sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services T1's, CSU's and DSU's Is it worth an extra $100/mo for PRI?

Hi:

Our Toshiba vendor is trying to get us to get a PRI setup, and I want to get your opionions: is it worth $100 a month more to go PRI vs. Pots? For our setup, 8 lines, that's the additional cost it would be from ILEC (bellsouth). Let me know what y'all think.
Thanks.

Depends on what you need to do. I surprised it's that little a difference. Do you need caller ID, do you need to be 911 compliant, do you need DID numbers, do you need to be able to handle higher call volume, will PRI save you more more money on call volume, will PRI cost alot to upgrade you switch...just to mention a few. Application is everything.

The difference would be from 8 analog to an 8 channel PRI, voice only. We do need caller ID, don't need 911, DID numbers would save a lot of work answering other peoples' calls, it would help with higher call volume, PRI won't really save us money on call volume as the LD rates aren't much better if any. It'd cost us about $2k to put a PRI card in our switch, which is not a huge deal now, main thing we're concerned about is monthly in case business slows down. Another good application would be to be able to set up our voicemail and/or receptionist to be able to transfer calls to cellphones/offistes. The only bad thing really would be the $80 a month still for the DSL in addition to the PRI, since other than that it'd be pointless to have an additional analog.

I would go PRI, if for no other reason the service level will be much higher from your provider then pots lines would be. Average pots repair per line 24 to 48 hours, average repair time for PRI around 4-6 hours. If you need DSl bring in the DSL you can always use the pots line for an alarm system if needed or any other analog device, credit card line, things like that

Thanks anthony, however we've gotten VERY good response on our POTS repairs (after the initial post-katrina 3 weeks to repair stuff), usually within a few hours. I need to do some more checking to see if bellsouth will let us do dry (no-dialtone) DSL, since we don't have an alarm or credit card machine, and it would only make sense to fax via the PRI as opposed to analog.
Other good reasons to fork out the big bucks for PRI?

Well, Chad, I am going to take a moment and respond to your question as an end-user of PRI, not the usual installer that I am.

We were on the fence about the slight increase in monthly cost for a PRI. We went with a CLEC because even though the total montly cost was a little higher than what we had been paying Bell and Sprint, we received the convenience of a single bill for all services (voice, data and long distance). Our package includes a huge pot of long distance minutes and local calls. So far in almost three years, we have never gone over the alotment.

The added flexibility of DID numbers that we can use anyway we wanted has also turned out to be a blessing. Since we sell systems, we also feel that we should be able to offer our customers a little something more during times of crisis. Now when I use the term crisis, I refer to system crashes, not the type of crisies you folks have endured.

We have extra DID numbers sitting there that we can temporarily assign to a private voice mail setup for our customers to forward their calls to during a failure. Usually, people just have their main number forwarded to someone's cell phone, but our setup allows us to retain just a bit more for the customers. They like it a lot, though fortunately, we don't have to use it much.

We also use this capability when a customer may have just a temporary need for voice mailbox that we can give them in case they aren't sure whether they are ready to purchase a voice mail system. It also helps them learn how our voice mail systems work so they can determine if it's right for them.

This also allows us or our customers to publish a phone number other than our main one for certain projects, like when advertising in certain markets or hiring. When we are finished, we can disable that number in-house so that we don't have to be bothered with calls received long after we are done.

You really should consider at least the possibility of trying this service. Our account is set up with ten channels for voice/DID and the remaining thirteen channels provide us with Internet access. It really works well and can be adjusted if we need more bandwidth for data or voice. While you may be limited in your choices for providers other than BellSouth in your area, it might be worth doing a little research just in case. You might be surprised.

Thanks Ed, with this and a few other questions I've had you've been very helpful. I am seriously thinking about taking advantage of BellSouth's 90 day "satisfaction guarantee" so my boss (the check-writer) can at least try it and see how we like it. If we decide it's not worth it, we'll be out a few bucks of service calls, reprogramming, and having to sell a PRI card on ebay or here, but at least we will have tried.
And I have been doing research, for a good 2 months now, and the only CLEC that even so much as returned my phone call has prices a good $100 a month more than Bell, but will however give us 100 min of LD per channel (only about a $50/mo benefit at their best rates).
Thanks for your posting. And if ANYONE knows of any CLECs in South Mississippi that offer reasonable rates, please let me know!

You may want to check with the local cable TV service provider to see if they offer voice services. Many of them do. Also, many CLECs may help share the cost of the PRI card/equipment when you sign a term contract with them. It's definitely worth investigating.

I agree with Ed,

Also if you do alot of conference calls, the PRI will be beneficial. You should check the cost of a CLEC combo voice and data circuit to see if there is a ROI opportunity.

Thanks Ed, John:
Our local cable provider is useless, they want way too much for the crap speed they provide, and NO sla! And they call themself a "business" provider. So far what I've gotten on the voice/data combo wouldn't be that great on prices, would end up being a lot (I mean a LOT) more than our DSL for same/less bandwidth. We don't have a whole lot of use for conference calls, but do need it occasionally. Any difference between transfering calls offsite (home/cell #s) via PRI vs. 3-way calling w/ transfer on POTS lines? ie would it be easier or faster?