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Business Phone Service in Clay, AL

Quality telephone service is essential to the success of your Clay, AL business. A customer's initial interaction with you and your business is often through a phone call. Ease of communication is one of the most important attributes a client will associate with your business, other than your name. An excellent phone service will facilitate your success by making it easy for your clients and colleagues to reach you and get the information they are after. On the other hand, a phone system that doesn't work well can drive away potential customers and give your business a poor reputation. When considering telephone service providers, you have the choice between traditional landline service and VoIP providers. Compare and find the best small business phone service at MyRatePlan.

Business VoIP Providers 
Provider Plan Details Monthly Rate*
Ringcentral logo RATED #1 BY INDUSTRY EXPERTS
  • Includes 100+ Premium Features
  • Unlimited Calling, Faxing, SMS, Conferencing
  • Trusted by over 350,000 Businesses

$19.99
Details
4/5

142 Reviews

Brytecall logo Business VoIP Made Easy
  • Done for You Setup
  • US-Based Support Team
  • Free Equipment Upgrade

* per user for 10+ users, with 2 year agreement

$18.90*
Details
5/5

14 Reviews

Phone Service for Business Alliance Phone Service
  • Simple Control Panel
  • Easy 25-minute setup
  • Daily call reports

* 12% discount for subscribing and paying for a year upfront

$19.97*
Details
5/5

13 Reviews

Talkroute logo The phone system built to do business anywhere
  • Video Meetings & Text Messaging
  • Call Forwarding & Routing
  • Desktop, Mobile, & Web Apps

* $5 per additional user

$19.00*
Details
5/5

1 Reviews

Verizon logo Get 99.99% network reliability with Fios.
  • Business Digital Voice
  • 1-year price guarantee
  • Unlimited data

* Per month. Plus taxes, fees and equipment charges.

$69.00*
Details
1/5

11 Reviews

Best VoIP Providers in Clay, AL

Business VoIP Phone Service in Clay, AL

VoIP has become a popular choice, and it stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. It's one of the newest business phone service types offered by providers, and it can serve as a reliable alternative to an analog phone service. Although VoIP has been around for many years, it has only recently become significantly more popular with consumers. Smaller startups in Clay, AL are most likely to use VoIP because it's much cheaper than a PSTN service. The call quality from both services is very similar, but the way the data is transmitted is what makes the services different. Unlike a traditional PSTN service, VoIP transfers calls through the Internet. A traditional business phone service sends calls through analog phone lines. For the best results with VoIP, it's useful to have a high-speed business Internet connection, and you can use a tool from MyRatePlan to test the speed of your current Internet connection.

Although the call quality for VoIP and PSTN is very similar, each service transfers calls differently. A traditional PSTN service transfers calls using an analog line, and a VoIP service sends call data through a high-speed Internet connection. Since calls through VoIP are digitized and broken down into digital data packets, they're much less expensive than an analog phone service. VoIP is also much cheaper for long-distance and international calls. Many VoIP service providers offer business owners a flat rate, and over a long period of time, the lower rate can save a lot of money.

Business VoIP phone service can come with a wide range of features, which is important for business owners. Most businesses have several employees, and they require several call features to operate efficiently. By choosing a VoIP service, business owners can gain access to voicemail with remote access, call forwarding, multiple extensions and ring groups. Although these are some of the top features, many VoIP service providers offer hundreds of different features.

The VoIP providers in Clay, AL are designed to meet the needs of all types of businesses. They offer packages for small, medium and large businesses, and they deliver the features needed to efficiently run a business of any size.

Compare VoIP Providers in Clay, AL

How to Pick the Right VoIP Service Provider in Clay, AL

The increase in popularity of VoIP services among many business users has led to the emergence of many VoIP service providers. There is increased competition because of more service providers. It is unfortunate that it can take you a lot of time before deciding the best service provider for your business. However, you can use this to your advantage.

First, you have to determine the needs of your telephone service. You need to ask yourself questions like what feature you will regularly be using, how many lines will you require, do you plan to expand your business in the future, and what prices can you afford for the VoIP phone service.

After evaluating your business, you can check out the many Clay, AL VoIP business providers and their offers. Moreover, do not forget to look at their type of services, their prices, and the overall reputation of the company from consumer reviews. You should always remember that a good working phone system is vital to the success of your business. Therefore, always settle for the service provider that has the most positive consumer reviews and the best track record of reliability.

Find and compare business phone service providers in Clay, AL

How Traditional Business Phone Service Works in Clay, AL

For the record, some Clay, AL businesses still use traditional business phone service. It might be because they are comfortable with the service; others simply might not know that there are reliable alternative plans.

With the traditional phone service, business calls are carried over the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Used nationwide, the PSTN system uses telephone lines, cables, satellites and mobile networks to route calls to the proper place. For more than 100, PSTN has been used for calls.

Currently, PSTN is more expensive than VoIP in Clay, AL. This is primarily due to the level of maintenance required to keep an old and very large network functioning properly. Additionally, it is difficult to send data over the PSTN long distances because it is an analog system.

Most of the infrastructure required to not only carry, but to also switch and route calls is fully digital. However, there is still an analog connection between the customer and the local central office.

Generally, making long distance calls over the PSTN requires several stops along the wired way. This occurs while data is being transmitted through equipment that is typically owned by different companies. Because of this, your long distance calls become very expensive to make.

Traditional PBX

PBX and Analog Phone Systems in Clay, AL

Almost all local businesses make use of a PBX (private branch exchange), which directs any incoming calls at their Clay, AL office. The PBX makes it possible for businesses to use different call features, including caller ID, multiple lines, live seminars, call waiting, voice messaging, etc.

An analog phone system PBX is found either at the customer's facility or on a hosted server. But no matter which method you choose, analog PBXs all have one significant downside: high costs. Putting together a whole company phone system with a PBX calls for a number of different kinds of machines to be obtained, an investment that will set you back at least $1,000 and quite possibly more - and naturally that figure doesn't include installment, setup, and routine maintenance. So you have the choice of getting an on-site technician to take care of it all for you or hiring a third party and that could easily cost over a hundred bucks per hour.

If you do decide to manage your Clay, AL organization's communications with an analog PBX, you should consider that changing or upgrading it is often complicated and definitely not cheap. Several PBX providers allot each client a restricted number of outside lines. In these cases, if your corporation ever expands and you have a need for more lines, you'll have to buy more machines in order to support this expansion.

The same as other kinds of digital hardware, PBX systems are vulnerable to malfunctions and other issues. You might find it necessary to spend money on expensive repairs and new hardware whenever a problem arises with your PBX. Plus, the unit is sure to become outmoded and will require replacement from time to time.