Saving money - it’s a principle close to many a business owner’s heart - but when you’re talking about saving money on something as important as your outgoing telephone calls many people are cautious.  There’s an inherent belief, as with many things in life, that you get what you pay for but when it comes to telephone service providers this isn’t always the case.  Let me explain why…

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If you’re using a national telephone supplier when you make a telephone call your call goes to your service provider’s exchange and from there takes an appropriate route to the local exchange closest to the person you are calling, then on to their phone.  Each time you make a call, even to the same person, the route your call takes will be decided by call capacity limitations and to avoid faults in the line.

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If you switch your supplier the path taken between the local exchanges will change to a route maintained by another company.  You pay for the call and that supplier pays BT for the part of the call made on the ‘local loop’, the part of the line between the phone and the local exchange.

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Why can this be cheaper?  Because it’s a competitive marketplace and alternative suppliers are aggressive in their efforts to undercut each other and reduce prices to take a bigger share of the market.

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And will quality be any worse?  Well in most cases no.  As long as you use a premium Tier 1 supplier you’re unlikely to notice any difference in call quality.  In actual fact because these suppliers have newer systems they can be more reliable and involve lower levels of maintenance.

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Least cost routing is a system where you have one or several telephone suppliers programmed into your telephone system or local BT exchange, and with each type of call – international, local rate, national rate – your call will take a specified route with the cheapest supplier for that variety of call.  You don’t need new and expensive equipment or lines; this can all be set up to work with your existing equipment.

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There are a vast number of network operators offering cheap phone calls, including long distance and international calls at up to 50% cheaper than the leading provider.  With some suppliers that cost saving really is too good to be true and you’ll see a reduction in your call quality, but with the right guidance you could find your outgoing call expenses drop considerably with no reduction in the service you receive.

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It can seem like a minefield out there, but if you need any advice feel free to get in touch.  QDOS Networks have specialist experience in providing least cost routing solutions for clients across a wide range of industries.