Buying a new telephone system for a small office

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. Have you ever tried to check for "Business Telephone Systems" in Akihabara? Unless I have missed a very specialized outlet in the area, don't waste your time... Short story: My 15 year old phone system from NTT is showing its age and starts causing problems, and my external answering machine has finally expired. I don't want to deal with this rip-off enterprise anymore since every single service is totally overcharged. A coiled phone cable for the receiver costs 200 Yen, but NTT has slightly different specs and will charge 400 Yen plus 4,250 Yen for sending a "specialist" to change it. You can't purchase one from the NTT office and plug it in yourself! Anytime the NTT guys came, they disabled the DDI box which determines the cheapest provider for Osaka, Nagoya, etc. In addition, they also disabled all TTNet connections (calling for 9 Yen instead of NTT's 10 Yen per call unit).

A. There a 3 base phones. 2 of them are in different rooms in my office, and one is a wall type phone in my adjacent apartment. These telephones handle two phone numbers. When one number is busy, another outgoing or incoming call will automatically use the free line. All 3 phones ring at the same time when a call arrives. There are 10 speed dials on the phones and 99 preset numbers that can be dialled by pressing the appropriate number from 01 to 99. Calls can be transferred from and to any of the three units through its intercom feature. There are also 2 door bells connected that can be answered. Connected before the phones is an NTT switch box that belongs to the system. My fax line is a dedicated one, and my ISDN line is exclusively used for my Internet connection. I am planning to sell 2 of my 4 phone lines and have the remaining one switched over to ISDN also. Before I approach my local Panasonic shop (they install all kinds of medium to large business systems), I'd like to have a second opinion by someone in Japan who actually knows about this stuff or uses something similar. I hate to be advised the wrong way since the other side is just profit oriented. Of course, nowadays I would want 3 additional wireless handsets, functions like a caller ID, perhaps a function to block certain phone numbers, a call duration indication and such. Right, a telephone answering function shall be included. The 99 short dial function is a must, however. Anything else that needs to be considered in regard to Internet telephony (PC to Phone)? Right now I use a headset, but a telephone can be used too. Maybe so, but I won't take the risk since I know people who have brought some items from the USA which can't be used here. I am not enough of a telecom technician to handle everything myself. The Toshiba service people won't touch anything that has not been purchased here. I am sure that there is a label attached that says "Only for use in the USA". Toshiba was notorious in not repairing laptops that were ordered via mail order from the USA. Nowadays they do it since you can buy English Toshiba laptops from Toshiba Direct. I'm not suggesting that you import a Toshiba system from the US, I'm suggesting you check out local Toshiba dealers and see what they offer in Japan. I'm sure the phones will be identical no matter where you buy them, but the controllers (stuff in the "phone closet") will be customized to meet local standards.

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