phone service in a business park

[GBRUT]

Hello all, happy Wednesday.
We are a small business in a business park. We have been here for 4 years with no landline/fiber for phone and internet service. We've had to use satelite service which has been unreliable to say the least. After much complaint, the landlord and the business park did recently install a landline/T1 line which we did have to pay a portion of. After the install, I proceeded to try to obtain service and found out I would have to go through the park and that on top of our phone/internet costs from the provider we were to pay fees to the business park. For example, $5 per month per company to have a listing in the phone book,
$.07 per minute for long distance and from $5-$15 per month per line for other services like call waiting, call forwarding etc. For a T1, there's a flat rate of $200/month, again on top of the rate we would pay the provider. Is this normal practice? I seems like extortion to me! I am beyond frustrated with our phone interent situation. Does anyone have experience with 'cloud' phone service or other options?

[Harold Mansfield]

Hello all, happy Wednesday.
We are a small business in a business park. We have been here for 4 years with no landline/fiber for phone and internet service. We've had to use satelite service which has been unreliable to say the least. After much complaint, the landlord and the business park did recently install a landline/T1 line which we did have to pay a portion of. After the install, I proceeded to try to obtain service and found out I would have to go through the park and that on top of our phone/internet costs from the provider we were to pay fees to the business park. For example, $5 per month per company to have a listing in the phone book,
$.07 per minute for long distance and from $5-$15 per month per line for other services like call waiting, call forwarding etc. For a T1, there's a flat rate of $200/month, again on top of the rate we would pay the provider. Is this normal practice? I seems like extortion to me! I am beyond frustrated with our phone interent situation. Does anyone have experience with 'cloud' phone service or other options?

What country are you in? I've never heard of an office park with no phone lines for 4 YEARS!???

[GBRUT]

We are in Utah. Ya, it has been a long frustrating road. It's an industrial park that used to be owned by the government.

[Harold Mansfield]

We are in Utah. Ya, it has been a long frustrating road. It's an industrial park that used to be owned by the government.

That's a pretty tough situation. I don't know how you've done business without an internet connection all this time.

How's the cell service?

The pricing sounds kind of high and I'm not a big fan of paying "long distance" charges in 2013. I'm also not a big fan of having to go through property management for communication services, although I know a lot of business parks work that way (because they get a cut).

Have you checked out ISP alternatives like Clear (http://www.clear.com/)to see if they have coverage in your area?
I also used a wireless card from Sprint for a while for backup internet access. At the time I think it was $50 unlimited, but you probably can't run a network on it.

If the cell service is good, it may be cheaper to use an unlimited plan and just have all of your calls routed to your cells using a virtual phone number.
You can get a free virtual number from Google Voice with just a Google account, or you can check out a virtual phone service like Grasshopper (http://grasshopper.com/)that gives you all the bells and whistles of most office systems

[MyITGuy]

Wow, I couldn't go 4 days without internet for my business...let alone 4 years.

Anyhow, the situation you described is not something that is a normal practice, and I believe may be violating some laws/regulations as it is the telephone providers responsibility to ensure they provide local phone termination (and I believe ISDN/T1 services) to anyone in their service area, and it is the landlords responsibility to provide access to these companies.

Regarding the fees, again these rates are high...generally you shouldn't be paying more than $0.035 per minute for long distance.

Regarding some alternatives:
First - If this T1 is providing internet service, then you can install a VoIP PBX where you can pay as you go ($1/DID plus $0.01 per minute) or all inclusive ($5/mo per line and 'unlimited' minutes).
Second - If your building would allow you 'roof rights', then look to some WISP's in your area to see if they can provide service.
Third - If your building would allow you 'roof rights' and you have a secondary location, then you can setup a point to point link that could span several miles as long as there is a good line of sight.

Feel free to PM me an address and I'll see what options may be available to you in your area.

[MyITGuy]

I received your address via PM and have found the following options for you:

First - Have you tried contacting Comcast (comcast.com)? They are your local cable provider in that area, and from I was able to see your address qualifies for Internet and Phone Service.

Second - Have you tried contacting CenturyLink (centurylink.com)? They are the local carrier in that area and from what I was able to see, your address qualifies for Internet and Phone Service.

Third - MegaPath (megapath.com) is a reseller of services in your area and appear to offer T1/DLS and Cable Coverage for your address.

Fourth - RapidWave (rapidwave.net) is a local WISP in your area and while they don't currently have coverage in your town they do have plenty of coverage just to the east. If you contact them they may be willing to perform a site survey to see if its feasable to put up a tower in your area (Especially if other customers are in the same predicament), or doing a Point-To-Point connection just for you.

Fifth - The same could be said for Clear (clear.com) - They are a cellular/wi-max provider who appears to have plenty of coverage to the east of you, but nothing specific in your area

Sixth - Catapulsion (catapulsion.net) is another WISP in your area, but they do not provide a coverage map or address verification. It might be worth a call to see if/what they can provide.

When reaching out to these companies I would inquire about "High-Speed Internet" services only. This way you get a price that you can base everything else on as some voice services can be expensive when you can easily find some other alternatives.

Comcast Business Internet - $69.95 (16/3Mbps) up to $369.95 (100/10Mbps).
Comcast Business Bundle - $214.65 (16/3Mbps, 1 Full Feature Line and 5 Basic Phone Lines)

CenturyLink Internet - $48 (1.5/Unknown) up to $95 (12/Unknown)

[MyITGuy]

Personally, I would go the route of Comcast or MegaPath (Cable) to get the best internet speeds I could.
I would only order Internet Services to keep my monthly costs low

I would then look into a VoIP Phone System (Up to $500 for the Phone System and up to $200/phone) that can use SIP Trunks ($1/DID and $0.01/minute), or look into a PBX/Phone System that can be hosted in the 'Cloud' (approximately $20/line).

[Harold Mansfield]

How big is your office? How many people? How many computers? How many phone lines do you need?