Phone and broadband for a charity

matttaylor

A while ago I was asked by a youth centre charity that I volunteer for to look into their telephone and broadband package to see if they were on the best deal.


I didn't get very far because BT were not very forthcoming with some of the information I had requested. Also the building is on business rates which is a playing field I don't know much about.


They are currently paying around £40 per month for BB and line rental and they don't make many calls or use the internet much at all.


They have just been told that BT are changing their network and the service to a product called Cloud Voice express which involves paying for a BT PSTN Line and BT Business Broadband Unlimited Broadband (copper). Calls will be free using a new VOIP phone.



They've offered a total monthly fee that's a bit less that what they are currently paying.


Does anybody have an idea of other options the youth centre could take?

Bigphil1474

If they don't use the phone or internet much - get rid? Get a mobile phone or two for the charity instead? Having said that under £40 a month isn't particularly expensive.

matttaylor

I've just been told that the fire and burglar alarm system use the phone line and the new VOIP system is not compatible so that changes things.

JJ_Egan

<They are currently paying around £40 per month for BB and line rental and they don't make many calls or use the internet much at all.
>


So why have BB .


Not many phone calls then as said mobile .


You dont pay LR for phone calls but for the whole data line BB calls etc .


BT Retail line rental is around £19-£20 pm dont know about business .

Owain_Moneysaver

BT can't transfer a number if there's alarm monitoring on the line (BT Redcare).

If the alarms are just autodiallers then they can be moved to Voice over IP (VoIP) if the VoIP equipment is battery backed up, or the alarms can be changed to mobile phone data signalling (GSM/GPRS).

On BT Cloud Voice calls are only free within the business. 'Outside' calls are chargeable on a call package.

Only IP phones from the BT Cloud Voice portfolio can be used, which ties you in to their hardware (and probably means that the hardware is locked to BT Cloud Voice so you're tied in to their service unless you buy lots of new phones at a later date). This also may prevent moving alarms to VoIP.

If you want to move to IP telephony there are plenty of providers that won't tie you in to particular hardware or services. They won't even tie you in to having a physical line, which may be handy in the future if the charity gives up its premises and moves to virtual offices or people working from home.