Business calling plans

Business calling plans detail how much you’ll be charge for each type of call you make, how those charges are figured, and what additional features are included. Before comparing multiple business calling plans, be sure you have a complete understanding of your calling patterns and needs.

Most businesses choose flat-rate local calling plans. These give you unlimited calling within your local area, and at today’s low monthly rates, they’re worthwhile for all but the smallest businesses. If you make very few local calls, you may want to choose measured-rate service, which charges you on the duration of each call, or message-rate service, which charges a flat rate per call.

Calling plans with unlimited long-distance are expensive, but again, if your call volumes are high enough, they’re an excellent way to save money. If you only make a few long-distance calls a month, look for a plan with a low monthly fee and a small number of free minutes.

If your phone bills are over $2,500 a month or so, business calling plans that included dedicated access to long-distance lines are worth investigating.

When evaluating business calling plans, be sure to compare the billing increment: the smallest amount of time you can be billed for. It can be a small as one second and as large as a minute. The duration of each call will be rounded up to the next billing increment, so shorter is better.

Finally, most business calling plans include basic features like call waiting, caller ID, and call forwarding, but not all do. Make sure to ask about the features that are important to you.