sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Need advice on equipment needs

I have been asked to recommend a land line telephone for our church. I think the wants are beyond the capabilities of what we have. We have one line coming in to the building and the group wants to have the ability to route incoming calls to different people. I think that means incoming calls would be forwarded to different phone numbers. Anybody know of telephone hardware that will do this?

Get a small phone system like the XBlue X16, if that's not what you're looking for many cordless phone systems have intercom capabilities. Personally I think the XBlue is a good fit for something like this.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/F208-Plus-...stem-Control-Exchange-2-X-8/222765628378

This item on Ebay is one of many similar small telephone systems available. They all seem to have the same "guts" but in different packages. They all come from China, and have either 220 or 110 volt power supplies, so be sure to order one with a 110 volt input. They all share the same programming and list of features, such as the ability to have the caller select what extension is desired (we call this the "automatic attendant" feature.) Search for "SOHO PBX" (Small Office Home Office Private Branch eXchange).

I have been planning to buy one or two of these small PBX's just to experiment with them, because occasionally one of my customers asks the same questions that you have posed. For less than $100, if you're willing to take a gamble, this might work for you. (If gambling is allowed in your church.)

A commercial telephone system that would do the same thing will cost many hundreds of dollars, and will need to be installed and programmed by one of us professionals. I don't often suggest that a customer try to do-it-themselves, but in this case, you might want to buy one and get a professional to make sure your wiring to the various extension phones is up to standards, and to help you program it to your requirements.

That's cheaper than the XBlue, by quite a bit. Best price I've found on the X16 is at Telco Depot I'm sure you can find them on ebay also. You do have to use the system phones or the adaptor for straight line phones, but there's a lot of features for a small system.

Google "YourCityName Business Telephone System" and see what pops up locally. Call a couple of them and ask for someone to come out to discuss things. The prices won't be as cheap as the stuff mentioned above, but you'll get a phone system that meets your needs, installed and programmed with local support.

Although discontinued, the Avaya Partner ACS is a fine key system for Churches and small businesses. The cost of hardware has come down on the secondary market, and, you can direct connect devices such as corded/cordless telephones and fax machines without the need of purchasing adapters or specific modules.

If you are looking for the ability to add outcalling (if someone leaves a voicemail the system will autodial an external telephone number to provide notification) you will need to add another telephone line.

Thank you for providing this information Art.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Looks like they are all good ones. Someone suggested I look into a service called Grasshopper. Anybody heard of this?

I used to hear commercials for Grasshopper on Sirius/XM radio..."The entrepreneurs phone system" was the slogan.

The service allows users to send calls and whatnot to individuals smart phones. This feature is common amongst VoIP providers.

Right now it looks like it is even less on Amazon;
https://www.amazon.com/KOOKYE-F208-Exchange-Telephone-Extensions/dp/B01HCUNDWC