CMM's Of Voice Telephone Network

      Cost Management Moments (CMM's) are intended to educate and encourage everyone to do their part in support of reducing expenses in IT's company. Please take a moment to review the latest CMM on the topic of General Company Telephone Network (CTN) usage and see what you can do to contribute its success. Voice Telephone Network Usage Billing

      Carriers charge the company on a per-minute basis. Rather than track millions of small transactions through our billing systems and pass that cost on to business units, ITC bundles the cost of all of these transactions and bills an average fixed fee for usage. This fee represents the overall corporate average cost for all calls. Since we moved to this method, our fee has stayed flat for the past 4 years. If we all make a concerted effort to reduce call volume and duration of calls, we can have a positive effect on our cost structure.
Using Voice Telephone Network vs. Not Using Voice Telephone Network
      Using VTN is always less expensive than using the local carriers. CTN cost is a little over a penny per minute for calls within the U.S.

International Rates vs. Cell Phone Rates
      International calling rates vary by country, but are typically more cost effective than cell phone rates. Cell phone rate costs are more difficult to calculate because cell phones usually come with a fixed number of “free minutes” (which are not really free, they are just baked into the fixed monthly rate for the dialing plan), and then you are charged approximately 8 cents/minute for calls that exceed the “free minutes”. International calling with cell phones comes at a higher cost, particularly because there are roaming charges to consider. For the lowest calling cost for international travelers, use softphones, which utilize the underlying VTN and data networks.

      In summary, use VTN where it is available. Use your cell phone’s “free minutes” when you are mobile, and use a softphone when you travel internationally to optimize costs.