One of the most important and expensive aspects of running a Time and Temperature service in your community is the phone lines you will plug into your time and temperature system, the cost of those lines and the telephone provider you will get them from.

In the old days, you had one choice – you got your phone lines from your local landline telephone company.  While there are other options today, your best bet may still be the local phone company.  But what are your options?  You are aware of VOIP – everything from Magic Jack to Vonage to business-friendly VOIP providers.  RTI Media's Time & Temperature systems are the only systems available that work with VOIP services (in other words, a direct network connection to the T&T unit).  But in many cases, your best bet is still the local phone company – for now.

The issue with most VOIP providers is that they limit the number of inbound phone calls you can receive per month – if you go over the limit, you pay a per-call penalty.  So if the VOIP company's limit is 5,000 inbound calls per month you will pay a small charge for the 5001st call and up.  If your Time & Temperature service gets 100,000 calls per month, you could be looking at a hefty phone bill every month.

On the other hand, inbound calls on Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) from your local phone company carry no per-call charge, no matter how many calls your T&T service gets.

There are some special cases where VOIP service can be used for Time & Temperature right now without the extra monthly charge – typically in companies that are using VOIP for ALL their phone services, and they have spare phone lines on the system.  Their business may get hundreds of thousands of calls per month – adding 100,000 more for Time & Temp will not cause a problem, or extra charges.

While POTS lines from the local phone company may be a better deal for Time & Temp right now, that will probably not be the case in the future.  Just as the cost of long distance has trended toward zero, the cost of inbound VOIP calls will do the same – perhaps within two or three years.  At that point, VOIP will be the best deal in town for T&T phone service.  Time and Temperature units from RTI Media are all set to accept VOIP when the time comes.