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Posted By: jp1525 Centrex vs. Networked Phone system - 06/21/07 11:52 AM
Are there any advantages for a County Government of Centrex vs. a PBX networked to support 3 facilities. The PBX would have a T-1 coming in to the Courthouse and fiber feeds to 1 of the sites. The 3rd site has the ability to lease dry copper pairs for a minimal fee that we could create our own T-1 to network site 3. No monthly charge to network site 2 and a minimal charge to network site 3.

The phone company is offering Centrex service.

We are offering the 3 systems networked together to provide 4-digit dialing and the ability to eliminate many lines and share the T-1 for incoming and outgoing trunks.

Just curious as I am not overly familiar with Centrex.
Posted By: EV607797 Re: Centrex vs. Networked Phone system - 06/21/07 12:05 PM
JP:

Please take a moment to complete your profile for us. We need to know where you are because Centrex rates vary greatly in different parts of the country.
Posted By: justbill Re: Centrex vs. Networked Phone system - 06/21/07 12:07 PM
All Centrex is, is the phone company provides the switch so the customer just has cable pairs for stations. Centrex is not as feature rich as a PBX, but has plenty of features for what you're describing. I'd say from what you describe it may be cheaper also.
Posted By: anthonyh Re: Centrex vs. Networked Phone system - 06/21/07 12:12 PM
would personally go with a PBX over Centrex, you will have more features and much greater control over the system as a whole.
Posted By: jwooten Re: Centrex vs. Networked Phone system - 06/21/07 04:27 PM
Your centrex service will have a basic charge per line with very few, if any, features. Features like call pickup within an office or three-way calling. Any additional feature(s) will incur a cost. When all is said and done, your costs are about double per line. Seen it too many time both municipal and school districts.
Posted By: bf6b5yr Re: Centrex vs. Networked Phone system - 06/22/07 06:45 AM
You need to get some pricing from the local telco. Rates differ from area to area. Also, since you’re talking about a government entity, there may be some existing contracts that you can piggyback off of. Maybe your State has a pricing break that local governments are eligible for also.

I did the telephone work for a county government. It was Centrex based. A couple of the divisions had systems but they were still using the Centrex dial tone. The complaint that I heard for the couple of years that I did this was that the pure Centrex users, the one’s with 2500 sets, were not happy. They wanted the features that a system provided.

You’ve got to determine what your users want and need. You need to look at the costs of each solution. I will tell you that our county went from Centrex to a system.
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