VoIP phone systems in Perth
If you are looking at a VoIP phone system for a Perth business, this page covers what one is actually made of, what you are really buying, and one thing a Perth office has to plan for that an eastern states one does not.
What a VoIP phone system is actually made of
A VoIP phone system sounds like one product and it is four. Knowing that is most of what protects you from a bad quote.
- The system itself, which decides what happens when a call arrives: which phones ring, in what order, what happens after hours, and where a call goes when nobody answers
- The handsets, which are devices on your network. They do not have to be the same brand as the system
- The connection, which is your internet service, because the calls travel over it
- The numbers, which are yours and move with you between suppliers
These are bought separately and they can be changed separately. That is the real difference from the old arrangement, where one phone company supplied all four and changing any of them meant changing the lot.
The system can be a box in your comms cupboard or something we host for you. Which one suits you is a genuine decision rather than a formality, and it is set out on our hosted PBX page.
The handsets, and which one each desk actually needs
Handsets are where money quietly goes, because an expensive one is easy to justify at the quote and hard to notice nobody using.
What should decide it is how many lines somebody needs to see at once. A receptionist covering six extensions needs the screen and the buttons. A desk that takes its own calls and nothing else does not, and the difference per handset is real money across twenty desks.
- A basic corded desk phone, which is the right answer for most desks
- A model with a larger screen and programmable keys, for reception and anyone watching other people’s lines
- A cordless handset, for anyone who moves around a building rather than sitting at a desk
- One conference unit in the room that needs it, rather than a speakerphone on every desk
The Yealink range we work on most is on our Yealink phones page, and we work on Grandstream and Yeastar equipment as well.
Handsets from different manufacturers mix on the same system, so whatever is on the desks now does not lock you into anything.
What the NBN changed, and what it did not
The copper phone line most Australian businesses used for decades has been switched off. Calls now run over your internet connection whether that was a decision or not.
What changed is who you ring when something is wrong. A crackly line used to be one company’s problem. Now the phone system, the internet service and the network inside your building are three different suppliers, and the fault can sit in any of them.
What did not change is how much internet a call actually needs, which is very little. A call uses roughly a hundredth of what a video stream does. Businesses are routinely sold more speed than their phones will ever use, when what matters is whether the connection is steady rather than how fast it is.
The detail on connection types, what to check before you blame the phones, and what happens to a PABX you already own is on our NBN phone systems page.
Perth time, and what it does to your phones
Perth is two hours behind the eastern states for most of the year, and three hours behind Sydney and Melbourne once they move to daylight saving in October. Brisbane does not change its clocks, so it stays two hours ahead of you all year round.
For a Perth business with eastern states customers that is not a curiosity, it is a phone problem. Depending on when you open, the first calls of the day can arrive before anyone is in, and the far end of your afternoon can run past the point where anybody over there is still answering.
A phone system handles that with time conditions, which are simply rules about what the phones do at what hour.
- Calls before opening go to a message that says when you open, in the caller’s terms rather than yours, or to whoever starts early
- Calls at the far end of the day route to a mobile instead of ringing an empty office
- The rules are set against Perth time, so they do not drift when the eastern states change their clocks in October and April
It is a setting rather than a purchase, and it is worth getting right at the start. The alternative is somebody remembering to switch the phones over twice a year, which works until the year they forget.
Do you need a phone company in Perth?
Perth is a long way from most of the country, so it is a reasonable thing to ask. The answer is that distance does not affect this work, and it is worth being specific about why rather than just claiming it.
The system is built and changed over the internet. Handsets are configured before they are posted, so they are plugged in and they register themselves. A fault is diagnosed by looking at the system rather than at the phone on the desk. None of that gets better by being in the same city.
The one thing distance genuinely affects is somebody standing in your comms cupboard, and that is cabling. If you need network points run, that is a Perth cabler, and a Perth phone supplier would subcontract it to one as well.
The question worth putting to any supplier, local or not, is what hours somebody actually answers the phone, and whether those hours are quoted in your time or theirs. That one tells you more than an address does.
The handsets we fit most often
A desk phone, a cordless handset and a conference unit cover most offices. Prices exclude GST.
What we do, and what we are not
VoIP System is an independent Australian phone systems company. We install these systems, move numbers onto them, build the call routing and support them afterwards, for businesses anywhere in the country.
We are not one of the manufacturers, and we are not a partner, reseller or authorised agent of any of them. We work on their equipment every week, which is a more useful thing than a badge.
It means there is no brand we are obliged to recommend. If the answer for your office is to keep what you have and change how it is configured, that is what we will tell you.
Talk to us about a Perth office
Tell us how many desks need a phone, whether they are all in the one building, and what you are running now. That is enough to say whether a change is worth making, and what it would involve.
Call 1300 865 879, or send us the details and we will come back to you.
Common questions
- Do you have an office in Perth?
- No. We are an Australian company working across the country from one location, and we would rather state that than imply a local presence we do not have. A phone system is configured and supported over the internet, so the work happens the same way wherever the office is.
- Does the time difference make support harder?
- It is a fair question to put to any supplier, including us. The useful version of it is what hours somebody actually answers, and whether those hours are quoted in your time or theirs. Most of what a phone system needs is a change rather than an emergency, and changes are made remotely.
- Do the handsets have to match the brand of the system?
- No. Handsets are standard VoIP devices and they work across systems. Most offices we see run a mix, usually Yealink alongside Grandstream, and that is normal rather than a compromise.
- How much internet does a phone call actually use?
- Very little. A single call uses roughly a hundredth of what a video stream does. What matters is whether the connection is steady rather than how fast it is, which is why more speed is often sold as a fix and rarely is one.
- What happens to the PABX we already own?
- It depends on its age and on whether it can talk to a modern service. Some can, with a gateway in front of them. Some cannot, and are past support anyway. We will tell you which yours is before you spend anything on it.