TTB Hosted Voice vs BT Cloud Voice

Has anyone had any experience with BT Cloud Voice and TalkTalk Business Hosted Voice?

I'm currently trying to figure out what the best is to go for, for a small business. At the moment, we have 2 BT analogue lines connected to a BT Quantum PBX with 5 non-IP handsets, with a third line (TalkTalk Business) which has fibre and used to be our fax line. Thinking of getting rid of BT Quantum and BT lines, porting those over to VoIP running via the TalkTalk fibre line.

The prices TT and BT are quoting for their cloud based systems and 5 handsets are pretty much identical, so features and capabilities are the main concern. It is hard to find much detail on this online anywhere. Since TalkTalk are Mitel based, it is easier to get some idea about this system, but not BT's. That said, it seems TalkTalk include pretty much everything, whereas BT make most stuff optional which you then pay extra for. Even basic stuff like BLF, BT charge extra for.

Edited by Futaura (Mon 05-Oct-20 15:56:48)

What did you do in the end? I am just looking at BT's cloud phone connect, its actually for a customer of mine, and they would prefer to stick to BT, but my experience of BT is that although it works and the price seems ok, you need to add alot to make decent and then the price shoots up, 24 months is a long contract if i get this wrong - my gut says to avoid - but I dont know why.

Haven't gone ahead yet, but are in the final stages of signing with TTB. The BT Cloud Voice and Cloud Phone systems are quite different, although I can't remember how and BT Local Business didn't exactly explain it very well.

I agree regarding BT prices - the base price isn't too bad, but there are tons of extras, even for basic stuff, which are all chargeable. On our Cloud Voice quote, the handsets were not priced separately, hence after the contract runs out, and you've paid off the phones, I presume the price doesn't magically decrease as the handsets are "free" with the subscription. We were offered the BT system on a 5 year contract, by BT (Local Business). As there is so little information on the features available for free, no doubt you'll end up having to buy add-ons for features that you need that turn out not to be included (I mean 50p per month for each phone/user for busy lamps is just silly, and I dread to think what other hidden costs there may be). BT's quote reminds me of double glazing - loads of "discounts" listed, etc.

TTB on the other hand have a more transparent pricing model, although it is a shame they don't mention handset prices on the website. With TTB, you pay for so many users/licenses as per the website, then choose the handsets, which are priced separately on the quote, no setup charges and pretty much everything is included in the price, including installation, DDI numbers and porting in numbers, which BT charge for monthly. The TTB Mitel handsets seem better than the Polycom handsets that the BT systems use. TTB is on a 3 year contract, but after 3 years you own the phones and that monthly price comes off, or they offer maintenance at £2 per month per handset. I don't know if they offer shorter contracts.

With both options, you of course have to make sure the LAN-side of things is sorted yourself, which includes adding any extra cabling or PoE switches, traffic management, etc.

I would do everything I could to avoid having to deal with BT Local Business, and five year contracts for services like this is a bit much. It seems to be the SOP for these companies permitted to trade using the BT name though.