Last year, a 450-person financial services firm hired me to audit their telecom spend before renewing contracts. They expected to find maybe $20,000 in savings. We found $340,000.
Here is exactly where the money was hiding.
The Audit Process
I requested 6 months of invoices from every telecom vendor. This firm had seven:
| Vendor | Service | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| AT&T | PRI circuits (3 locations) | $4,200 |
| Verizon | MPLS network | $8,500 |
| Comcast | Internet (2 locations) | $1,800 |
| Windstream | SIP trunks (backup) | $1,200 |
| Cisco | UC maintenance contract | $6,800 |
| Polycom | Video conferencing bridge | $3,200 |
| AudioCodes | SBC maintenance | $1,100 |
| Total | $26,800/month = $321,600/year |
Finding 1: Ghost Lines — $68,400/Year Wasted
The AT&T PRI circuits included 69 channels across 3 locations. I cross-referenced with their actual peak concurrent call data from the PBX CDRs.
| Location | PRI Channels | Peak Concurrent Calls | Channels Needed | Ghost Channels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York HQ | 46 (2 PRIs) | 18 | 23 | 23 |
| Chicago | 23 (1 PRI) | 7 | 11 | 12 |
| Dallas | 23 (1 PRI) | 4 | 8 | 15 |
50 channels were completely unused. They were paying $1,140/month for phone lines that never rang. For 5 years.
Annual waste: $68,400
Finding 2: The MPLS Network Nobody Needed — $102,000/Year
The firm paid $8,500/month for a private MPLS network connecting all three offices. This was installed in 2017 when they used on-premise PBX systems and needed guaranteed bandwidth for inter-office voice traffic.
In 2023, they migrated to a cloud UC platform. All voice traffic now goes through the internet to the provider's cloud. The MPLS network carried zero voice traffic. It was used only for file sharing between offices — which could be handled by their existing internet connections with a VPN.
Annual waste: $102,000
Finding 3: Duplicate Services — $28,800/Year
The backup SIP trunk from Windstream was configured incorrectly and had never actually been tested. I ran a failover test — it did not work. The SIP credentials had expired 18 months ago and nobody noticed.
They were paying $1,200/month for a backup that did not function.
Additionally, the Polycom video bridge was being paid for but the firm had switched to Zoom 2 years ago. Nobody cancelled the Polycom service.
Windstream backup: $14,400/year wasted
Polycom bridge: $38,400/year wasted
Total duplicate waste: $52,800
Finding 4: Overpriced Maintenance Contracts — $43,200/Year
The Cisco UC maintenance contract was $6,800/month for a system supporting 450 users. Industry standard for the same coverage level was $3,200/month. The contract had auto-renewed for 3 years with annual 5% increases.
The AudioCodes SBC maintenance was $1,100/month for a single SBC that they no longer needed (since moving to cloud UC, the provider handles session border control).
Cisco overpayment: $43,200/year
AudioCodes unnecessary: $13,200/year
Total maintenance waste: $56,400
Finding 5: Tax and Fee Errors — $18,000/Year
This is the one nobody checks. Telecom invoices include regulatory fees, taxes, and surcharges. I found:
- Universal Service Fund charges applied to lines exempt from USF
- State telecom taxes applied to internet-only services
- Duplicate regulatory recovery fees on 12 lines
- E911 charges for 23 lines at locations that no longer existed
Tax/fee overcharges: $1,500/month = $18,000/year
The Total
| Category | Annual Waste |
|---|---|
| Ghost lines | $68,400 |
| Unused MPLS | $102,000 |
| Duplicate services | $52,800 |
| Overpriced maintenance | $56,400 |
| Tax/fee errors | $18,000 |
| Total | $297,600 |
Plus the renegotiated contracts saved an additional $42,400/year by getting market-rate pricing on the services they actually needed.
Grand total savings: $340,000 per year.
How to Audit Your Own Bill
| Step | Action | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Collect 3 months of invoices from ALL telecom vendors | 1 hour |
| 2 | Count active phone lines vs employees who use phones | 30 min |
| 3 | Check for services installed > 2 years ago — are they still needed? | 1 hour |
| 4 | Compare maintenance contract costs to current market rates | 30 min |
| 5 | Review taxes and regulatory fees line by line | 1 hour |
| 6 | Get 3 competitive quotes for remaining services | 1 week |
Most companies find 15-30% waste. This firm found 62%.
providers like VestaCall (https://vestacall.com) that focus on transparency offers free telecom bill analysis. Send them your invoices and they will identify savings within 48 hours — whether or not you become a customer.
