by Mitch Scott, Emergent

ORLANDO, FL — Nov 2, 2008 — A major expense for small businesses can be their cell phone bill.  This expense is usually from calls to the office from a cell phone or calls from the office to an outside workers cell phone.  There are ways to lower this expense by using a cellular gateway.

A cellular gateway is a device that allows you to lower your overall communications cost by taking advantage of the free cell phone to cell phone calls that are included in most cell phone plans.

Here is how it works.  The cellular gateway connects to a telephone line port on your telephone system and routes incoming and outgoing calls (to your cell phones) through a GSM wireless network.  When an employee in the office calls the cell phone of another employee, the call is routed through the cellular gateway allowing you to take advantage of the FREE cell phone to cell phone calls.  When a employee calls the office using a cell phone, they call the number of the cellular gateway also taking advantage of the FREE cell phone to cell phone calls.

If you are entertaining the thought of adding a cell phone gateway to your telephone system there are a few things you will need to consider.  You need to verify that your cell phone plan includes free cell phone to cell phone calls.  You need to verify that your telephone system has a spare telephone line port to which you can connect the cell phone gateway.  Although not necessary, the ability for your telephone system to do LCR (least cost routing) is also a bonus.

You will need to contact your cell phone company and order a SIM card, and a phone number (there will likely be a monthly charge for this).  This SIM card will be installed in the cellular gateway and the phone number will be the number used to contact the office through the cell phone gateway.

Communication Outages

An added bonus of using a cellular gateway is the ability to route calls that would normally go to your main telephone number to the cellular gateway in the event of an outage from your telephone company.

More Information

If you would like more information about cellular gateways or an estimate of how much you can save on your cell phone bill by using cellular gateways please contact us at sales@askemergent.com or call 407-834-2700 ext 2206.