BT not renewing business contract

[Louis Balfour]

In the office we have two analogue exchange lines, an 8 extension phone system with 6 handsets and a broadband connection that runs over one of the analogue lines.

The phone system serves two buildings and we have a gate entry too.

The BT contract is up for renewal and they are saying that they cannot re-contract for the analogue lines, we have to migrate to VoIP and that they cannot provide a solution to our gate entry. If we don't want to go to VoIP we cannot have any call discounts and everything is full-price.

This has all come as a bit of a surprise and we have not, to my knowledge, had any prior warning.

I have a hunch that there is an element of sales pitch about this and that, if they cannot provide a like-for-like system, they will sort out something. I stand to be corrected.

Has anyone else had the same issue?

[Louis Balfour]

Neddy Sea Goon said:

The gate entry issue is easily solved by replacing it with a GSM version

Shout me up if you need help with this. Not a sales pitch at all, we're an installer, but I can recommend what to buy

Because we are in a valley our mobile signal is poor. Voda seems the best but it is not fool proof.

If we can get one of our wifi mesh nodes near enough is there a wifi solution?

The gate actuator is BSF if that matters.

[Louis Balfour]

_-XXXX-_ said:

Make of model of current PBX?

Panasoic KX-TEA308

[Louis Balfour]

_-XXXX-_ said:

OP, when you say gate do you mean the door intercom that is part of your PBX?

It's a North Supplies intercom, which rings all extensions. When we dial 8 it opens the gate.

The North supplies kit is very expensive and lasts a few short years. I would not be sad to see the back of it.

BUT I shall be annoyed if I have to invest in additional kit because BT is "upgrading" the exchange lines. Your earlier post suggested that I may not have to however.

[Louis Balfour]

Ean218 said:

We still have the older KX-TDA30 with 20 odd extensions. About 3 years ago I bought a 2nd hand VOIP gateway card to replace our ISDN-E cards and just pay for SIP channels with Dial9. Phones still function exactly as before.

I don't think your system has add in cards, even though it is the same box, but it would be very easy to put a couple of VOIP to ATA adaptors where your incoming BT lines are to use VOIP through your network. The PBX would know no different, the door lock would still work as before too. Probably cost you £100 plus £5-30 per month for SIP channels plus whatever the call costs are, normally at least half of the old BT costs.

Thanks, I am aware that something like this is an option. I am going to see how the next bill looks without a package. We COULD run our business without exchange lines (save for the broadband one).