Reference
Things worth knowing before you buy a phone system.
No blog, no gated download, no case studies. Two things that are useful instead: the questions we think you should put to any provider, us included, and plain definitions of the words that get used at you.
Five questions
What to ask any phone provider, including this one
The answers to these change what you pay and what you are able to do. We have answered all five about ourselves elsewhere on this site.
Can I keep my number, and have you checked that specific number?
Why it matters: "We support porting" is a statement about a country, not about your number. Ask whether they have checked yours against the carrier that currently holds it.
What is on the bill besides the per-seat price?
Why it matters: Numbers, per-minute calling, hardware and regulatory fees are usually separate. A per-seat figure on its own does not tell you what you will pay.
Can I add and remove seats myself, on my plan?
Why it matters: Some providers hide the purchase button on lower tiers and route you to an account manager. Ask whether self-serve applies to your plan specifically.
What happens to my recordings and voicemail if I remove a licence?
Why it matters: On several well-known platforms the answer is that they are deleted, and it is documented only in the knowledge base. Ask before you find out.
What do I own if I leave: the numbers, the handsets, the recordings?
Why it matters: Handsets should be yours and should work elsewhere. Recordings should be exportable. Numbers depend on portability, which is available almost everywhere and worth confirming for your area code.
Glossary
The words, in plain terms
Telephony vocabulary is mostly acronyms standing in for something simple.
- PBX
- Private branch exchange. The system that routes calls inside an organisation. Traditionally hardware on your premises; hosted means it runs as a service instead.
- UCaaS
- Unified communications as a service. Calling, voicemail, presence and the rest delivered from the cloud rather than from a box you own.
- DID
- Direct inward dial. A number that reaches a specific destination inside your system rather than going through an operator.
- Extension
- A short internal number for a person or a role. Dialling it reaches them without going through a public number.
- NPA
- Numbering plan area. What most people call the area code.
- Rate centre
- The geographic area a number is associated with. It decides which prefixes a new number can come from, which is why a branch office sometimes ends up with a neighbouring town's prefix.
- Porting
- Moving a number from one carrier to another. Routine across almost all of the North American numbering plan.
- Auto attendant
- The recorded menu that answers a number. "Press one for sales."
- Ring group
- Several phones that ring together, or in an order, until someone answers. No hold music and no queue position.
- Call queue
- A line callers wait in, with hold music, announcements, a maximum wait and somewhere to go when that wait is reached.
- Provisioning
- How a desk phone gets its configuration. Zero-touch means it fetches it from the network itself the first time it boots.
- MOS
- Mean opinion score. A number summarising how a call sounded, used alongside jitter and packet loss to diagnose bad audio.
- STIR/SHAKEN
- The framework carriers use to attest that a caller ID is genuine, which is how the North American network fights spoofed calls.
Ask us for anything you cannot find here
Setup guides, retention tables and a status page are being written as the service grows. In the meantime somebody will answer the actual question rather than send you a link: tell us what you need and we will write it for you directly.