) that does not originate from the new central office (FX number), so you will probably want to try to only move the essential numbers you are know by. Paetec does have an option to do an unlimited amount of FX numbers that could be considered. This option will probably cost upwards of $850-1250 just for a single PRI of voice.
Timeframe for T1/PRI installation
T1/PRI’s on average take 30-60 days for installation, but because your new building is new construction, it may take longer. You can elect to expedite the service for a onetime cost of $500-1500 (per circuit), but there will be no guarantee. I would recommend putting an order in for a single Verizon POTS line ASAP – this will be needed anyway, but more importantly, it will get an order in Verizon’s queue to have facilities delivered and provisioned to the new building. By doing this simple step early it will speed up the T1/PRI installation over the next few weeks.
Analog Lines required for back up, fax, security and fire systems
You will need a minimum of two analog lines by code (one dedicated fire system and one as a backup for the fire system; the backup is typically shared and used for the security system (if you have one). You will also want to have one to three analog lines in the phone system for backup in case the T1 goes down; these should be in a hunt group. Paetec offers a product called direct trunk overflow (click here for more information) which will automatically forward the numbers to a POTS line if the T1 goes down; the Avaya phone system will also default to call out on these in a T1 failure as well. If you elect the dynamic PRI service from Paetec you will need to keep your fax line(s) separate from the T1 as well. The good news is that analog lines from Verizon should only take about 1-2 weeks and usually do not require any contracts to be signed.
Porting (moving) your phone numbers
Service providers will only port phone service over Monday-Friday from 8-5; we always recommend not doing this on a Friday or in the afternoon. If you port first thing in the morning Monday-Thursday and there is a problem you know that you will have resources for the rest of the day that can be dedicated to fixing it. If you wait until the end of the day service provider resources may become limited as you get into the evening hours. We have a process that will greatly limit or prevent downtime all together – we can discuss this further as we get into planning of the move.
Teltek is a second generation, family owned and operated telecommunications integrator and certified Avaya Business Partner and NEC Dealer. Our knowledgeable staff specializes in current Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), digital, hybrid, and key telephone systems in the small to mid-sized market place. We distinguish ourselves by offering one-stop service and bundling a large variety of products and services such as: communications architecture and consulting, unified messaging, mobility solutions, voice and data cabling, and local, long distance & internet brokerage services. Serving Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia, Pennsylvania and other surrounding areas, trust Teltek to coordinate your next phone system repair, cabling project, system installation or office relocation.
Chris Nicoli, CEO
www.myteltek.com
sales@myteltek.com
1.866.9.Teltek
236 East Main Street
Westminster, MD 21157
Tags: Direct Trunk Overflow, Dynamic PRI, Eldersburg, Ellicott City, Foreign Exchange, FX numbers, Maryland, MD, Moving Phone Service, Paetec, Porting phone service, PRI, selecting phone service, T1, Teltek, what to know