Bandwidth is as it sounds - the width or capacity of the ‘pipe’ through which data transfers in and out of the Internet. Business Internet Service Providers (ISPs) own high-capacity connections to the Internet provisioned across different technologies. The ISP then rents out little ‘pipes’ of that connection to business subscribers. When a customer interacts with a cloud based application like Salesforce or Netsuite, or makes a phone call over a cloud based phone system like VoIP Phone System (Hosted PBX) - the data travels very quickly from wherever it is stored - across that bandwidth pipe rented to you by your ISP - to your computer, tablet or phone and back. The speed at which that data arrives at its destination depends on available bandwidth. If we think of the Internet as a giant tank of water, imagine the difference between draining it with a narrow hose or a big fat pipe. The fat pipe is wider, has more band-width than the narrow hose, so a lot more can flow through at one time.

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Ultimately, all that is meant by the term bandwidth is how much data can pass through the pipe at a given time.

All high speed Internet technologies are referred to by the blanket term ‘Broadband’. When we say ‘Broadband’ we could mean cable, fiber-optic, ethernet over copper, fixed wireless, LTE etc. Each of these technologies are available with different rates of bandwidth. We’ll get into the pros and cons and how much soon, but generally, the lower the price the higher the likelihood the Internet is shared with other businesses. As you’ll see, this can affect bandwidth reliability and often, for security and other reasons, a business must have a Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) line. DIA means your Internet is delivered with a guaranteed level of bandwidth for your business that is not shared with any other ISP subscriber.

Bandwidth is measured in bits per second. Significant advances have catapulted us forward to Gigabit (GB) speeds. One GB (or Gig) equals 1000 Mbps, which is a staggering speed to anyone who remembers the early days of the Internet.

Real world communications pass through a succession of linked ‘pipes’, each with its own bandwidth. If one of these is much slower or congested than the rest, you have yourself a bandwidth bottleneck.

Different Internet technologies promise different bandwidth rates, often advertised as best case or ‘best effort’, meaning the highest possible amount of data a user can transfer each second. Each is described below:

Again, it’s important to stress that ‘Broadband’ is not an individual Internet technology unto itself, rather a blanket term used to describe the collective high speed Internet technologies that provide consistent uninterrupted connection. An example of an interrupted connection is dial-up - which needs an action from the user to connect for each use - therefore, it is not considered to be ‘broadband’.

Business Cable Internet connections are commonly advertised in the 100 to 500 Mbps range. That number usually refers to download speed. Upload speeds are significantly lower. Whenever there is a difference in upload and download rates we refer to it as ‘asymmetrical’. A business can purchase ‘symmetrical’ Internet service - meaning up and down speed will be the same. It will cost more however. Business Cable Internet is usually ‘shared’ with the ISP’s other customers. Since it also travels across TV cable lines this can result in bandwidth rates ‘slowing down’ at peak times. For more information on Latency, you can read our quick guide on the next FAQ.

Business Fiber-Optic Internet (Fiber) can deliver fantastically high bandwidth rates up to and beyond 10 Gigabits Per Second. Even at the lower, more common bandwidth rate plan of 1GB, Fiber beats Cable Internet, hands down. Unfortunately the technology is not available everywhere. Yet. Fiber-optic Internet is sought after because even with heavy usage it maintains a consistently high speed - the bandwidth rates sustain and deliver as advertised. Fiber doesn’t travel by electrical signals like traditional coaxial copper cable networks. Fiber travels in the form of flashes of light via glass fiber cables. Those fiber-optic cables ONLY transfer Internet data unlike traditional cable which runs over TV cable networks with that risk of congestion at peak times. Business Fiber Internet can be installed as Dedicated Internet Access (DIA), meaning it is NOT shared with other subscribers. DIA is a point-to-point private data connection between your company and the Internet, which eliminates latency or congestion and delivers a guaranteed rate of bandwidth.

Fixed Wireless Business Internet can reach speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps (1 GB) but the service is more commonly offered at lower rates up to 400 Mbps. Even though those speeds sound low compared to Fiber, the service is usually symmetrical, meaning upload and download speeds are the same. Fixed Wireless has particular value in areas where typical Internet service options are unavailable and it is a desirable alternative to Satellite Internet when that’s the only other choice around. Fixed Wireless Internet does not travel over phone or cable lines. It is sent to receivers installed at your business location by airwaves from the nearest cell tower. The downside is that Fixed Wireless Internet must have a line of sight connection with the access point or it won’t work. Tierzero can usually validate your site for Fixed Wireless in 24-48 hours, assuming a third party engineering review is not mandated.

Business LTE is generally advertised at far lower bandwidth rates of 10 Mbps up to 50Mbps - and since that’s asymmetrical, upload rates will be even lower. When you shop for LTE, providers usually advertise Gigabyte data allowance not bandwidth speeds - and not terrifically high amounts of data either. So why would any business consider using LTE for Business Internet service? For some very good reasons, actually. Business LTE is an excellent option for anyone seeking a temporary Internet solution - like construction sites, or film productions, or a business moving to a new location that needs to set up fast while their permanent circuit is built out. The key in such cases is to find a short term commitment, (which Tierzero LTE offers). Business LTE is also an excellent, affordable backup for any business in case a permanent circuit fails. For a fairly low monthly cost you can and should consider LTE as a secondary Internet for your business. It guarantees you will NEVER lose phone or Internet service and that has real value in these days of climate uncertainty.

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The simplest answer is Latency. Internet latency is a lag in your network’s data flow. If your business phones operate over the internet with systems like VoIP Phone System (Hosted PBX) or you use multiple cloud based applications, host a website, or video conference with staff and clients - then internet latency levels do affect your business.

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Internet data, whether in voice, video or text, travels to and from the network source and its destination in a form that we call ‘packets’. The amount of time it takes for the data packets to travel back and forth is referred to as latency. The more steps your data takes to travel in between the network source and its destination, the higher the latency.

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Since we rely increasingly on business applications that only work through the Internet, high latency levels hinder performance and workflow. Although it’s impossible to eliminate latency entirely, it is in your best interest to minimize it as much as possible. How? Start by understanding what causes it.

High latency is basically a network traffic jam. Think about a communication network in terms of a state highway. Bandwidth represents the size of the freeway and data packets mirror the cars. Heavy traffic build up can cause congestion when there aren’t enough lanes to accommodate the volume of traffic. If more data is being sent than network capacity allows, it causes network congestion and increases latency.

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Another common cause of latency is the distance between the data packet source and the responder. The further the destination, the longer it will take to transmit the data. Data passes through multiple networks to reach a responder. Delays at network points can reroute data off through more networks. The more networks to cross, the longer it takes, the higher the latency.

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Now you know what latency is, how do you measure it?

Ping Tests are the most common way to measure latency. Ping tests measure the amount of time it takes for data to travel back and forth between networks. It does this by sending a very basic data packet - a ‘ping’ - to another device. That device then sends a ‘ping’ back in return. The ‘ping’ is then measured, most commonly in milliseconds (MS), to assess how long it took to go back and forth.

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Latency speed can be measured in two ways: Time To First Byte (TTFB) and Round Trip Time (RTT). TTFB is one-directional, meaning it is the time a packet takes to travel one way to its network destination. RTT tests the time it takes to reach its network destination and send a response back to the source. Both measurements provide insight into your latency and network performance.

You can check your Internet speed here with Tierzero's Speed Test. These are a great quick check of your overall network speed which reveal what amount of bandwidth you're working with for download and upload. The speed tests measure the RTT of a data packet, but to find a more accurate measurement of latency, you need to deploy a proper Ping Test that sends multiple consecutive ‘pings’ to report the average time and delay of each ping. There are multiple different online tools that measure Ping differently - such as sending a ping to specific data centers or directly to a specific website.

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Since latency cannot be completely eliminated, we measure it for what are considered ‘acceptable’ levels. For example, an acceptable level for VoIP calls is estimated at around 20 ms. If latency levels are higher than 150 ms, you can expect audio quality to diminish. So measures are good indicators for troubleshooting problems.

The short answer is, yes. Since latency can be affected by multiple factors, one option to reduce it is to increase bandwidth. If we revisit the traffic analogy...extra lanes on the freeway can help traffic flow, but that is not always the case.

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Configuring QoS on your router to prioritize bandwidth can help latency performance considerably. Another way to decrease latency is to move from a shared internet connection like Cable to deploy Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) over a technology like Business Fiber. This decreases the amount of traffic on your internet connection which we’ve established as one of the main causes of congestion.

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Making sure your network equipment is up to date and free of damage helps. Having older, outdated equipment can limit connection speeds or lack updated, faster protocols. Switching your device from WiFi to an ethernet connection also gives a more consistent Internet connection and faster Internet speed.

A great way to offset network congestion is to prioritize traffic to mission critical applications. This is made easy by managed services like Traffic Manager (SD-WAN) which is a software overlay that monitors, tests and manages your network, 24/7. Traffic Manager (SD-WAN) serves as a virtual sensory system allowing different locations to “talk” to each other seamlessly, securely, and immediately across any given network. The greater the control, the easier to prioritize and prevent interruptions or causes of latency.

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Again, Internet latency cannot be eliminated entirely, but levels can be minimized with the correct management.

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‘Shared Internet’, no matter the underlying technology (Internet delivered over Coax/Copper, Fiber, TV Cable, Fixed Wireless or LTE) is generally the most affordable option for business. Given a choice, most Network Engineers would never recommend ‘shared’ Internet for their clients because it leaves too much to chance, but when budgets are tight, the cost savings are undeniable. Those savings can sometimes get wiped out if work flow is interrupted too frequently by network misfires or outages, and make no mistake, those risks are higher with ‘shared Internet’ than they are with ‘Dedicated Internet Access’ (DIA). Let’s concede though that ‘Shared’ Internet is so competitively priced it has undeniable appeal for businesses who need to keep operational costs to a minimum.

‘Shared Internet’ arrives at your business from a hub that your Internet Service Provider (ISP) uses for all their subscribers in that area - hence the term ‘shared’. Apart from the fact that you’re sharing that hub with thousands of other businesses and quite possibly co-mingled with residential customers, your quality of service can also decrease the further away you are from the point-of-presence (POP), aka the hub.

The easiest way to know if an ISPs service is ‘Shared’ is if they use the words “up to” next to advertised bandwidth rates. Whatever bandwidth is quoted, even the impressive higher rates, those numbers are just a suggested estimate if they’re asterisked with the words “up to.” The ISP cannot guarantee what actual bandwidth is delivered to your business since rates fluctuate depending on how many of the total number of subscribers assigned to that hub are using the network at the same time you are.

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In the same way airlines overbook planes because not all passengers show up, ISPs oversubscribe their local hubs. At ‘peak times’ when the subscriber load on the network is more than the backbone can take, latency and packet loss can occur. This is not good for your mission critical Internet applications or quality of service on your business phones.

The words “up to” are also a crucial tip-off to something else. They confirm that your ISP is selling you ‘Shared Internet’ without a Service Level Agreement (SLA). An SLA is a promise by your ISP to deliver service with fixed bandwidth and minimum performance levels and for reasons just explained, ‘Shared Internet’ allows no way to guarantee either. Having no SLA means your business has no recourse if service is down. No SLA also means no guarantee on repair time when service goes out. One of the reasons your risk of such outages is higher with shared Internet is because the wiring to your location and in and around the hubs that connect your business and everyone else’s business and/or TV cables, is vulnerable to weather and even damage by man or beast. All factors can trigger outages that may take a while to fix. DIA providers are no less vulnerable to weather etc. but ‘Shared Internet” providers keep costs low by mass marketing a product they under-support with a far lower ratio of network engineers assigned to subscribers than DIA providers. This becomes quickly apparent when things go wrong.

The simple answer is to offset risk. Some industries such as defense, airline, media, finance, banking, government and so on simply cannot take the chance of losing service whether it be for regulatory or commercial reasons. Not having phones or Internet access at any time is not an option for such businesses, understandably.

All DIA service is supported by an SLA, usually one that guarantees your Internet service will stay up at least 99% of the time or leave the ISP in breach of contract. The SLA also guarantees quality of service across the network managed by teams of engineers, so network lags that make video conference screens freeze and voice calls drop or warble are far less likely to occur.

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DIA comes with a bandwidth guarantee. There is no “up to” promise on DIA bandwidth. The 1GB or whatever you pay for must be the 1GB you get. DIA also comes with a managed care protection with engineers monitoring your network 24/7 to prevent problems or fix possible issues before they become problems - usually without you or anyone at your business needing to be notified. In the event that an issue does arise, DIA usually comes with fast and effective customer care access, meaning they answer your call immediately and create a ticket to track the solution fast. Good luck reaching a network engineer with a ‘Shared Internet’ plan. At best you’ll get a call center agent who reads from the ‘sorry the network is out’ script. DIA costs more because providers are duty bound to uphold high quality of service and customer care.

The simplest definition is that Dedicated Internet Access is a fixed, guaranteed bandwidth rate delivered for use by your business and only your business. It can be delivered using one or more underlying high speed Internet technologies including T1, T3, Ethernet-Over-Copper, Fiber, Fixed Wireless and Dark Fiber if you want to get even more exclusive and own the only line to the entire building. DIA comes with a written promise by way of SLA to never (or almost never) fail. If a local outage does occur and service is actually down, DIA guarantees repair time. DIA always costs more than ‘Shared Internet’ but the reliable, consistent bandwidth speeds, prioritized customer care, and peace of mind of guaranteed uptime is sometimes worth the investment.

Yes. If ‘Shared Internet’ is too unstable and DIA too costly, there are two alternative options. We prefer the first - which is to mesh a low cost ‘Shared Internet’ with a lower bandwidth rate DIA and move them both into a SD-WAN managed care environment. Ideally this should be done only through the DIA provider so they can take responsibility for optimizing and protecting quality of service. This option has become far more manageable since the arrival of SD-WAN which is a software overlay that watches over, care takes, monitors, tests and diagnoses every single component of a communications network, all the time, even on autopilot.

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You may wonder how a DIA provider can access lower cost ‘Shared Internet’ circuits if they don’t own them. The business of Business Internet has been revolutionized over the last decade. There’s a lot more cross pollination of technologies and interaction between providers. Prices are down across the board, while Bandwidth rates are way up, to the point where a 10GB Fiber line is available for less than the price of an old T3. But one thing remains the same - all Business Internet technologies are not equal nor are all Internet Service Providers.

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We’ve established that DIA providers carry higher quality of service obligations to customers due to SLAs. A DIA provider who can deliver a smaller, more affordable fixed-bandwidth package (in the 20-50Mbps range) for your business is just as likely to have wholesale access to all the same ‘Shared Internet’ technologies you see advertised for your location. By meshing the lower cost ‘shared’ circuit with a fixed-bandwidth line using an SD-WAN solution - the DIA provider can deliver the best of both worlds. And, your business gets the guarantee of optimal quality of service. This means your phone and Internet network will NEVER go down. With SD-WANmanaged care prioritizing applications, packet loss, latency, degradation, slow downs and outages will be avoided ALL of the time. It won’t be as bottom dollar as a direct plan with a major ‘Shared Internet’ provider, but you will have service guarantees for your business that those lower cost providers could never supply.

Call Recording can be a high-value feature on business phone systems if you use it as a monitoring tool with an eye on quality of service improvement. Cloud based business phone systems like VoIP (Hosted PBX) make Call Recording easy to use with a simple on/off setting. All inbound and outbound calls are then recorded and stored in the cloud. Access and playback is as simple as using any of your favorite music streaming services. You search the call you want to listen to and click play.

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Some businesses have to record all calls for security, regulatory or even insurance reasons. Everyone who does record calls must disclose the fact which is why we hear such notifications from the auto attendant. A recent survey showed that more than 69% of high-level business professionals said they record customer calls to ensure quality of service.

Listening to interactions with customers can help monitor how employees communicate. It can pinpoint how problems arise; clarify if something was misunderstood or overlooked. Call recording can demonstrate how a new customer was won, or lost. Recorded calls are useful for training because they eliminate the hypothetical by profiling your business team actually ‘in-action’. Hearing a skilled employee explain the essentials of your product or service well to a customer teaches other staff how to do it. Or how not to, as the case may be. Playback of even a small sample of calls recorded with customers can inform best practices and help create a ‘customer communication playbook’ for all employees to follow. A standard set of communication options can prevent unfortunate incidents. That can prevent bad reviews, which in turn can prevent lawsuits.

Recorded calls are a little like video surveillance in cases of dispute. They eliminate the ‘he said, they said’ risk. The words are the words. There’s no margin for confusion. With a cloud-hosted PBX phone system you can access recorded calls from anywhere at the touch of a button, which is pretty useful if a dispute arises while you’re away from the office.

Team leaders can listen to recorded calls with prospects to better advise staff negotiating deals in the pipeline; hearing the tone and level of engagement of the client can help ascertain acquisition probability; identify speed bumps that might be holding things up; or clue you in to an incentive idea that might persuade the client to close the deal.

Recorded calls have customer survey value. If several prospects express a similar sentiment, positively or negatively, you learn what works and what needs attention straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. As one business owner put it:

“Recording calls allows us to assess, review and improve everything we do.”

Properly harnessed, all of the advantages of Call Recording add up to a better customer experience. Beyond that, recorded calls are evidence that your company follows laws and procedures correctly. Highly regulated industries such as insurance, finance, or healthcare rely on call recordings as proof in matters of HIPAA, legal, financial, or taxation regulatory agency oversight. The simple knowledge that all phone interactions with clients are being recorded can inspire employees to take protocol more seriously. This protects them. And you.

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As one CEO put it:

“With every call recorded, an agent knows they’re protected against allegations of abuse, while the client is protected against false sales claims.”

80 business professionals gave these as their top reasons for Recording Calls:

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By a clear margin, ensuring quality service and monitoring agents is primary; followed by protection in disputes; then training and coaching value; then compliance and regulation adherence, order verification and so on. Harnessed properly, call recording can help you achieve a higher quality customer service whilst protecting your employees and ultimately, your Company’s reputation.

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Voicemail-to-Email is standard on Hosted PBX Business Phone Systems. Although the feature is not particularly new, it adds an extra layer of convenience and efficiency but it’s not always used to full advantage. Here are a few practical benefits as well as a few less obvious uses Voicemail to Email may have for your business.

Clients can judge a business on the speed and clarity of customer service. We can’t always answer our phone, so having an extra feature that makes returning missed calls easier increases customer satisfaction. The benefit of having voicemail going directly to your email inbox is that you can see and access it from anywhere and respond as if you were in the office. This gives customers a sense of 24/7 access, without requiring employees to actually live at their desk.

Listening to voicemails on your phone is convenient, but it can get disorganized. Having to search and scroll through a cluster of voicemails, or wait to listen to them in the order they arrived - that can annul some of the benefits of mobility. Voicemail-to-Email makes managing out-of-office communications far more efficient.

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With Voicemail-to-Email a caller's voice message is transferred as an email attachment. That email is stamped with date, time, duration of call, name and number of caller, and - if you have an auto attendant on your business phone system - which pathway/extension brought the caller to your number. For example - if a prospect called the main line and opted to connect to sales - that pathway will be identified. All these Voicemail-to-Emails are located in one location on your screen which makes them easy to organize. You can click to prioritize which clients need a quick response; forward on to colleagues; file away with a reminder to respond later; or simply delete. The audio message attachments themselves have a ‘control playback’ format, making it easy to play, pause, and skip to the parts you need to hear again.

Voicemail-to-Email provides levels of ‘backup’ that make it nearly impossible to lose a record of the call or the audio message itself. Since we have email on several devices, deleting a Voicemail-to-Email from one doesn’t always remove it from another. Essentially, it’s almost impossible to ‘lose’ an actual recorded voicemail or accidentally delete one since it also transfers to your ‘deleted’ folder in several places.

A less well known feature of Voicemail-to-Email has brought value for Managers and Supervisors seeking to monitor employees. A setting on the console allows a manager/owner/supervisor to directly access ‘voicemail-to-emails’ to other numbers. Furthermore, that management interaction can occur invisibly without the primary recipient’s knowledge. Whether a manager is just looking to check in periodically on a junior employee or trainee’s progress, or to monitor their interaction with clients for regulatory, security or even Human Resources oversight - the option exists via a simple on/off setting. At console admin level, Voicemail-to-Email for any number can be set to automatically cc to a specific Manager, or allow direct access with all the same abilities to forward, respond, prioritize - with or without leaving a record.

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Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is what it sounds like: voice translated into data and transmitted across an Internet connection in the same way any other file or email is. When it reaches the other end, the data is transformed back into its original form and emerges like a regular sounding phone call.

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Anyone, anywhere in the world can make phone calls using VoIP, as long as they have Internet access. No actual phone is required, not even a headset. At its most basic, VoIP works directly through the built-in mic and speaker on computers and tablets. Most email services, notably Google Gmail, include free video and voice, whilst Skype, Facebook, WhatsApp, Signal and a host of other apps allow voice calls over computers and cell phones to anywhere in the world. These calls transmit at no cost and without per minute charges accruing on the users cell phone plans. Kind of revolutionary if you remember the old prohibitive expense of calling long distance or internationally.

VoIP as a technology has had that same revolutionizing effect on business communications. In record time it has proven itself fully reliable, far less expensive and far more efficient than traditional copper-wire telephone systems.

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Unlike all the ‘free’ app versions of VoIP, Business VoIP goes far beyond the basics to deliver advanced features with far higher quality of service. Most importantly, Business VoIP can be configured for maximum network security.

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Business VoIP has also been a great leveler, giving the same enterprise grade communications advantages to small businesses as it does to multinational corporations. Whilst different size companies require different levels of deployment and infrastructure, all businesses benefit from the immediate advantages of such an affordable technology.

We highly recommend it. Calls go out over the Internet and residential Internet lines are often shared, have fluctuating bandwidth rates and generally poor quality customer care when something goes wrong. Risking phone service interruptions over residential grade Internet is not a wise move for an enterprise level business. Recent highly competitive pricing has made taking that risk unnecessary.

First determine which Internet options are available at your location or locations.

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Fiber Optic Internet is in high demand because it offers higher bandwidth rates and suffers less congestion than traditional copper line or coaxial TV cable technologies. Business Fiber can be configured easily as Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) which means the service supports your location only and is not shared with other subscribers.

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Cable Internet will cost less than Fiber in all categories. It can support a business VoIP phone system but often needs managed care from a reliable phone service provider. Because VoIP phones access the Internet over traditional TV cables they can suffer fluctuating rates in bandwidth at peak use times.

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Fixed Wireless can also be reliably managed to support a business phone system and is available at different bandwidth speeds - but only if your location is within line of sight of an access point.

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4G LTE and the emerging 5G networks are newer Internet options for a Business VoIP system and they can do the job well if your choices are limited. Ideally you should seek out an unlimited data plan to avoid throttling or service slow down, but that can come with a high price tag. In some cases, a limited data 4G/5G plan has enormous value as a backup. If LTE or 5G is used to augment your current Internet it can create a redundant circuit should your primary Internet line go down for any reason.

Lower Costs:

Traditional business phone services charge for the phone line, any call made, priced by the minute, with tacked on fees for features like caller I.D., call waiting, forwarding etc. Business VoIP is usually priced in a flat-rate monthly package that includes unlimited local and long distance and a host of sophisticated features. Business VoIP also reduces communication and infrastructure costs because routing phone calls over existing Internet networks removes the need for a separate, additional, costly phone system. Extensions also cost less on Business VoIP than for traditional PBXs and key systems.

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Enterprise Level Features:

To function well, businesses need advanced features like auto attendant, conference calling, voicemail-to email etc. all of which tend to come standard with most Business VoIP services.

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Security:

Most of the security features for calls made over traditional phone lines, such as digitizing and digital transmission, are already in place with Business VoIP. Providers further encrypt, authenticate and prioritize the existing data stream which makes for higher quality of service and security.

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Portability:

Wherever there’s an Internet connection you may access your Business VoIP Phone System. Employees may use their phone number anywhere, which is invaluable for telecommuting and the recent surge in remote working from home.

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Easy To Use:

Business VoIP devices have simple, intuitive user interfaces, so users can often make simple system configuration changes without needing assistance from IT or office management. This brings workplace efficiencies and cuts down support costs.

Recent advances have pushed far beyond Business VoIP standard features to a Unified Communications solution. This includes advanced features such as easy video conferencing with small to very large groups. The service is offered with enhanced security and better quality of service than more generic options like Zoom. People can easily be added or invited to calls or video meetings while in conversation. Instant messaging and screen sharing are also features included with Unified Communications. Business VoIP has also made significant advances in call center management and made call recording an instant easy to use feature for all businesses. Finally, Business VoIP is now fully mobile. It can be accessed anywhere in the world via a cell phone app. This frees you from the office and puts all the benefits of premium Business VoIP service in the palm of your hand.

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Before you sign a lease at the new location, speak with your Internet provider to confirm they can deliver service to that address. There is a possibility they may not, or they might need several weeks to install. Only your Internet provider will know for sure, so get answers before you make any big decisions. If you do need a temporary option, LTE offers a dependable and affordable alternative to wired Internet circuits and delivers a truly redundant solution to keep your business up and running.

Make sure to notify your telephone system vendor well in advance of the moving date so they can make arrangements to transfer the system and give you an estimate of cost. They typically need two to three weeks of lead time to schedule manpower and gather materials. If your phone system is old and outdated, you may want to consider whether it makes more sense to invest in an upgrade rather than paying to transfer. Many businesses use a move as an opportunity to invest in a whole new cloud based VoIP phone system.

Not all buildings are cabled for phones and Internet so make sure the infrastructure you need is in place. Depending on your lease agreement, this may be either yours or the landlord's responsibility.

Pinpoint and label the proposed location of all telephones, fax machines, networked computers, printers, scanners, network copiers, wireless access points, time clocks, and any other network appliances. Be aware that climate-control and security are key factors in the positioning of IT and Telco equipment. Label all staff desks/cubicles so your vendor can place phones correctly. If the new space is already cabled, compare your floor plan needs with what already exists to ensure cables and jacks are where you need them to be.

Moving a data network may involve changing public IP addresses. Your IT vendor should look at cabling (either existing or plans for new) to make sure there are provisions for all your IT equipment. If you have a Cloud Hosted Phone System or a premise-based VoIP phone system, then you'll need the LAN in place before you can turn up the phones.

Determine how you plan to handle telephone calls, faxes, and e-mail during the migration. If your move is local, you may be able to get dual service for a week. If the move is not local, you can set up forwarding on your main number and send calls to a voice mailbox or cell phone.

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If the move requires a telephone number change, decide how you want to handle the old numbers. Most phone companies will forward calls for a period of up to one year. Contact your phone service provider to make sure that this is possible for all published numbers (fax, private lines…).

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