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Cutting the Cost of Copper Lines 

technavadmin Voice, VoIP/POTS , , ,
Cutting the Cost of Copper Lines 

By Chis Newell
Founder & President

Dating back to Alexander Graham Bell, “Copper-Line” facilities are one of the oldest technologies in our industry.  This type of technology can go by many names (i.e., 1FB, 1MB, POTS, Copper Lines, Copper Pairs, Phone Line, etc.).  Although most of us have moved to other technologies for our day-to-day voice service, the fact remains that copper-line services continue to be used in many ways throughout the US.  

Every month, businesses approve charges associated with copper lines without fully knowing what they’re paying for, if they are being charged correctly, or receiving a fair rate.  These copper services are typically connected to small offices, elevators, alarms, faxes, security-systems and emergency phones, utilizing ring-down functionality, etc.  

The average cost of a copper line is approximately $50 per month, but many businesses are noticing that phone companies are increasing their fees on these types of services.  RBOC are drastically increasing their copper line facility costs in the efforts to force organizations off the service and decommission copper facilities.   

Some businesses spend tens of thousands, even millions, per year on these facilities.  $50+ by itself may not seem like a large cost however when you consider businesses with multiple locations that are being charged for 3+ lines per location, these costs can quickly add up and potentially impact budgets.  

It’s very common for a business to install lines simply because of poorly maintained inventories or lack of information detailing the location of existing facilities.  Few businesses want to pay someone to tag and locate $50 copper lines.  To avoid the headache of disconnecting existing services, these copper lines are left in place and new services are ordered.  

New technologies exist now that take the copper facilities out of play.  It is called “Pots In a Box” and it is VoIP or SIP services over 4G/5G or broadband to an analog coverter connecting to the 66 block.  This bypasses the copper facilities, and reducing cost significantly.   

One of the many ways to identify and eliminate lines that aren’t needed is to isolate and then disconnect lines with zero usage.  The best way to determine zero usage is to accumulate all invoices from each location with copper lines, which are usually provided by your RBOC like AT&T, Verizon, Windstream or CenturyLink. The intent is to create an inventory of each location with associated numbers, ussage and costs.  Once an inventory is created and costs compiled, cost savings and potential line reduction is possible by working with an aggregator, or a volume line agreement with the RBOC.  

We can all agree that communicating/negotiating with the carriers can be frustrating at times, thankfully GCG has the resources to make this process less painful.  You likely won’t be able to avoid the need for copper lines at your place of business, but you can make substantial reductions to your monthly costs & eliminate a lot of the unnecessary frustrations associated with these types of services. 

Internet Series #3: Applications basics 

technavadmin Internet Services , , , ,
Internet Series #3: Applications basics 

By Chis Newell
Founder & President

We all use the Internet daily, whether it is in the office, home or on our mobile devices. As we discussed in our previous Internet Series, the type of Internet you use is important and not all Internet backbones and suppliers are created equal. In this part of the series, we will cover applications. If the Internet is the steak, applications are the sizzle.  

The Internet based application market is vast and often complicated. Applications can range from well-known providers like O365/Teams and G Suite to more niche providers that fit a certain role within your organization. Regardless of what application you are using, your Internet provider will play a vital role in the success or failure of these applications.  

Most applications work well Over the Top (OTT) of Internet, where a connection to the Internet is needed and the application rides “Over the Top” of the Internet to function. Some examples of this in the telecommunications industry is VoIP, UCaaS/CCaaS and SIP. Other services can have a direct connection to the application over the Internet.  

Examples of this would be Internet direct connects and on-ramps to AWS, IBM, Oracle, Azure, Google, Rackspace for Cloud Compute, Disaster Recovery and Storage. Having a direct connect allows your traffic to connect directly to these applications over the Internet, which increases the connection speed, passes information more quickly, and increases security.  

Getting connected  

Applications can also communicate with one another and are interconnected through the Internet with Application Programming Interfaces (API). This allows applications to share information to assist with inter-connectivity of data throughout an organization or application.  

One of the newest technologies utilizing the Internet is SD-WAN, which is like Virtual Private Network (VPN) on steroids. Like VPN, SD-WAN traffic is encrypted, and a router can intelligently change to a secondary internet provider. However, that is where the similarity ends.  

SD-WAN can test the health of an Internet connection to the destination down to the packet level and intelligently route packets by disparate Internet providers, prioritizing traffic and keeping any live traffic registrations up if one of the connections drops. Multiple SD-WAN providers are also offering direct connects to hundreds of application providers, which assists clients in organizing and supporting their traffic strategy.  

Applications on the day-to-day  

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most businesses used collaboration applications such as Zoom, Glip, Teams, GoTo and others to communicate with our internal and external customers while working from home.  

When garbled voice, pixilation, frozen screens happen during a meeting, it is mostly due to the quality and congestion of the Internet service. While most organizations do not control which Internet provider our employees or customers use at their home, it is evident how important it is to have a quality connection to support these applications.  

When determining what Internet strategy to use for your organization it is important to determine what SD-WAN and OTT applications will be used, bandwidth requirements, and how sensitive these applications are to the quality of your Internet connection. While the applications are delivering the value, the delivery method and quality of the Internet and the underlying provider is vital to success.