Home › Business phone systems
Phone systems that follow your team
Available plans, packages and prices may change at any time for new orders. Check the current service plans and pricing before buying. Your accepted order and contract determine your agreed charges, included services and term; existing agreements are not changed simply by updating an offer.
A modern business phone system is not a box on the wall. It is software — which means your number rings on a desk phone, a laptop and a mobile at the same time, and works the same whether your team is in the office or not.
What VoIP means
VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. Instead of your calls travelling down a copper phone line, they travel over your internet connection. That sounds like a technical detail, but it changes what a phone system can do: your number is no longer tied to a building, adding a new person is a software change rather than an engineer visit, and features that used to cost thousands are included as standard.
The switch off is coming. The UK's traditional phone network is being retired, and old copper-line systems will stop working. Every business still on a traditional line will need to move to an internet-based system. Moving early avoids the rush and usually gets a smoother installation.
What you get
- Keep your existing numbers. Porting a number across is free and normally takes a couple of weeks. Your customers notice nothing.
- Ring anywhere. Desk phone in the office, app on the mobile, softphone on the laptop — one number, all of them.
- Voicemail to email. Messages arrive in your inbox as an audio file, so you can deal with them without dialling in.
- Call menus. "Press one for sales" — useful once you are more than a couple of people.
- Ring groups. A call rings several people at once, or in sequence, so it gets answered.
- Opening hours routing. Calls go somewhere sensible out of hours instead of ringing an empty office.
- Call recording. For training, for disputes, or because your industry requires it.
What it costs, roughly
Service scope, any setup charges, discounts and renewal prices are confirmed in your accepted order. Check the current plans and pricing for available offers.
There is no large upfront cost the way there was with an old on-premises system. Desk handsets, if you want them, are an extra per device — many teams skip them entirely and use apps on the devices they already have.
Will my internet handle it?
For most small teams, yes. A single call uses very little bandwidth. The thing that actually causes problems is not total speed but contention: if someone starts a large upload while a call is in progress, and the network has not been told to prioritise voice, the call is what breaks up.
This is worth taking seriously if phones matter to your business. It is also why having the same people look after your website, your hosting and your phones can be useful — the parts are related, and there is nobody to pass the blame to.
SIP trunks for existing phone systems
Service scope, any setup charges, discounts and renewal prices are confirmed in your accepted order. Check the current plans and pricing for available offers.
This is different from a full cloud phone system: you keep your existing handsets and switchboard, we just change what they connect to.
What a SIP trunk includes
- A digital connection replacing your existing phone lines
- Configured to work with your current PBX or phone system
- Concurrent call channels sized to your business — pay for capacity you actually use
- Failover so calls still come through if your main connection drops
- Detailed call reporting
SIP trunk pricing
Outbound calls billed at standard UK rates on top. Larger channel counts quoted individually.
Business DIDs (direct dial-in numbers)
Service scope, any setup charges, discounts and renewal prices are confirmed in your accepted order. Check the current plans and pricing for available offers.
Numbers can be bought on their own, without a SIP trunk — plenty of businesses just want an extra number that forwards to a mobile, no phone system involved.
What you can do with a business DID
- A geographic number for Leeds, Manchester, London or elsewhere, regardless of where you are actually based
- National (03) or non-geographic numbers if you would rather not tie yourself to one city
- Give a specific person or team their own direct number
- Route a number straight to voicemail, a mobile, or a call menu
- Keep a number reserved even if you are not using it yet
Business DID pricing
Inbound calls to business DIDs are free to receive. Numbers can usually be provisioned the same day.
Call centre
Service scope, any setup charges, discounts and renewal prices are confirmed in your accepted order. Check the current plans and pricing for available offers.
What call centre includes
- Inbound call queues that hold and route callers rather than getting a busy tone
- Live queue statistics — how many are waiting, how long, who answered what
- Skills-based routing to the right agent or team
- Call recording and quality monitoring
- Wallboards so a team can see queue status at a glance
- Post-call surveys and reporting, if you want them
Priced per agent seat, per month. Larger queue setups quoted individually.
Managed PBX
Service scope, any setup charges, discounts and renewal prices are confirmed in your accepted order. Check the current plans and pricing for available offers.
What managed PBX includes
- A complete cloud phone system, no on-site hardware required
- Extensions, call menus, ring groups and voicemail, configured for how you work
- Desk handsets or a mobile/desktop app, or both
- Ongoing management — changes, new starters, new lines — included
- Scales up or down as your team changes size
Full pricing tiers are on the Current plans and service guidance page.
Which do I need? Already have a phone system you like? A SIP trunk connects it to our network. Just need an extra number? A business DID stands alone. Missing calls at busy times? Look at call centre. Starting from nothing, or replacing an old system entirely? Managed PBX via our Current plans and service guidance is the one. Not sure — ring us and we will tell you plainly.
Common questions
What happens in a power cut?
Desk phones and your router need power, but calls can be set to divert automatically to mobiles, so you stay reachable.
Can I have a local area code?
Yes. You can have a number for any area code regardless of where you actually are, or an 03 number if you would rather sound national.
How long does setup take?
A new number can be live the same day. Porting an existing number typically takes one to three weeks, and your old line keeps working until the switch happens.
Related pages
Thinking about moving your phones?
Tell us what you need and we'll call you back — usually within the hour.
Request a callback