Long Distance Rates for new contract

[rickster1]

We are currently paying 5.2 cents a minute for long distance and local toll calls. Our contract will be up later this year. Should we push hard to get a better rate? I thought 5.2 cents was pretty good a couple of years ago. We have about 475 stations. Any thoughts or comments?

 

[Bobg1]

I am in WI and the LEC that I route most domestic stuff through just offered me .04, down from the .055 which is on the current contract.

 

[jgideon]

Are those rates 'switched' or 'dedicated'?

 

[Bobg1]

both

 

[rickster1]

Thanks bobg1. I was thinking that .04 was a more common and current rate. Almost all our lines go through the PBX, just a small fraction are dedicated. Anyone else lower than .04, or any other comments?

 

[PeaveyPhones]

I'm 2 years into a 3 year contract with MCI at just over 5 cents a minute for dedicated, 5.5 for switched. I will start shopping soon and hope to get down to 4 cents a minute.
Related to the topic at hand. I would be interested in everyones thoughts on their current LD carrier. MCI treats us pretty good. A lot better than when I was with AT&T. That company has thrown customer service out the window. Too big and bureacratic. Sprint anyone? ITC Deltacom?

When I have been at companies that required anything beyond basic dialtone I always used/use what I think is referred to as a tier 1 carrier, ie AT&T, MCI, Sprint. The other guys end up just buying from these three anyway and why not go straight to the source. Am I right about this?
For instance, I once used VarTec. As the company grew and needed features like time of day call routing, they, VarTec, could not do it. They were buying from MCI so I just switched our service to MCI and was then able to get all the services/features I needed.

Richard

 

[rickster1]

Our LD carrier is Line Systems, Inc. They are a reseller of Verizon. The rates are cheaper, service is good. Of course, to get service, I call LSI and they call Verizon. We don't have much need to go past dialtone, however, they should be able to provide every service that Verizon does.

 

[jerryreeve]

I am sure that you will be able to find much better rates than 5.5 Especially with almost 500 stations you should be able to get a t-1 or two to your LD carrier and get down around 2-3 cents/minute. Check out SBC, and the other big LD carriers and you will probably see a pretty good savings. Even if you end up getting a channel bank to feed into an older PBX as trunks.

JerryReeve
Communications Systems Int'l
com-sys.com

 

[PeaveyPhones]

Channel bank? Yikes! Do us all a favor and buy a new system.

SBC huh? I wonder how well the baby bells are doing in LD? I happen to be in BellSouths area. I'll have to check them out. For local service they do a pretty good job...

Richard

 

[jerryreeve]

Ya I got one customer who seems to be married to his channel banks (guy has 6 of 'em) but I told him to start out that I could help him with the wiring but the channel bank was all his. He is gettin about 1.8Cents/min but he is making 35,000 min/month.

JerryReeve
Communications Systems Int'l
com-sys.com

 

[PeaveyPhones]

I wish a had 5 cents a minute for every Newbridge channel back I've seen on a wall somewhere, not being used, and the key is lost.

1.8 cents? Which carrier?

Richard

 

[bythespy]

My rates are broken into several categories:
Inbound 800 4.2
Outbound switched 4.2
Outbound dedicated 3.8
this is with AT&T

Out contract expires in August and I am pretty sure we are switching carriers.

One of the local companies sent me a quote today:
I do not have it infront of me, but it went like this
Intrastate 3.8
Interstate 3.6
Inbound 800 3.6

They would also add 62 cities in our LATA to our local calling plan.

This is a no brainer to me!!!



Mspivey
CCNP