2talk SIP Termination for Small Businesses

I have been interested in getting the place I work for to switch over to VoIP to reduce the cost of our tolls – mainly in the area of 0800 calls.

My initial plan was to use a VoIP provider, purchase various numbers around the country, and use geographical routing on our 0800 number to route calls to the local numbers we had purchased (as 0800 calls to local regions cost less).  Enter 2talk.

2talk provide a Business Go plan, you can check it out on the site, but with it, you can buy 0800 numbers and you don’t need to have them terminating to a number – meaning we don’t need to bother with setting up local numbers around the country. What is even better, is that the 0800 numbers first use up the minutes that you get as part of the plan – and their Go plan you get unlimited minutes! So that means, unlimited minutes of 0800 calls, and unlimited outbound calls, (Reasonable small business use applies).

The 0800 numbers cost exactly the same as getting a number anywhere else in the country, currently $7 a month, but that plan actually includes 2 NZ numbers as it is.

With the Go plan, you can have 5 simultaneous calls, something which is quite hard to get my head around after being used to landlines, where you get one call per line. Each additional phone number you purchase, you get an extra simultaneous call.

The potential for savings for small businesses here is incredible. Just take a look at these numbers:

Telecom NZ – for City customers: $37.05/line/month.
5 lines x $37.05 = $185.25 / month

2Talk – Anywhere in the country: $7/line/month
5 lines x $7 =  $35 / month
5 calls, unlimited minutes = $80 / month.

Whatever way you look at it, there are huge savings to be made. They do number porting for the same price, they even have numbers in little places like Greymouth – as far as I am aware they are the only place providing local numbers in Greymouth!