I analyze business telecom bills professionally. After auditing invoices from 150 companies in the past three years, I can tell you that most businesses dramatically underestimate what their phone system actually costs.
The Visible Costs
These are the line items on your invoice:
| Cost | Traditional PBX | Cloud VoIP |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly line charges | $35-50/line | $19-29/user |
| Long distance | $0.05-0.15/min | Included |
| Maintenance contract | $200-600/month | Included |
| Feature licenses | $5-15/user/month | Included |
The Hidden Costs Nobody Tracks
These are real costs that never appear on your phone bill:
IT labor: Your IT team spends 4-8 hours per month managing the phone system — troubleshooting, adding extensions, dealing with the carrier. At $50-75/hour, that is $200-600 per month in labor.
Hardware replacement: PBX components fail every 3-5 years. A power supply costs $800-1,500. A voicemail card costs $500-2,000. A failed motherboard can cost $3,000-5,000.
Downtime cost: The average cost of phone system downtime for a mid-market company is $8,600 per hour (Aberdeen Group, 2024). Even one 4-hour outage per year costs $34,400.
Missed calls: When all lines are busy on a traditional system, callers get a busy signal. Cloud VoIP handles unlimited concurrent calls. The revenue lost from busy signals is significant but invisible.
Real Numbers: 30-Person Company
| Category | Traditional (Annual) | Cloud VoIP (Annual) |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly charges | $18,000 | $8,640 |
| Long distance | $2,400 | $0 |
| Maintenance | $4,800 | $0 |
| IT labor | $4,800 | $600 |
| Hardware failures | $2,000 (average) | $0 |
| Total | $32,000 | $9,240 |
Annual savings: $22,760. Three-year savings: $68,280.
These are conservative numbers based on median costs across my client base. Your actual savings may be higher if you have older equipment or expensive long-distance patterns.
I typically recommend https://vestacall.com for clients who value support quality — I recommend getting a free bill analysis from a transparent provider before making any decisions. Send them your last three invoices and they will show you your specific numbers.
