Business phone systems for Syracuse and Upstate New York.
Hosted phones that keep your existing numbers, survive the day the internet drops, and are supported by the same people who run the network they depend on. We have run a computer service business in Central New York since 2005, from one office in Fayetteville, and a person answers at (315) 682-6372.
Or read what really happens on port day first.
A hosted VoIP phone system replaces the phone line and the box on the wall with a service delivered over your internet connection, so extensions, voicemail, call routing and mobile apps are configured in software rather than rewired. Express IT Solutions has run a computer service business in Central New York since 2005, from 511 East Genesee St in Fayetteville, and works on site across Upstate New York. Your existing numbers move with you. Call (315) 682-6372.
What does a hosted phone system actually replace?
Three things, usually all at once. The physical lines from the phone company, whether that is copper, a PRI or a bundled circuit from the cable company. The box on the wall or in the closet, the PBX or key system, along with the maintenance contract nobody reads. And the visit. Adding an extension, changing where a number rings, or recording a new greeting stops being an appointment and becomes an edit.
Definition
Hosted VoIP is a business phone system where the call handling lives in a data centre instead of a cabinet in your building. Handsets, softphones and mobile apps register to that service over your internet connection. You keep your phone numbers, you stop maintaining on premises phone hardware, and every change that used to need a visit becomes a setting somebody edits.
The lines from the phone company
Copper, a PRI, or a bundled circuit from the cable company. The call path stops being a physical thing that arrives at your building and becomes traffic on the internet connection you already pay for.
The box on the wall or in the closet
The PBX or key system goes, and so does the maintenance contract nobody reads. There is no longer a piece of hardware in your building whose failure takes every phone in the company with it.
The visit
Adding an extension, changing where a number rings, or recording a new greeting stops being an appointment and becomes an edit. Most of what used to need a van now takes a couple of minutes in a browser.
Everything above is the part a vendor brochure covers. The rest of this page is the part it does not: what port day is really like, what happens when the connection goes, and the lines in your building that a VoIP account cannot take over at all.
How long does number porting really take?
A single number from a straightforward carrier is quick, often inside a week. A business port with a main number, a hunt group, direct dials and a fax line is measured in weeks, and three to four is normal rather than pessimistic. Almost none of that is our side. The delay sits with the carrier losing the number, and the usual cause is one wrong character on the paperwork: a service address that does not match their record, an account number transposed, or an authorised name who left in 2019.
| What is being ported | Realistic elapsed time | What usually sets the clock |
|---|---|---|
| One number, straightforward carrier | Often inside a week | The losing carrier’s own queue |
| Main number plus a hunt group | Weeks, three to four is normal | Every detail matching the Customer Service Record |
| Direct dials for a whole office | Weeks, submitted as one order | Confirming every number on the account first |
| A fax line or an old alarm line | Handled separately | Whether the line can move at all |
You will see next day porting promised elsewhere. That is a single line from a tidy account, and it is a real thing. It is not the same job as moving a main number, a hunt group and eleven direct dials off an account opened in 2009, and the honest number for that one is weeks.
What can go wrong with a port, and what stops it?
The two ways a port hurts. It rejects, and the date slides while you wait for a corrected form. Or it completes early on a morning nobody was ready and calls land somewhere unanswered. Both are avoided the same way, and all four of these happen before anything is submitted.
- Get the Customer Service Record first. It is the authoritative list from the losing carrier of what numbers you own, on which account, at which service address. Check the addresses and the account numbers against it letter by letter before anything is submitted.
- Do not cancel the old service. The port cancels it for you. Cancelling first releases the numbers back into the pool, and there is no route back from that.
- Fix the authorised contact before you start. Carriers will not release numbers to anybody else. If that name left the company, correcting it now costs a phone call rather than a rejection and a fortnight.
- Ask for the window in hours, not as a date. What time on the day, what happens to calls during the switch, who is reachable while it is in progress, and what the fallback is if it does not complete.
What happens to the phones when the internet drops?
The desk phones stop, because they register over the same connection everything else uses. What you do about that is decided in advance, not on the day. Every number can be set to forward automatically to a mobile, an answering service or another site the moment the platform stops seeing your office, and staff can carry on from the mobile app on cellular data. The part people miss is power. A desk phone powered over ethernet goes dark when the switch does, so the switch belongs on a UPS.
| The number | Where it goes | Who carries on |
|---|---|---|
| Main number | A named mobile | Whoever answers reception |
| Sales hunt group | The answering service | The service takes a message |
| Direct dials | The mobile app on cellular data | The person themselves |
| Fax and alarm lines | Wherever they already live | Nobody, they never moved |
That is the shape of an outage plan, not a plan for your business. Yours is written number by number with the destination named, and you approve it before cutover rather than agreeing it on the morning.
- Handsets powered over ethernet die with the switch. Power over ethernet is why the desk phone has one cable instead of two. It also means the phone has no power of its own, so the switch feeding it belongs on a UPS. This is a cheap fix and it is the difference between phones on battery and a silent office.
- A cellular fallback is worth having before you need it. If the site has one internet connection and no usable mobile signal, hosted phones make a bad day worse rather than better. That is worth saying out loud before you buy, and it is in the tradeoffs further down this page.
Are there phone lines VoIP cannot take over?
Yes, and this is the one that catches buildings out. Fire alarm dialers, elevator emergency phones, some lift and gate intercoms, older credit card terminals and a few fax machines were built for an analog line and are not simply moved onto a VoIP account. Some can be carried by a certified alternative, some cannot, and for a fire alarm or an elevator the answer is a code question rather than an IT question. We survey those lines before anyone quotes, so nothing is discovered on cutover weekend.
- Fire alarm dialers. A code question before it is an IT question. Whoever holds the alarm contract has to sign off what the panel is allowed to dial over.
- Elevator emergency phones. Same answer, and the inspection regime is the reason. Nobody wants to find this out during a test.
- Gate and lift intercoms. Often older than the phone system they were wired into, and often the last thing anybody thinks of.
- Older credit card terminals. Usually replaceable with a network connected version, but that is a purchase with a lead time, so it belongs in the quote rather than in a surprise.
- Franking machines. Same story and the same reason to find it now, because the replacement is an order rather than a setting somebody changes.
- A few fax machines. Some move onto a certified alternative and behave. Some never do, and it is cheaper to find out which yours is now.
Who is responsible for 911 location on a business phone system?
You are, and most people selling phone systems do not raise it. Federal rules named Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’S Act require that a caller on a multi line system can dial 911 without a prefix, that somebody at the business is notified when they do, and that a dispatchable location goes with the call. On a hosted system that location is a field per handset, and it is only correct if somebody keeps it correct. Ask whoever quotes you how they handle it, in writing.
| What the rules require | Where it is set | What keeps it true |
|---|---|---|
| Dial 911 with no prefix | The platform dial plan | Set once at build, then tested |
| Somebody on site is notified | A notification rule on the account | Reviewed when the staff list changes |
| A dispatchable location travels with the call | A field on each handset | Updated whenever a phone moves desk, floor or building |
Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’S Act are federal rules covering multi line telephone systems. This page describes how the settings work on a hosted platform and nothing on it is legal advice. The obligation sits with the business operating the system, which is the part worth knowing before you sign anything.
Do we have to buy all new phones?
Not always. Many standards based SIP handsets already on desks can be reprovisioned onto a new platform, which is worth checking before anyone quotes you a box per person. Where handsets are proprietary to the old system, or old enough that firmware support has ended, replacing them is the cheaper answer over three years. We will tell you which of those two you are in before you order anything.
| What is on the desk now | Usually reprovisions | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Standards based SIP handsets | Yes, worth checking first | They speak the same protocol as the new platform |
| Handsets locked to the old system | No | They only ever talked to the box you are removing |
| Handsets past firmware support | Not worth it | Security fixes stopped, so replacement wins over three years |
| Cordless base stations | Case by case | Depends entirely on the model and its age |
Can the phones live inside Microsoft Teams?
Yes, and for offices already living in Teams all day it is usually the right shape. Calls to and from your public numbers are made inside Teams, so there is one app rather than two and one contact list rather than two. It suits desk based staff. It suits a warehouse, a shop floor or a service counter far less, which is why most sites end up mixed: Teams at desks, real handsets everywhere else. If your managed IT already runs on Microsoft 365, this is a shorter conversation than it sounds.
Why does VoIP call quality depend on our network?
Because once the calls travel over your internet connection, the phone company no longer owns the part that makes them sound bad. Jitter, packet loss and a saturated upload will break a call while every speed test on the machine still looks fine. The fixes are ordinary network work: quality of service on the router so voice is prioritised, wired handsets rather than Wi Fi where it matters, and enough upstream bandwidth for the number of concurrent calls you actually make. That is the same work as networks, switching and cabling, which is the argument for one firm owning both.
Eleven things to settle before you sign a phone contract
None of these cost the provider anything to answer. A firm that will not put them in writing has told you something useful, and it costs you nothing to find that out before the contract rather than during the port.
- Get your Customer Service Record from the current carrier first. It is the authoritative list of what numbers you actually own, on which account, at which service address. Nearly every rejected port traces back to something on this record not matching the form.
- Confirm every number on the account, including the ones nobody uses. Fax lines, an old alarm line, a direct dial for somebody who left. Numbers left behind on a cancelled account are gone, and they are the ones printed on a van or a sign.
- Ask who is listed as the authorised contact. Carriers will not release numbers to anybody else. If that name left the company, fix it before you start, not after the first rejection.
- Do not cancel the old service, and get that in writing. The port closes the old account when it completes. Cancelling first releases the numbers back into the pool and there is no route back.
- Get the porting window in hours, not as a date. Ask what time on the day, what happens to calls during the switch, and who is reachable while it is in progress. Ask for the fallback if it does not complete.
- Write down where every number goes when the internet is down. Number by number, with the destination named. This is a table you approve before cutover, not a conversation on the morning.
- Ask whether the switch feeding the handsets is on a UPS. Phones powered over ethernet die with the switch. This is a cheap fix and it is the difference between phones on battery and a silent office.
- List the analog lines that cannot move. Fire panel, elevator, gate intercom, card terminal, franking machine. Get the provider to say which stay, which are replaced by a certified alternative, and who owns that decision.
- Ask how 911 dispatchable location is set and maintained per handset. Including what happens when somebody carries a phone to a different floor or takes a softphone home. Get the process, not a reassurance.
- Separate the handset cost from the service cost in the quote. A phone that is free with an annual commitment is being paid for somewhere. Ask what the per extension figure is after the initial term ends.
- Ask who you call when the audio is bad, before you find out. If your phone provider and your network provider are different firms, you will spend the first hour of every problem watching them point at each other.
Take this list to whoever you are talking to. If you would rather we went through it with you against a quote you already have, that is a phone call and not a sales meeting: (315) 682-6372.
When is a hosted phone system the wrong answer?
When the site has one unreliable internet connection and no cellular signal to fall back on, hosted phones make a bad day worse. When almost all of your calling is internal on a campus, the case is thinner. When you are three months from moving buildings, port after the move rather than twice. And a per extension monthly bill that looks cheap against a maintenance contract can look different at year four, so do that arithmetic before you sign.
Do you come out, and how far do you travel?
We work on site across all of Upstate New York, from our one office at 511 East Genesee St in Fayetteville. Handsets, cabling and cutover work is the part of a phone project that has to happen in the building. Clients who run more than one office are covered at every location, and where a location is far enough that driving does not make sense, that includes travel by air, simply scheduled with you. If you would rather we looked at the building first, that is a free site survey.
What does a business phone system cost?
Phone pricing moves on how many extensions you need, which features each person actually uses, and whether handsets are bought or included in a term. No figures are published on this page on purpose, because a per extension number with no idea of your call volume is a guess. What is published sits on our managed IT pricing page, with the packages themselves on MSP business packages. For phones you get the figure in writing, handsets and service separated, before anything is ordered.
The same firm that runs the network the phones depend on.
Once the calls travel over your internet connection, bad audio is a network fault wearing a phone company’s coat. If those are two different suppliers, the first hour of every problem is spent watching them disagree.
- One legal entity since 2005. Express Computer Service L.L.C., filed 13 May 2005, trading as Express IT Solutions. Not a franchise, not a rollup, not a brand licensed from somewhere else.
- Independently run. Express IT Solutions is owned and run from Fayetteville, and our engineers are reachable. When a port goes wrong, the escalation path is short.
- A real address you can visit. 511 East Genesee St, Suite 8A, Fayetteville, NY 13066, a short drive from Syracuse, Manlius, Dewitt and Chittenango.
- On site across Upstate New York, multi site included. Every location of a multi site client is covered on the same standard, including locations reached by air.
- We own the network answer too. Switches, cabling, firewall and internet are our work as well, so bad call quality is one phone call rather than two vendors disagreeing.
- Rated 4.9 from 154 reviews. You can read them here rather than take the number on trust.
What people ask before they change phone systems
Will we lose our phone number if we switch to VoIP?
No. Your numbers belong to your business rather than to your current carrier, and they move with you through a process called porting. What loses a number is cancelling the old service before the port completes, because that releases it back into the pool. Leave the old account open, let the port close it, and check every number on the account first, including fax lines and old direct dials nobody uses.
How long does number porting take?
A single number from a straightforward carrier is often inside a week. A business port with a main number, a hunt group, direct dials and a fax line is measured in weeks, and three to four is normal rather than pessimistic. The delay sits with the carrier losing the number, and the usual cause is one wrong character on the paperwork. Getting your Customer Service Record first is the single best thing you can do to keep the date.
What happens to our phones if the internet goes down?
The desk phones stop, because they register over the same connection everything else uses. What happens next is decided in advance rather than on the day: every number can forward automatically to a mobile, an answering service or another site the moment the platform stops seeing your office, and staff can carry on from the mobile app on cellular data. Put the switch that powers the handsets on a UPS, or the phones go dark with it.
Can we keep our existing handsets?
Often yes. Many standards based SIP handsets already on desks can be reprovisioned onto a new platform, which is worth checking before anyone quotes you a phone per person. Where handsets are proprietary to the old system, or old enough that firmware support has ended, replacing them works out cheaper over three years. We will tell you which of those two you are in before you order anything.
Will VoIP work for our fire alarm, elevator phone or fax machine?
Not automatically, and this is the one that catches buildings out. Fire alarm dialers, elevator emergency phones, some gate intercoms, older credit card terminals and a few fax machines were built for an analog line. Some can be carried by a certified alternative and some cannot, and for a fire alarm or an elevator that is a code question rather than an IT question. We survey those lines before anyone quotes, so nothing is discovered on cutover weekend.
Who is responsible for 911 location on a business phone system?
You are, and most people selling phone systems do not raise it. Federal rules named Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’S Act require that a caller on a multi line system can dial 911 without a prefix, that somebody at the business is notified when they do, and that a dispatchable location travels with the call. On a hosted system that location is a field per handset and it is only correct if somebody keeps it correct. Ask whoever quotes you how they handle it, in writing.
Can our phones run inside Microsoft Teams?
Yes, and for offices already living in Teams all day it is usually the right shape, because there is one app rather than two and one contact list rather than two. It suits desk based staff. It suits a warehouse, a shop floor or a service counter far less, which is why most sites end up mixed: Teams at desks and real handsets everywhere else. We will tell you which people fall on which side before you license anybody.
Why do people say VoIP call quality is bad?
Because once calls travel over your internet connection, the phone company no longer owns the part that makes them sound bad. Jitter, packet loss and a saturated upload will break a call while a speed test still looks fine. The fixes are ordinary network work: quality of service on the router so voice is prioritised, wired handsets rather than Wi Fi where it matters, and enough upstream bandwidth for the calls you actually make at once.
What does a hosted phone system cost?
It moves on how many extensions you need, which features each person actually uses, and whether handsets are bought or included in a term. No figures are published on this page on purpose, because a per extension number without any idea of your call volume is a guess. What is published sits on our managed IT pricing page. For phones you get the figure in writing, with handsets and service separated, before anything is ordered.
Do you install phones on site, and how far do you travel?
We work on site across all of Upstate New York from our one office at 511 East Genesee St in Fayetteville. Handsets, cabling and the cutover itself are the parts of a phone project that have to happen in the building. Clients who run more than one office are covered at every location on the same standard, and where a location is far enough that driving does not make sense, that includes travel by air, planned and agreed in advance.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR PHONES
How many extensions, and what is the number you cannot lose?
Roughly how many people need a phone, what your main number is, and anything on the account you are worried about. That is enough for us to tell you what the port looks like and what it would take.
- It goes to our office in Fayetteville, not a call centre.
- You get the porting plan in writing before anything is submitted.
- If your current system is fine, we will tell you that too.
If the phones are down right now, call instead
A form waits for somebody to read it. A dead phone system does not wait for anything, so if nobody can reach you, pick up a mobile and call. That is faster and it costs you less of the day.
The form is the better route for a quote to look over, a port you are planning, or anything with a date on it rather than a deadline of now.
(315) 682-6372Send us the quote you already have.
One phone call, free and with no obligation, and you will know whether the port is a week or a month, which of your lines cannot move, and whether the system you have been quoted fits how your office actually answers the phone.
Free first call. We will tell you straight if the answer is to keep what you have.
Express IT Solutions · Computer service in Central New York since 2005 · Last updated August 16, 2026