this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
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Business IP/VOIP phone system for small business (alien.top)
submitted 1 year ago by letopeto@alien.top to c/main@selfhosted.forum
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I run a small business and I'm also the guy in charge of IT as well because I have to keep costs low and I'm relatively technically savvy. But this business phone line stuff is so confusing, with terms like PBX box, SIP trunking, etc.

I did some basic searching on this subreddit and the general advice seems to be for small businesses, don't run your own pbx box b/c of complexity etc and go with a provider like https://voip.ms//business/pricing

But it seems crazy expensive. For example, if I use my business line 20 hours a week, that means that its 4,800 minutes a month or $48 a month at VOIP.ms level of pricing. Not to mention the fact that there is a $1 charge monthly just to have the number, and a separate charge (albeit small) for all calls received.

That just seems so much more expensive than a normal consumer cell phone bill that has ONLY voice.

I literally just need a separate business phone number that can work through a CISCO IP phone I bought secondhand for myself and a couple of employees. Is there any way to save on the monthly bill / basically only pay for the phone number itself? I can't imagine this day and age where everything goes over the internet and bandwidth is not charged on a usage based basis (at least in the US) that I need to be paying for IP phone calls "by the minute".

Help me understand if there is any way I can set this up using selfhosted or if I'm really looking to do something that is impossible. Just a complete noob to the business phone industry and the software stack needed to run it.

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[–] carl2187@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

I ran FreeSwitch with a signalwire sip trunk. I don't think there's much cheaper than that. Pay as you go, less than a penny per minute. Only monthly fee is holding onto the numbers you want, each number is like $0.50 per month.

But installing and maintaining it is a challenge for even good sysadmins.

I'd go with 3CX or a similar all in one provider if I had to make the call.

Also, use a good USB headset and a soft phone on your computer instead of that old cisco handset. Get away from handsets ASAP. They are the most expensive thing, vendor support dries up fast, and the audio codecs go stale. Firmware vulnerabilities emerge, compliance requires you to update them, so every 5 years, new handsets for everyone. It's a joke. USB headset or a good USB speaker phone will work with any system, until they physically break. 3cx has soft phone clients so handset isn't needed at all.