Small Telephones Systems Verses Multi-line Business Phones

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Selecting the right telephones system from start is forever the most excellent path, but not always the most cost-effective. Prior to heading down to your local electronic store and pick up the cheapest multi-line business phone you will discover, here are few pointers you should try to remember.

Many multi-line business phones have a pretty decent feature set such as voicemail, caller ID, call waiting ID, 3 way calling and intercom (in multi phone setups). These phones integrate the Key System Unit (or KSU) into the phone itself, which means each individual telephones functions as its own "mini phone system." The term KSU, (Key System Unit, Key Signalling Unit or Key Service Unit) dates back to the early day's phone systems, it's basically "the Brain" of the phone system. All call processing data and telephones line interfacing is carried out by the KSU. For many small offices with less than 4 phones (extensions) and 4 telephones lines, these multi-line phones are adequate and economical. However, as a business grows, the many disadvantages of these phones begin to show their merits.

By comparison, multi-line ...
... business phones are sold with the marketing term, "KSU-less design," which translates (in buyers minds) to lower overall costs. Small telephones systems on the other hand include a separate KSU unit or "Brain" as well as each telephone. A major disadvantage comes to play if you end up interfacing your phones with the telephones company lines. The KSU acts as the "line interface," for a phone system, all major system connections terminate at the KSU. Now with each multi-line phone acting as its own "mini phone system," each phone now needs direct connections to each telephones line.

A single telephones line consists of 1 pair of wires. Almost all multi-line phones support up to 4 lines, meaning each multi-line phone needs up to 4 pairs of wires or the equivalent of a standard Cat5e cable. As you begin to add more KSU-less phones to your office you must factor in the cost to install another drop of cat5e (or cat5) cable. You must also account for the additional termination blocks in your telephones closet where all these phones must be "Bridged" (or shared) to the 4 phone lines. As you know, for installations using more than say 4 to 5 phones the wiring aspect can get pretty complex. Anything over 6 or 7 phones has got to be wiring mess, if done unprofessionally, which boosts the cost of these low budget systems. However, this bridged connection is how multi-line phones "intercom" one another. By sending a signal over each bridged line, each extension can communicate without actually tying up some of the 4 phone lines. In the event that every multi-line phone is connected to all 4 lines (or matching number of lines if less than 4), each phone can intercom each other internally while keeping the phone lines free for external calls.

Small Telephones Systems nevertheless, which come equipped with a separate, dedicated KSU unit, are at a distinct advantage in both areas. Having a single KSU unit means a single interface point for the telephones line connections. Many small telephones systems need only a single pair of wire to connect each extension telephones. Therefore for anybody who is deploying quite a few phones in one particular area, you can lay aside dramatically on cabling costs by having your contractor "split" the single Cat5e cable into, at most, 4 single telephones jacks! - This becomes very cost effective as you deploy additional phones. (However, many pros will only split single Cat5 cable once for 2 telephones jacks leaving the remaining wires as spare pairs). Cable management becomes much easier (and neater) as you have not worry about bridging 10 phones to 4 telephones lines. One single pair of wires (to connect to a telephones) of the About 3 pairs in a standard telephones cable is enough for as many lines as the small telephones system can handle since the actual line connections are at the dedicated KSU unit and not at the individual telephones.

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