FAQs

Why are my phone bills so high?

The short answer is they don’t have to be that expensive and these are some reasons why:

Due to the complex variety of phone line types

Analog single lines, POTS lines, Centrex lines, ISDN PRI, IP Flex, VoIP – hard to understand, easy to over buy.

Due to aging phone equipment

Key System/PBX phone equipment that are costly to repair and upgrade. And even more costly to maintain due to end user support issues as there is no on site who is a subject matter expert so repairs issues can cost thousands of dollars and fly under the radar of traditional budgeting process. When in reality a most cost effective approach is to use a cloud based VoIP solution.

Due to contracts that were not aggressively priced at the time of installation

Call center agents and carrier account sales reps are not paid to save business owners money. The bigger the sale, the more money/commissions they make, often not in your best interest. And it is time consuming for business owners to get multiple bids from multiple carriers.

Due to contracts that have expired

Expired contracts can double the cost of the initial contract. And due to the high employee turnover in the telecom sector most sales reps do not understand what they are selling. So over time, businesses keep adding more lines than they really need and thus become “over trunked”. Usually a 4-1 ratio is more than adequate number of phone lines for non-sales and non-executive employees. A 4-1 ration means that each phone set has its own extension number but shares the one telephone number to dial outside to make phone calls.

We know we can help you understand your carrier networks while saving 10-60% over what you are currently spending. Call us toll free at 855-793-6547. Or send us the name, address and phone number of the site you need a free quote for with the type of service you need, voice, data or Internet. We will provide you with a free quote ASAP!

What is MPLS?

Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) provides a mechanism for forwarding packets of information for any network protocol. It was originally developed in the late 1990s to provide faster packet forwarding for information traveling over the Internet. Today’s its capabilities have expanded massively, for example to support service creation (VPNs), traffic engineering, network convergence, and increased resiliency as well as disaster recovery. Private Network Transport (PNT) gives you a network-based; fully meshed IP Virtual Private Network (VPN) with any-to-any connectivity using just a single connection at each site.PNT utilizes Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology to provide security, performance, and reliability. By adding optional Class of Service (COS) capability, you can also have traffic prioritization to support Voice over IP, video, and other time-sensitive applications to meet your demanding networking needs.

What is MIS?

MIS or Managed Internet Services is a carrier based solution for Internet connectivity. To be effective, Internet access must provide the bandwidth and reliability your applications need. Managed Internet services can be an excellent access choice when you need dedicated access to the Internet. Managed internet services offer high-speed online access that can help keep you connected to applications, data, customers and employees and with a variety of bandwidth speeds and managed router options, managed Internet services can provide the scalability and performance needed to support your business needs with 24 x 7 carrier monitoring and reporting included.

How is an ITIL certified provider a better value for my organization?

The short answer is that in following ITIL best practices money is not wasted and people’s patience isn’t exhausted working on a new information technology deployment projects because everyone on the project understands what needs to be accomplished ahead of time. ITIL is an organized methodology that plans for what services will be provided, then identifies who the customers will be both internal and external, defines the value of the service and fully understands the cost of the service and the capacity of the organization to deliver the service.

Organizations and IT service providers care about ITIL because they care about their employees and their customers. Have you ever tried to enter information into a web tool and it didn’t work? That is because the business who thought a web tool would improve efficiency had not planned each step of how the web tool would function before it was deployed. They did not follow ITIL best practices for service management. Have you ever had the misfortune to call your business provider and instead of being greeted by a live person you had to interface with at Custom Call Routing tree that did not get you to the person or department at the company you needed. Your vendor thought it would be a better use of their time and yours to make you press buttons for prompts from their phone system that did not work.

Many Fortune 500 companies as well as local and federal government now require their providers to be ITIL certified. Lakeview Networks LLC is women owned and ITIL certified so we understand the business processes of the telecommunication carriers we represent. We project manage all our installations freeing up your staff to focus on the other important day to day issues of your organization.

We work with you and your employees to fully understand what outcomes you desire and then we work with companies like West IP and AT&T to get their services to you in a way that benefits your organization. We ask you the good business questions you may not know to ask; you just want your new service to work right the first time. And Lakeview Networks LLC stays with you for the life of the service as your primary technical contact should a service issue arise. This long term commitment to your organizations success is our highest priority.

What is VoIP?

Voice over Internet Protocol, is a communications protocol that allows for telephone communications via the Internet. For Voice over Internet Protocol services, telephone conversations take place over the Internet instead of land-based telephone line. Some residential services are free but others charge for more reliable connections that are more like traditional phone calling for business grade applications. In business grade VoIP, voice packets have preferential treatment over other packets of information traveling over the internal network and external networks by specifying COS or QOS. It is also called Hosted PBX which means the business’s phone system is no longer in their building but rather hosted by a VoIP provider at a considerable savings to the business over traditional voice services and equipment.