Nortel System and phone lines.

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. I work at a location which has a Nortel phone system but is looking to cut costs regarding phone bills. No one at the site knows anything about the equipment except that it justs works :-) I am trying to figure out if everything is controlled by the Nortel equipment or if there could be special features on the phone lines that feed the building. I am imagining that things like the caller id display that happens on the phones requires caller id service... Anyone assist me with this?

A. You imagined correctly on the CID, it is extra, but maybe not as much as you think. Since Nortels come in different flavors, it might be better if you were a little more specific. Do you have a 308/824/CICS/MICS/Option 11, or some other variant and how many lines are you talking. When you count the lines, how many terminate on the Key/PBX and how many other lines do you have. Also, your operating company, state, and type of lines make a difference. It all depends on what you need. A phone switch works in conjunction with the lines coming in from the outside. Some businesses use only phone company provided lines, such as Centrex, but there's a cost associated with outside programming changes, usage, etc. If they want to save money but have no idea what is involved in their equipment, they could end up wasting a lot more in changing things without doing the needed research. Costs come from usage, so you could investigate what the usage costs are, and how they can be better managed or controlled. Long distance is pretty cheap nowadays, so I'd suggest looking into whatever contracts you have now, and what other competitors can provide. Depending on the usage costs and providers, a switch programmer can set up your switch to have calls go to the lines which are the cheapest to use, called "least-cost routing." Often times a switch may have different lines for local or long distance dialing, and some local numbers might be cheaper to dial through to the long distance provider than through the local provider. Another way of containing costs is to invest in a "call detail record" system (CDR) to tag each and every call, so that managers can get reports on the individual phone usage of each employee, and help get a handle on excessive or abusive calling patterns. It can also help to identify fraudulent phone use - hackers who dial into your system in order to "bounce off" and outside for free calling (free to them, that is). I will have to look at the equipment. I will get back to you. To determine how many lines go into the nortel equipment, do i just open it up. Next to it are a 4 or 5, 50 pair punch blocks...

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