Traditional on premise analog systems are currently losing a lot of ground to Hosted Solutions because businesses today can get a full hosted solution for a fraction of the cost of a traditional analog system. Not only is there substantial cost savings, but hosted solutions generally offer a wealth of features never offered or not even possible with traditional systems.

Here we will review some of the positives and negatives of traditional and a hosted system.

Traditional Phone Systems

PROS of Traditional Phone Service

  • Tried Tested & True
  • Reliable lines
  • Reliable phones
  • Works during power outages
  • Does not rely on your internet connection

CONS of Traditional Phone Service

  • Very expensive upfront costs
  • Aging technology needs to be replaced
  • Making changes is complicated
  • New advanced features cost extra
  • Expensive support & Maintenance contracts
  • You are limited to the number of phone lines
  • Getting phone numbers in other cities is not possible
  • Direct Numbers Require a T1/PRI
  • Long Distance Costs are expensive
  • High cost to connect different offices together
  • Redundancy is expensive or not possible

Hosted Phone Systems

PROS of Hosted Phone Service

  • Not tied to brick and mortar locations
  • Linking multiple offices together is a snap
  • Low upfront cost
  • Free Software Updates
  • Quickly deploy anywhere
  • Buy just the phones you need right now
  • Very low international rates
  • You'll never have to replace your phone system
  • Free advanced calling features
  • New features being added all the time
  • Support for mobile employees
  • Direct numbers from multiple cities
  • Direct numbers from other countries

CONS of Hosted Phone Service

  • Relies on a good quality stable internet connection
  • Relies on a good quality onsite network, (better equipment, better results)
  • Susceptible to quality issues more often than on analog lines
  • Phones need to be on a good quality VoIP network, most networks are not properly configured for VoIP by default
  • Support is often over the phone support not live
  • Defective phones under warranty are often repaired vs replaced
  • More phones require more bandwidth
  • Training is often over the phone or internet