If you have telecom contracts expiring in the next 6 months, we should talk.  Typically telecom contracts are between one and three years in length, with some extending out to the five-year mark. Most of them either auto-renew for a new term at the same price, or they roll over to higher month-to-month rates. Typically, we recommend having a conversation with us about the services, what changes you might need, and what pricing is available. Over the years, we have saved a ton of money for our customers by taking some time on the front-end to review those options.  

What do you need?

1. A recent copy of your invoice.
2. A copy of your current contract (if you have one).

What if you don't have a copy of the contract?

1. You can call into the carrier and request that information.
2. You can call into the carrier and authorize us to request that information.

What do we do next?

1. If you are happy with your current provider, we can see what renewal options are available.
2. If you are unhappy with your current services or if you just want to see what alternatives are out there...we can help with that too.

Whatever the status of your current contract, we are here to help. There is no cost for this service and if there is an opportunity for us to help you out, we have relationships with over 100 carriers across the country.

Get Started Today
Just fill out the form below.

With recent mergers and acquisitions, and recent nationwide outages, some of our customers have asked about alternatives in the marketplace. Thankfully, we do have some options that we can help you evaluate.

Use Different Mobile Networks
You don't need to have all of your users and devices on just one network (like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint/T-mobile, etc). Now you can blend your users across which ever network is the best for their location.

One Bill
Even though you have users on different networks, you can still receive a single bill for all of your devices and services.

Contract Buy Outs
If you want to make a change, but have some time left on your existing agreement, often times we can find an option that provides credits to off-set your remaining contract liability and effectively buy you out of your contract.

Easy Device Support and Upgrades
We have options that provide an easy-to-use web portal to manage your account and also an account manager to assist with equipment replacements, upgrades, and more.

Phones, Laptops, and Wireless Internet Backup Devices
We have options for anything and everything that connects to or uses a mobile network.  Let us help you find a solution that is easy to setup, easy to use, and easy to manage...that fits within your budget.

Contact us today for a No-Cost, No-Obligation review of your options. 

During the Covid-19 quarantine, businesses have had to adapt to deal with a global shut down. The interruption to business-as-usual is more challenging than we have ever seen. 

As small-business owners ourselves, we are inspired and awed by those businesses that have found ways to survive, and even thrive, under today's challenges. We want to highlight some of the companies who are doing an exceptional job of balancing the demands of social distancing, work-from-home requirements, and protecting customers, and employees, while keeping people employed.  

It goes without saying that the people working in organizations playing the essential roles in society - hospitals, grocery stores, food supply, transit, social services, and others - are heroes in a separate category. For this nomination, let's focus on the other organizations that aren't required to be open, but continue to operate and provide service to their customers, and jobs for their employees. They too deserve some recognition for showing the American spirit of ingenuity and adaptability.

If you know of a company that would make an excellent example of adapting during this situation, please nominate them below. We will highlight the best nominations and send each a special award for leading by example. We will then randomly select 3 participants who submitted nominations and send them a special "thank you" as well.

Ok, we might be overstating it a bit, but given the current and future need for people and businesses to operate from home, communications technology is more critical than ever. The right phone system solution (or Internet access or network management service, etc.) can help with social distancing and allow us to be productive.

In the early stages of the quarantine, there was a rush by businesses to adapt their communications technology to remote work as fast as possible. By now, we're all pretty familiar with how to use services like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, and Google Hangouts. You have also probably figured out a way to make and receive business calls at home, either using mobile or hosted phone platforms. Now, that the dust has settled and remote work is becoming the new normal, it's time to take a deeper look at the systems and processes you have in place and make sure your solutions can work for the long term.

Things like scalability, security, flexibility, and overall cost, need to be considered and City Communications can help.  With access to over 150 providers nationwide and nearly 20 years of experience, we are uniquely suited to help businesses of all sizes.

It is free, and there is no obligation to get started.

1.  Fill out a Technology Assessment

Since 2001, we have been in the business of helping organizations with their technology needs.  Most of our new customers come from referrals from customers, word-of-mouth, or referrals from our Independent Business Partners (IBPs). Typically, our IBPs are companies or individuals in related industries with customers who use the products and services we sell like:  hosted phones, internet connections, SD-WAN, contact center, etc.

Over the past five years, that group has expanded to include other companies or people that are not directly involved in technology, but instead have customers who might need help with one of the following:

1. Saving money on their voice and data services
2. Considering new technology for their business
3. Moving or adding locations
4. Migrating to work-from-home solutions
5. Have a contact center

Our partners refer those customer over to us. We work closely with the customer and if they end up working with any of our 150 solutions providers, then the partner is paid a commission. Partners don't need to be an expert in what we do, but instead need to have relationships and the willingness to ask those people if they need help. 

This formalized referral program empowers our partners with supplementary monthly income while providing outstanding results for their customers. We are currently accepting applications for a handful of new partners across the country. If you are interested, get started today by completing a no-obligation Partner Application below.

We look forward to helping you and your customers with all of their technology needs!

If you lived on an island that had only one bridge that connected you to the mainland for all of your food, water, and supplies, you would want find backup solutions in the event that the bridge was knocked out of service. You might get a boat, or a plane, but the most stable solution would be a a second bridge that connected you to another island. With SD-WAN and a second internet connection, we are basically doing the same thing.

Five years ago, only large business and enterprise customers had redundant networks and internet connections, because the monthly cost and the equipment and service was way to high for small and medium-sized businesses. Now, all of that has changed, and we recommend that all of our clients consider implementing SD-WAN and a second internet connection regardless of size.  

SD-WAN makes your business more resilient

With the rise of Office365, Google G Suite, and everything other cloud-based services you're using in your business, it is more important than ever to have have strong and reliable connections. SD-WAN allows you to have multiple Internet connections, ideally from two different providers,  managed by modern SD-WAN routers that don't require you to do anything. SD-WAN is the safest, most reliable, redundant, disaster-recovery-enabled Internet-access management scheme for business.

We help our customers find solutions that make their business more efficient and/or more resilient to interruptions in business. We with within our client's budgets, which sometimes means we recommend dual, less-expensive broadband Internet connections rather than one expensive connection, or finding savings in other areas to beef up your internet reliability. 

SD-WAN budgets are within your reach

Typically we see SD WAN pricing from a number of providers start around $130/month and business internet connections (cable, DSL, etc) around $100/month. So for under $500/month, you could have redundancy and reliability that will allow your business to operate, even if there is an issue happening with one of the providers.

You can self-manage SD-WAN without being an expert

One of the neat things about SD WAN is it is pretty much plug and play out of the box.  We set it up, you plug in your internet connection(s) and the box does the rest. It will automatically route traffic across the best path, so that you don't have to touch anything. You can be notified when a connection is down (or having issues), so that it can be reported to the carrier, but most likely your users won't be impacted. This is huge for businesses that need to have everything up and working all the time, like medical offices, sales organizations, or...just about every other business that is out there.

I have only one small office, why do I need it?

If your office uses services on the internet such as hosted phone service, accounting, video conferencing, or any other web service that you need access to throughout the day, then the internet is your lifeline. If that lifeline is cut, you are left calling into customer service and hoping that they aren't having a larger issue that is affecting multiple customers. Because when that happens, customers calling in about problems with their $80/month service do not get the highest priority.  It is better to plan redundancy across different carriers and across different types of Internet connections.

Should I just buy SD WAN from my phone company?

We evaluate the options on a case-by-case basis. In general, we like the idea of having multiple connections from DIFFERENT service providers, using DIVERSE transport connections (such as copper, coax cable, fiber, or wireless).  If you have two connections, both coming into your building on the same copper cable and riding in the same conduit, provided by the same carrier, you haven't really bought yourself any redundancy.

If you would like to talk about implementing SD-WAN and a second internet connection, or anything else we offer, please schedule a virtual meeting below.

We often get asked to, "send me a one-pager about what you do". Since we do a lot of things within the business communications and IT segments, I decided to put together a quick "menu" of services that will hopefully help you better understand what we can help with. If you need something else, we can probably help you find a solution for that as well.  Here are some of the main issues we can help with:

Connectivity
Internet, MPLS, Fiber, Coax, Wireless
Business connectivity from over 150 carriers nationwide to provide internet access and to connect locations together.   

• Get competitive quotes for Internet and/or MPLS.
• Add redundant connections.
• Save money on current connections.
• ​Have us manage it all.

TEM
Telecom Expense Management
Manage all of your spending, contracts, tickets, quote requests, and more for all of your telecom services. 

• Your entire telecom inventory in one easy to use location.
• Save money by eliminating over-spending and waste.
• Easily view and manage telecom services and contracts.
• Easy process for dealing with mobile devices and plans.

SD Wan
Software Defined Wide Area Network
Make the internet better, view and manage what is using up your internet, connect multiple offices, and get notifications and reports on how your connections and network are performing.  

• Connect locations together without a big IT staff at a low cost.
• Easily add redundant Internet you can use.
• Manage what's eating up bandwidth on your network.
• See how your connections are performing in real-time.

Mobile/Wireless
Mobile Phones, Devices, Plans
Aggregate your spending across multiple carriers, easily review and manage your usage to help reduce and avoid overage charges. 

•    Need to save money on mobile phones, devinces and plans?
•    Want to manage usage and spending across the company?
•    Like have support for ordering and replacing devices?
•    Like to lock down end-user devices when accessing the network?

UCaaS
Unified Communications as a Service
Hosted phone systems that easily allows employees to work from home or the office.  Low cost, easy to deploy, with tons of features that let you setup your offices however you like and easily connect your employees from anywhere.

• Move to hosted solution for work from home?
• Quickly and easily allow people to work from home?
• Save money on managing and updating premise-based system?​

CCaaS
Contact Center as a Service
Hosted Call Center seats and solutions that allow you have a simple or complex group of agents with the ability to make and/or receive calls as well as use advanced routing technologies such as "bots", "speech analytics", "skills-based routing", and more to maximize productivity and minimize costs.

• Setup a contact center or replace your existing one.
• Add features and functionality to your group.
• See real-time activity and reporting on agents.
• Reduce costs associated with contact center.

Misc
We have a wide range of products and services from hundreds of providers across the country and 

• Office365 and GSuite licenses setup and support?
• Billing and support for all of your Office365 and GSuite needs and projects.
• Telehealth "in a box" that allows doctors to connect with their patients using a provided tablet device, blood pressure cuff, heart rate monitor, and more.  It allows them to voice or video chat with the doctor or nurse and allows them to monitor their health remotely.

We have heard from businesses across the country complaining that their internet connections at home and the office are horrible during the quarantine. Poor internet access is affecting their ability to communicate with customers and be productive while working from home. Salespeople and technicians from competing providers are quick to tell you that if you switch to their service, everything will be better.  However, depending on the CAUSE of your issues, switching providers may not solve the problem. City Communications is here to help you get to the root of your issues and implement a real solution.

What Problems Are You Experiencing?

Internet Bouncing Up and Down

• Check with the provider to make sure they aren't having over-subscription or equipment issues on their end.
• Add a redundant connection such as Cable, DSL, Fiber, Wireless, or whatever is available within your budget and aggregate them together using SD WAN. 
• Check internet connections at every point between where they come in from the provider and where they terminate.  Make sure that the wires are plugged in and connected tightly.  Make sure that there are no kinks, breaks, or places where you cat may have chewed on it.  Intermittent issues are sometimes the result of loose wiring.
• Reboot your modem, router, etc.  Sometimes rebooting equipment can clear issues.
• Once you have eliminated any issues on your end, and the connection is still bad and the carrier isn't able to fix it, then we might need to look at replacing the provider (depending on what options are available).

Poor Call Quality

• Make sure that voice traffic is prioritized over internet traffic and streaming services such as Netflix, Xbox, etc.  We can do this easily using SD WAN.
• Check the quality of the connection including the amount of "jitter" and "latency".  If it is a carrier issue, then we might consider other options or supplementing it with a secondary connection and SD WAN.
• Check with the phone provider to make sure they aren't showing any issues on their side.  It is rare that the hosted VOIP provider is the issue, but it is worth eliminating that as the reason.  If it is part of the problem, we have a number of other options for you to consider.

Poor Video Conferencing 

• Make sure that the video traffic is prioritized after your voice traffic and before all other internet and streaming services.
• Check the quality of the connection including the amount of "jitter" and "latency".  If it is a carrier issue, then we might consider other options or supplementing it with a secondary connection and SD WAN.
• Some of the conferencing services have been performing better during the pandemic than others.  We have access to all of them and can help you get into the right solution.

If you are having any of these issues with your business or work-from-home employees and would like our expert help, schedule a FREE Virtual Meeting below with one of our specialists.  With solutions available from our over 150 providers, we can help you alleviate the issues for good. Contact us today to discuss your situation. 

Everyone has been impacted by the shutdown and we are receiving tons of calls from customers asking what they can do to reduce their monthly expenses.  Here are the top 7 things that we are doing right now.  Contact us today to discuss your situation and how we might be able to help you out.  Or get started by completing the FREE Technology Assessment.

1.  Request credits and/or relief from vendors.  If you are in a business that is shut down right now, many of the carriers are rolling out linkprograms and processes for suspending charges or giving credits during the shutdown.

2.  Do a FREE CityCare Technology Assessment (currently offered for FREE).  The assessment will allow us to look at all of your services and make recommendations will reduce your costs while meeting your needs now and after the shutdown.  Start the Assessment Now.

3.  Telecom Expense Management.  We have a few great TEM (Telecom Expense Management) options that allow are a great way for organizations to save money by having all of their invoices automatically loaded into the system, analyzed, and even paid.  Typically the cost is 2-4% of your monthly spend, but the savings found from unneeded services, billing errors, accounting time, and more will typically yield a 10-15% return.   

4.  Migrate to an SD WAN network.  If you are using MPLS or private line connections to connect your offices and people, we should look at moving your to an SD WAN network.  You can use cheaper connections, have more visibility and control, and best of all it is simple to deploy.  You can even add devices to some or all of your work-from-home employees to help them prioritize business traffic like phone calls and video calls over Netflix and Xbox streaming.  

5.  Migrate to a Hosted Phone System for your office workers and contact center personnel.  All of our providers are offering special incentives, low or no term agreements, and fast-start options to get your people connected and working from home.  Best of all, when the shutdown is over, you can continue to use the solutions in the office or at home.

6.  Consider Carrier Aggregation.  Some of our customers have found savings in switching carriers and/or aggregating their services with one of our carrier aggregators.  Typically you can aggregate things like:  Broadband Internet, POTs lines, and mobile devices and plans.   

7.  Review cell phone and mobile device options.  It is painful to migrate everyone over to a new carrier with new devices.  We can do it if your current carrier(s) aren’t working for you, or we can look at one of our aggregation carriers that will help you set limits, manage usage plans, and handle upgrading and replacing devices.  The service typically pays for itself and then some, by reducing overages and soft-cost time of dealing with all of it.  You can also lock down devices to only be used for business applications as we continue to evolve in this work-from-home environment.

City Communications can be a resource for dealing with the mandated work-from-home situation that we all face.  Many clients are scrambling around to implement a new strategy or shore up the one that they had in place.  Below are a few of the things that we might be able to help with:
​
Video Conferencing Meetings Collaboration
We have a number of stand-alone solutions available including:  Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts,  If you have (or are interested in) a hosted phone solution, many of them include a conferencing option with the seats. We work with top companies such as:  FluentStream, CityHosted, Nextiva, 8x8, Jive, and many more.  There is a ton of promotions out right now and a lot of support.

Work-from-home Kits
We also have some providers that can provide turnkey solutions to working from home for your employees.  The solutions could include:  mobile wifi devices and plans, tablet devices, laptops, etc.  Even more important is the fact that they can configure them and lock them down so that your employees are only using them for work functions and not other stuff.  They can be pre-configured and dropshipped to your employees for an easy touch-free deployment.  Typically there is a minimum of 25 devices for this type of service.  

Contact Center
We have a number of solutions that would allow you to turn up a new group of agents working from home using their own internet connections while still giving you visibility, reporting, and remote listen and barge capabilities.

Backup and Restore
As we are having more people work from home, it is more critical to make sure that you have your services backed up and that they are easy to restore if you have a user accidentally (or intentionally) delete files.  We have a number of providers that can help you with the configurations and policies necessary to work in a remote environment. 
​
Bandwidth for VPN, MPLS, or SD-WAN
If you have an existing solution extending your local network, you may find that it was not built to have 100% of your employees working remotely.  If you need to upgrade your current bandwidth or add additional redundant connections, we can help.


If there is anything else that you are working on that I might be able to help with, please let us know.  We would be happy to help try and run down a solution for you.