We run VoIP daily — from single-number small offices to a 60-handset call-centre deployment — so this is the guide we wish clients had read before calling us. No vendor gloss, just how it works in South Africa.
What you are actually paying for
- A VoIP provider (SIP trunk). This replaces Telkom. You pay a small monthly fee per channel (a "channel" = one simultaneous call) plus per-minute rates that are a fraction of landline pricing. Local providers port your existing number in.
- Handsets or apps. A good desk phone is R900–R2,500 once-off; a softphone app on staff cellphones is free. Mixed fleets are normal.
- A PBX — hosted or your own. The PBX is the brain: extensions, IVR menus ("press 1 for sales"), voicemail, call recording. Hosted PBX is typically charged per extension per month. An on-premise PBX (we deploy FreePBX/Asterisk) is a once-off build that pays for itself quickly past a handful of extensions — and keeps working on your LAN even when the internet is down.
A realistic small-office picture
A five-person office: port your number, one SIP trunk with two channels, five extensions, two desk phones plus three softphones. Monthly spend lands well under a single Telkom line rental — and you gain an IVR, voicemail-to-email and call records, which landlines never gave you.
Call quality: the part everyone worries about
On fibre, VoIP call quality is indistinguishable from — usually better than — a landline. The problems people remember are from the ADSL era. Three rules keep it clean: fibre or a solid LTE link; QoS on your router so a big download never competes with a call; and wired handsets where possible (Wi-Fi handsets in a busy office invite trouble). Load-shedding is the honest weak point — a small UPS on the router and PBX keeps calls up through an outage.
Hosted vs your own PBX
- Hosted: zero hardware, someone else's problem, per-extension fees forever. Right for 1–5 extensions or no IT appetite.
- On-premise: once-off setup, no per-extension fees, full control (custom IVRs, call recording, CRM integration, even AI answering — we have built that too). Right from ~5 extensions up, or wherever calls are the business.
Mistakes we get called in to fix
- Cancelling the old number before porting completes. Port first, cancel after — a lost number is often gone for good.
- Buying locked handsets tied to one provider. Insist on open SIP phones.
- No QoS, then blaming VoIP for choppy calls during backups.
We design, install and support VoIP for Cape Town businesses — porting, PBX, handsets, the lot. Talk to us about what your setup should look like.