Carrier Voice Services

Is your business looking to reduce costs while enhancing the way that you manage all voice communications with your customers?  As your advocate, CarrierBid offers free guidance and expertise throughout the entire procurement and installation process.  You read correctly, there is NO COST to you for our services.  We’ll help you determine the best solution and strategy designed specifically for your business needs as we bid carriers against each other from our 180+ supplier portfolio. 

Questions to ask when choosing voice service provider?

General Questions:

• How do we use our phone service today?  What changes can we make to improve it?
• How do we want to use our voice communications system in our customer interactions?
• How do we want to handle our internal communications between employees?
• Do we need call center technologies and functionality? (this may apply to a small office too!)
• Would a cloud-based Hosted Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system benefit our business?  For example, could we enhance our use of technology to meet our customer’s needs without them speaking to a live call center agent?
• Are we open to VoIP technologies or are we more comfortable with traditional voice services?

Questions about hardware upgrades:

• Are we planning to keep our existing hardware or is it at or near “end of life”?
• Will the new service work with my existing equipment?
• Can I bring my own device? 
• Can I reuse my VoIP phones and have the software “flashed”?
• Will the new system work with our wireless phones?
• Is there a mobile app available?
• Is there an option to lease the hardware?
• Can we rent the hardware on a monthly basis?

Questions regarding voice features:

• What features are crucial to our business?
• What features are optional but would be nice to have?
• What services are included versus fee-based add-ons?
• How can I add additional features later?
• How do I add additional users and devices in the future?
• Do we prefer a premise based service or hosted service?
• Do we need voice mail?  If so, how many?
• Do we need the ability to host audio conferences and online web meetings?
• Does the service integrate with third-party applications such as Salesforce, Google G Suite, Dropbox, and others?
• Would it be beneficial for our employees to be able to read their voice mail in email instead of calling into their voice mail box? (We say YES!)
• Would a soft phone on each employee’s computer be beneficial?

Cost Related Questions:

• What is our budget?
• Which VoIP features cost extra?
• What are my initial upfront costs going to be?
• Are local and long-distance calls included for free?  What are the overage Fees?
• What are the International rates per minute?
• Can the rates change at any time throughout the contract period or are they fixed?
• Should we lease, rent or buy the equipment?

Questions to ask regarding SIP:

• Does the carrier utilize redundant SIP gateways?
• Is there geographic diversity built into the SIP backbone?
• Are we limited to the types of SBC’s that can be used (Certified devices only)?
• Does the carrier provide a managed SBC?
• Are all SIP sessions pooled and available for use at any location?
• How are calls controlled across multiple SIP Trunk groups?
• What types of call routing features are available?
• What are the options for failover if the SIP trunks are down?
• Can we do the following: Ordered load balancing, Overflow, Most idle, Least idle, and Weighted overflow?
• Can the provider mix CODECS such as G.711 and G.729A?
• Which toll free features are available with SIP?
• Can the SIP failover to local PRI’s for backup and disaster recovery?
• Is the hardware at my business location’s SIP compatible today? 
• Should we use MPLS or Internet as the SIP transport?  Which is best?
• How is QoS handled to ensure voice quality?

Other important Voice Network items to consider:

• Does the provider have disaster discovery capability?
• What is the carriers Service Level Agreement (SLA) in the event of an outage?
• How does the carrier prevent fraud?
• Can all of my phone numbers and DID’s be ported to the new provider?
• What changes need to be made to our firewall, if any to enable VoIP or SIP calling?
• Is e911 supported with the solution?
• Who are the carriers biggest customers?
• How quickly does the provider implement new technology upgrades on their platform?
• What contract length do we desire?
• How long does it take to implement your services?
• What faxing services are provided?
• Can I still use my analog devices?

Voice Network Support Questions:

• Where is the carrier’s customer service and technical support located?
• What kind of support can I expect?
• What happens when there is an outage?
• How does the provider notify customers when there’s a service disruption?
• What is the escalation process in the event of problems?
• What types of changes can be made in the admin portal?

Our carrier portfolio of 180+ suppliers can provide a wide variety of voice services to meet your business needs. Here is a partial list of some of the available services for your evaluation:

We’ve been in the business since 2006–use our experience and intellectual property and we’ll assist and advise you so that you can PLAN to be successful. We’ll help you with actionable goals and realistic timelines to support your mission and vision. Our services are free of charge to our clients, so there is no risk to engage CarrierBid on your next project and into the future.

For immediate service, or to schedule an initial consultation, please call or fill out the form below and an expert will contact you right away.