I was in a small pizza place and I noticed their busy telephones, ringing with orders. I was curious how a small business would like that would be connected to the network (e.g. classic landline, VOIP, other?), and what kind of telephone sets would be used.
It appeared the place had three telephone keysets and three lines. I don't know if they had any special features. Since it was a small place, I don't think they had any need of an intercom or paging.
Could someone elaborate on what kind of telephone systems such a place would have? Roughly, what would be their total monthly phone bill?
Small Digital PBX systems are quite popular and afordable for small businesses. They can range from anywhere handling a half-dozen stations and a few analog lines, to many hundreds of stations with multi PRI trunks. Modern ones can natively deal with SIP trunks (ie. VoIP) or 1FB's.
Many of them also are now doing VoIP out to the station as well as VoIP trunking to the public network, saving on redoing subpar wiring (or non-existant voice wiring) in favor of the ubiquitous ethernet cabling that is everywhere now.
Ie. Something like this digital system is only $1500 with tech setup.
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just picking out something at random on eBay (I have no knowledge of this system or company, it was just some choice out of a big list).
Almost all the features you'd ever want come bundled in, there isn't any point in restricting the feature set, it is all software now. I'd say most buisnesses don't use even 10% of what they have. More elaborate setups are available.
I think 1FBs are still popular, but it depends on who is contracted to put in the system. If it is an installer with a CLEC, they may get sold SIP trunks instead of landlines. From what I've priced out, a typical SIP trunk is $20-$30/month, so somewhere cheaper than a 1FB, but not earth shattering. I'd say most businesses don't care what they get, as long as it gets them what they need.
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