Voicemail is a hassle. There... I said it. Rather than feeling like a useful tool, whenever I listen to a voicemail, I feel like rushing to the very end. I've heard it from customers, too. That's why they're happy that here at Atlantech Online, we now have voicemail transcription. And even better, voice transcription can be added for free for a limited time to our Hosted PBX service. Now, our customers can scan a voicemail message the way you they can skim over a text-based message. Gone are the days when you couldn't clearly hear what someone had said in a voicemail, and replay the message over and over to figure out what was said. Or, if you need to let someone else know about the message, searching for pen and paper to write it down. 

PRI has long been a technology standard for delivering phone service. But as the Internet has changed so many things, it's also revolutionizing how companies of all sizes utilize their phone service and systems. While PRI may potentially remain relevant for some companies, SIP technology is providing additional scalability and features at lower costs.

Primary Rate Interface (PRI) circuits are a well-established technology for business phone systems. Investing in PRI can seem like a low-risk way to meet your company’s need for reliable, quality voice communications.

While PRI circuits are stable, they have some limitations compared to alternatives such as SIP Trunking for business. Before investing in PRI Lines, it's important to understand costs, how the technology works, and potential challenges.

As SIP trunking and VoIP in general have become the most prevalant way to deliver telephone, PRI circuits are the right choice only for some specialized use cases or if you are unable to abandon your legacy digital PBX. To determine whether your business is best served by PRI, SIP, or a hybrid mixture of cloud and traditional phone technology, read on.

When the pandemic hit, many companies started to experience the real value in remote phone services.

Businesses' capability to work remotely got tested, and in most cases, forced. Even with the world justifiably afraid of a virus, work still needed doing, and people still needed an income. However, many companies just weren't prepared.

Simple water-cooler conversations were out the window. More importantly, many companies didn't have the processes or technologies to stay in touch when everyone left the office. They found they needed more than their current setup because most of their structure was designed for employees to remain in the office.

Businesses that are looking to advance or scale their phone systems are facing a tough decision today. 

How flexible is your current PBX? 

The telecom industry is a complex matrix of companies and partners providing the hardware, connectivity, services and software required for Unified Communications, including phone, fiber, cable, advanced telephony functionality, and more. 

Upgrading your Private Branch Exchange (PBX) is a requirement if you want to avoid system outages, hefty server costs, and replacement components that are no longer manufactured. 

The challenge is finding the right PBX for small business. Depending on your needs, an upgrade can save you time and money, as well as provide your business with features that take their efficiency to the next level. 

When it comes to choosing the right PBX system to use for your small business, there are a number of factors involved that will sway your decision toward using a particular system. The best way to get a handle of these factors is to examine the benefits and drawbacks of the different types of PBX systems that are available.

If you're looking for a replacement for your business phone system or just starting a business and looking at what phone system to purchase, you're probably swimming in what may seem like a sea of acronyms. 

But, it all really boils down to two choices... Primary Rate Interface (PRI) phone systems (traditional telephony), and voice-over-IP (VoIP) phone systems delivered over Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

What happens when you don't have access to your office?

If you're like many, you've probably seen the lack of communication it causes — especially if everyone is used to working face-to-face. While a lot of companies find interim solutions, they end up losing efficiency. They lose tasks that fall through the cracks because they're adopting new systems.

To make matters worse, most of the options they have to take their communications mobile rely on paying to access another vendor's network. They have no control over how that network operates.

A private mobile network gives organizations complete control, allowing them to set their own rules and systems, like voicemail, texting, and call recording.

But the question remains: How can you get a private mobile network — and how can you get it ASAP?