Despite all the new and emerging business communications technologies of the 21st century (VoIP, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Bluetooth, cell phones, blackberries, etc.) the majority of companies in business today still write a check each and every month to a local exchange carrier for a 125 yr. old technology - local phone service - (sometimes referred to as POTS, or "plain old telephone service").

Although it may be the same boring set of copper wires that connects to a standard telephone and rings when calls come in, the local phone service portion of your company's telecommunications bills is the perfect place to begin your telecom cost reduction efforts.

Here are 8 quick ways to begin cutting your local phone service bills. Check them off one by one when completed and you could reduce your local phone service bills by up to 10% or more.

1) Determine the proper local service plan for your needs - then regrade if necessary.

Many Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) offer three basic types of local service plans. Flat-Rate Service allows for unlimited calling within a local area at no additional charge. With Measured Rate Service, charges are applied to local calls according to time and/or distance and/or time of day. Message Rate Service which applies charges to each local call without regard to duration or distance.

Analyze your company needs through observational and personal surveys, then determine the most cost-effective local service plan. You will be amazed at the savings by simply implementing the appropriate plan for your company's calling patterns.

NOTE: When regrading from a flat-rate service plan to a measured or message rate plan, be sure that you are aware of the extent to which employees are making personal calls. Also, consider any lines that may be connected to frequently used services such as apartment door answering systems.

2) Remove unnecessary or unused lines.

Historically telephone companies have recommended and provided quantities of access lines sufficient to provide a P.01 grade of service. This means that no more than 1% of all callers will receive a busy signal during the busiest hour of the day. P.01 is appropriate for some situations, but it does result in many customers having many more lines than are necessary.

Take inventory of all the lines that are being billed, then track them down and determine their level of importance during day to day business activities. Eliminate lines with phone numbers that cannot be identified, lines that ring with no answer, and/or measured or message rate lines that show no usage.

For more advanced telephone traffic calculations, use , our online telephone traffic analysis program.

3) Remove unnecessary or unused line features and services.

More often than not, most companies have lines that contain features and/or services that are either not needed or are rarely used. The problem arises when features are added to serve a specific purpose or employee, then not removed when things change. Over time, many features may be included on lines and users have no idea they are even available.

Your previously conducted circuit inventory will help you determine the specific features needed for each line. Wire maintenance charges should always be eliminated. These charges can be as high as $6.00 per month for each line!

4) Block expensive pay-per-use features.

Directory assistance call completion, repeat dial and call return are nice and convenient for employees - but they will cost your company over time. These features can and should be blocked through your carrier immediately. If any of these features are needed, contact your LEC and ask if a monthly fee be paid for unlimited usage.

5) Review the summary section of your bills every month.

Nothing can take the place of a well-designed and systematic telecom audit of your entire telecom department. However, a quick monthly scan of the summary section of your local telephone bills will sometimes turn up "golden nuggets" of savings.

Common problems include: more than one long distance carrier included (slamming), bogus Internet charges (cramming) from companies other than your ISP, and directory listings that are not listed. These charges can run as high as $29.95.

To maximize savings, review each bill every month. Bogus charges will continue month after month until they are removed. And don't be surprised if they magically appear again in 2-3 months time after they are removed from a bill.

6) Consider upgrading to a T1 if you have more than 20 lines.

For smaller businesses, installing a T1 line into your PBX system can reduce your local telephone charges. A T1 can be cost-effective because it combines many outgoing lines into a single digital line that runs from your office to the LEC central office. The T1 can replace up to 24 POTS lines in your PBX. No one will notice a difference except maybe the person who pays the bills. In addition, a T1 can carry data as well.

7) Gather customer service records (CSRs) from your LEC for more detailed local service analysis.

A great deal of information can be found on CSRs that are not contained on your monthly billing statement. They are an invaluable resource when attempting to identify unneeded services and unused lines. CSRs reveal the quantity and types of lines, their PICs, service elements, hunting arrangements, wire maintenance, circuit termination locations, directory listings, and a host of other esoteric information.

Obtaining your CSRs from the LEC can be a painful and time-consuming process, but the effort is worth it in savings and credits that are eventually rendered. Some LECs will charge a fee issuing CSRs, but with some persistence, you may be able to get this fee waived.

8) Consider engaging a telecom consultant for telecom auditing, bill management or telemanagement services.

Time is money. If your staff is not prepared to consistently implement the above tasks, consider engaging a professional telecom consulting firm to handle them for you. Ideally, a telecom audit done first will turn up many areas for potential cost-savings. Then a monthly bill management program will keep bills clean and free from those pesky recurring errors.

At TelCon Associates, we have structured our consulting services for maximum savings to the client with no risk. We place our emphasis on details, timeliness and a high level personal service for our clients.

So get to work on reducing those local phone bills. You will be glad you did.