Did you know that large telecom providers increased their prices during the pandemic? AT&T, Comcast, and Charter upped their prices by $5 to $9 in 2021. How can you avoid these constantly increasing telecom costs and lower your spending?
How Can You Reduce Telecom Expenses?
Telecom expenses pile up fast, especially when your business requires voice, contact center, telephone, and video services. What can you do to reduce telecom expenses without losing necessary services? With the following tips, you’ll cut telecom costs in no time:
Eliminate Unused Services
Do you regularly use all of the telecom services you’re paying for? If not, it’s time to eliminate some.
Because business owners and IT teams are busy with daily projects and focused on the company’s success, they sometimes forget they aren’t using certain aspects of their telecom plan.
It’s easy to see a telecom invoice, pay it, and move on with your day—but it’s important to thoroughly review your invoice and look at all the services you’re paying for. A closer look could show you exactly how much you’re spending on unnecessary services.
Create a Telecom Budget
Sticking to a budget helps you save money in any aspect of your business. Whether you’re implementing new telecom solutions or upgrading your existing ones, you need a realistic budget.
Factor in the services your business needs and their average costs—and stay close to those costs when exploring telecom providers. Here are the average prices of common telecom solutions that you can base your budget on:
| Service | Price |
| Voice | $100 to $500 per extension (one-time cost) |
| Landline | $42 per month |
| Fiber Internet | $62 per month |
| Ethernet | $73 per MBPS |
According to BusinessInternet, the average cost per month for telecom services is $359.67. If you spend more than that, it’s probably time to create a new budget.
Many providers sell their services in an unbreakable “package deal.” They’ll tell you they can’t budge or that you’re getting their lowest price. Remember, cutting costs is more important than going with the easiest option. If a potential partner won’t work within your budget, move on to the next one.
An excellent way to find a budget-friendly provider is to connect with a telecom agent or broker, as they can get you the best deals—but we’ll touch more on this later.
Understand Your Billing Tools
Learn how to use your vendor’s online billing tools, so if something doesn’t look right, you can tell your provider you’ve noticed a change.
Vendors make more money when their customers are less attentive, so make sure you understand the ins and outs of their software and billing processes.
Perform a Telecom Cost Audit
Telecom cost control is simple with regular cost audits. Industry professionals can audit your telecom, wireless, and internet services to make sure your telecom expenses are accurate, reasonable, and free of errors and overcharges.
Busy business owners like you might not have time to analyze invoices every month. You might miss new charges or price changes. A telecom cost auditor reviews your charges, looks for billing errors, and reports their findings directly to you.
Regular audits keep you up to date with changes, so you can reduce telecom expenses without the hassle of manually going through your invoices. Plus, professional auditors may notice errors that you might not see, saving you more money than if you performed an audit yourself.
Bundle Your Telecom Services
Reduce telecom expenses by bundling your services instead of paying individual rates. Get your voice, data, and video services all from one provider instead of several. Most telecom businesses bundle turnkey services like:
- Internet broadband
- Fixed voice
- Paid TV
- Wireless phone
- VoIP phones
Though bundles sometimes offer limited options, they’re still less expensive than outsourcing telecom services from different providers. If you can’t find a bundle that works for you, a telecom agent can.
Your agent has access to all kinds of bundles, and they’ll find one that fits your budget and needs.
Partner With a Telecom Agent
We’ve mentioned telecom agents a few times now—that’s because agents offer the resources and transparency you don’t get from a typical telecom company.
How do telecom agents reduce the cost of your solutions?
- They compare the prices of the services you need from different telecom companies.
- They’re transparent about whether you’re getting a good deal.
- They don’t have to meet quotas, so they won’t try to upsell you on services you don’t need.
- They provide auditing services for your existing telecom solutions to find ways to save money.
- They don’t work with telecom providers that overcharge.
First Class Connection Helps Reduce Telecom Expenses
First Class Connection provides all the telecom services your business needs, including:
- Voice
- Connectivity
- Contact center solutions
- Cabling and electrical
- Conferencing audio and video
- Mobile device
- Cloud-based voice solutions
- Toll-free bundles
- Minute bundles
- Unlimited long-distance calls
We partner with over 200 providers to get you the best price for the services you need. Our number one priority is customer satisfaction, and we promise to help your company reduce telecom expenses.
For cost reductions and quality telecom solutions, contact the professionals at FCC today.
