Fathom Voice

PBX stands for Public Branch eXchange and it is essentially a computer that runs the phone system for businesses. It allows phone systems to have advanced calling features and do more than basic inbound and outbound calling.

More businesses are now switching to the "Hosted" PBX, or "Cloud" model because these solutions eliminate the very expensive purchase of equipment, drastically reduce maintenance and technical skills to perform costly upgrades that are typically outdated at the point of purchase.

Fathom Voice offers a Cloud PBX.

A Cloud PBX provides even more functionality for your business than the traditional system. Using a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone, the system is connected remotely through the Internet to equipment housed offsite at the service provider's servers. The PBX equipment is maintained and updated by the provider therefore alleviating the hassle and technical duties of the PBX equipment. The only equipment required for a Cloud PBX are SIP compatible phones and a reliable broadband Internet connection.

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol and it is the action of making phone calls using the Internet instead of the old copper wires that have been used for 130 years. VoIP takes the sound of your voice and turns it into audio packets, then these packets are sent over the Internet. There is no difference in the way you make calls nor will the person you talk to notice a difference. VoIP service runs over an IP phone and can provide all of the features of an analog PBX system plus more with its added Internet features.

A VoIP or IP phone is a phone that connects to the Internet using a CAT 5 cable instead of the CAT 3 cable that is used to connect analog phones. Some phones do have the capability to connect to both. The phones convert the sound of your voice into audio packets and then transfer that over the Internet allowing for less delay and crisper sound.

Yes, faxing with VoIP is possible but if you have researched this subject, you probably know that it has its fair share of problems. Luckily, VoIP faxing has made major advances and now there are companies that specialize in this area. There are a couple of options that Fathom Voice offers. The first being an ATA adapter that connects to your current faxing machine and enables it to be ran over our network. Another possibility is with Internet-Based faxing, which allows you to send and receive faxes from Go.FathomVoice. This service is still in Beta but we are hoping to release it soon. It offers our client the ability to have all of their communication services hosted through us.

That depends. Do you currently have an IP phone? IP phones, compatible with Fathom Voice, are designed to perform on our network with software specifically designed for the purpose of working with VoIP service providers. We use "cloud" or "hosted" systems to eliminate the need to buy expensive equipment that will soon be outdated, so some of your equipment may not even be used.

IP phones are digital and can connect directly to our network through the Internet, eliminating the need and cost of a phone system and all of its additional cables in your already crowded equipment room. As a result, you will save thousands of dollars over the life of the equipment as well as providing you the opportunity to focus less on the technology and more on your valued customers.

If you would prefer to keep your phones, an ATA adapter could be purchased and connected to your current analog phone line in order to allow you to use your existing phones. There will be some limitations on features if you choose this route, however, making inbound and outbound calling and unlimited voicemail would still be offered.

Enhanced911 or E911, is required by law for your VoIP phone system and is a feature in which your business cannot "opt out." Since your system will use a dedicated IP, you will have ready access to the 911 system. Meaning, if you needed to call 911, the address on file for E911 would be the address paramedics, police, fire, etc. would respond to in the event of an emergency. This fee is also used to fund computer software and hardware upgrades for public safety answering points to locate a caller who dials 911.

With Direct Inward Dialing (DID), Fathom Voice allows you the luxury to use multiple numbers within your business. You can have a local number for your office, a direct dial or even a local number from some other city! For example, at your desk you may want to receive calls through your company's main number but with an additional DID, you can also receive calls through a number given just to you that you might publish separately on a business card or letterhead in order to track callers. You can also use different DID numbers to track sales on different publications, or even if you want customers to think you have an office in a different location. Fathom Voice does charge a nominal fee of $1.00 per DID per month added to your basic Fathom Voice service.

Under the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC's) "local number portability" (LNP) rules, as long as you remain in the same geographic area, you can switch telephone service providers, including interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers, and keep your existing phone number. If you are moving from one geographic area to another, however, you may not be able to take your number with you. Therefore, subscribers remaining in the same geographic area can switch from a wireless, wireline, or VoIP provider to any other wireless, wireline or VoIP provider and still keep their existing phone numbers. Thankfully, this only has to be done once for each number that you have. The fee is the actual act of us purchasing the number from your old carrier. Meaning you will be able to keep your existing number and not have to inform all your clients and business connections of a number change.

A broadband Internet connection is required for you to take advantage of VoIP services. The biggest issue with VoIP service is caused by slow or inconsistent bandwidth. You can check your bandwidth speed by going to pingtest.net and speedtest.net

The only other equipment neccessary for VoIP phone service is an IP phone. VoIP service is not ran on a POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) or analog system and therefore IP phones are required to send and receive the audio via the Internet.

All other equipment is hosted by Fathom Voice in our Hosted solution. If the service is not Hosted then the purchase or lease of a PBX system is required to receive PBX features such as Call Forwarding, Voicemail to Email, FindMe FollowME and various other features.

There are a couple of options available to using a credit card machine with VoIP phone service. First, it is important to know if your machine can connect to the Internet or not. Unfortunately most older credit machines are not, but many of the newer machines have an Ethernet connection on them. If your credit card machine does, then no problem! It is a fairly easy transition.

If you do not have an ethernet connection, the other option is to keep a separate analog line with your old phone company. With this line you could bundle the credit card machine, alarm system, and faxing line together onto one line if you had all three. This is the cheapest and some contend easiest option if you already have analog lines and do not want to be bothered with purchasing adaptors and/or new fax machines, credit card machines and alarm systems.

There are a couple of options for this situation as well and they are very similar to the situation with the credit card machine. It is important to contact your alarm system provider and double check if your alarm system is compatible with VoIP service. Many are, especially newer systems, and should not have any issues with VoIP.

1. There is a converter that can be put in place that allows the alarm system to work with VoIP.
2. Keep one line with your old phone service provider. This would be an analog line and you could bundle your alarm system, credit card machine and fax line all on this one line. This saves money and it is an easy transformation as all the lines and equipment are already in place.

This may lead you to another question. If they all are bundled together, which one takes priority? A proxy can be set to give priority to each action as you see fit. For example, the alarm system could take precedence over fax and credit card machine.

Yes, technically all you need for the phones to work is a solid Internet connection and your phone will work. However, a valid E911 address is required by the government so it is not recommended by us to do so, unless we receive the new location to update your E911. The reason being, if 911 were dialed by your phone the ambulance or police report to wherever the phone's E911 address is registered.

A viable option to this problem is taking advantage of the features we offer. You could enable "FindMe," a feature that allows you to program all calls received by your desk phone to your cell phone or other predetermined phone. If you did not answer the call passed on to your cell phone, the call would automatically switch back to your desk phone for the caller to leave a voicemail. All without the caller ever knowing he or she had been transferred between phones. This helps to avoid cluttering your cell phone with work voicemails. If in fact you want the voicemail don't worry; with the "Voicemail to Email" feature, you receive a wave file with the message left by the person trying to reach you that can be listened to on your smartphone.

Another option is to simply have all your calls transferred to your cell phone before leaving the office. It is as easy to activate as pressing one button and entering in the alternative number in which you can be reached. With all of these features available physically taking your phone with you when you travel is not needed!

Yes, a VoIP call does not require much bandwidth and should not interfere with the Internet or your computer. In fact, a proxy can be set to where the voice traffic is positioned first; resulting in crystal clear voice communication. Additionally your computer does not even need to be on or connected to the Internet to use your VoIP phone.

Please know that we will never sell you a piece of technology and leave you to figure it all out on your own. You can call our support team, the Weeks Geeks, and we will assist you in any way we can by offering suggestions and tips. Our team of experts will often be able to help you find a solution without having to purchase any new equipment. However, phones are a piece of equipment and as we all know sometimes equipment malfunctions.

Upon purchasing the phones or signing up for our service you will be walked through an easy setup process on our web based software, Go.FathomVoice. With this tool you will answer all the questions needed to enroll with our service. Upon completing the enrollment process, your numbers will be submitted to port (if you have any you would like to bring over) and your phone service will be setup with Fathom Voice service.

Before reaching this point it is mandatory to have tested your bandwidth by using a speed and ping test to ensure you have the appropriate amount to use your VoIP phones. (To test your bandwidth, visit speedtest.net and pingtest.net)

With VoIP phone service, and more specifically a Cloud VoIP PBX, there are a number of advantages, but we will highlight a few of the major ones here:

• Cost savings-not having to purchase or lease an in-house PBX system can save a significant amount of money. Furthermore, the cost savings each month off of your previous provider. On average we save our clients 40% from what they previously paid for phone service.
• No additional amounts for adding features-without a PBX system, all the features that are necessary for business phone service would not be possible.
• Easily managed-you can easily add lines and manage features. Fathom Voice offers advanced calling features such as Voicemail to Email, Ring Groups, Call Queues, Call Recording and FindMe. There are a long list of features provided at no additional cost listed on the Fathom Voice page offering descriptions of each and their purpose. http://fathomvoice.com/fathomvoice
• Versatility-a VoIP phone system is portable. Comes in handy when changing office locations or your business necessitates mobility.

VoIP technology is changing the way we think about phone service and innovations are happening everyday. However, there are some potential drawbacks to the technology that, until they have been resolved, they are worth noting.

Faxing (link to the faxing question) provided by a lot of VoIP providers is not typically reliable. There are companies that are dedicated to only providing VoIP faxing and that is the best alternative for now. The same thing is true for Credit Card Machines and Alarm Systems; depending how new they are, they may or may not be VoIP compatible.

In years past call quality and reliability has been questioned. However, technology has taken great strides and more reliable networks, offering the bandwidth quality needed to provide quality voice service, are available for businesses and providers.

The final disadvantage of VoIP is it is not always available to everyone. If an Internet connection is not available to your building or region, then VoIP will not be a possibility.

In the past, and quite frankly not too many years ago, call quality and reliability were an issue for VoIP users. Steps have been taken on both the consumer and the supplier side to ensure both of these issues are resolved. Networks have become faster, more reliable and bandwidth has increased. The enhanced Internet Networks allow for faster and more reliable calls to be made and crystal clear voice service from VoIP telephone systems. So to answer the question... yes, call quality with sufficient bandwidth is good.

Yes, faxing with VoIP is possible but if you have researched this subject you probably know that it has had it's fair share of problems. Luckily VoIP faxing has made some advances and companies have come along that specialize in this area. There are a couple of options that Fathom Voice offers. There is a VoIP Faxing company we use called Faxxboch and they provide a 100% guaranteed solution if faxing is a must for your company. Also, Internet-Based faxing is possible where you would send and receive faxes directly to your email. Again, this is not a service we provide but we can point you in the direction of different providers for you to use.

None! Assuming you have an IP phone then you already have all the equipment needed to use a VoIP telephone system. There is no need to purchase any other equipment if you switch to a Cloud PBX provider such as Fathom Voice. There is a fee to Port your number (The action of purchasing your number from your previous provider) but that is done at cost. Besides that all you need to do is sign up for the service!

That depends, do you currently have an IP phone? Fathom Voice requires an IP phone for its service to work. Or, an ATA adapter could be purchased and connected to your current analog phone line in order allow you to use your current phones. There will be some limitations to features that we offer if you choose this route but making inbound and outbound calling and unlimited voicemail would still be offered.

We will make every attempt to port your current phone numbers to our service. If, for some reason, this cannot be done or if you choose; new numbers can be issued from any area code within the United States. There are some geographical restrictions and contract restrictions that could limit us to port your number. However, this is not a common occurrence and the majority of the time your numbers will be ported.

No! We feel if you are paying us for our phone service then you should be able to use all of our services! We are continuously introducing new features onto our Fathom Voice line and you will be updated when those services are available. We will never charge you for taking advantage of one of our features because they are there for you.

Yes, we provide low rates for international calling-just ask us for rates. However, if you do not want your employees to have the ability to make International calls, this feature can easily be turned on and off.

Your voice contract with Fathom Voice includes the services of our technical support team, the Weeks Geeks to handle issues with your phone service. Within zero (0) to four (4) hours of initial notification to Weeks Support, a Support Engineer will already have begun working to fix the problem. They are assessable by email at support@fathomvoice.com and by phone at 765.251.8640 ext. 2. How-To Guides, Demonstrations, Tutorials and other literature are provided for your convenience. These offer helpful tips and support to walk you through whatever issues you may be encountering. Additional support can be provided but depending on the nature of the issue you may be billed if it is not related to your phones.

Many issues can be fixed, or features changed, by going to your "Fathom Voice" page and reviewing the extension to be edited there. We also offer a lot of information and tutorial videos online for our clients’ benefit. In the event that you cannot, many issues can be handled remotely by our Support Technicians. You can reach out to us via email support@fathomvoice.com, phone 765-251-8640 ext 2, or through the Support section of our website.

Your voice contract with Fathom Voice includes the services of our technical support team, the Weeks Geeks to handle issues with your phone service. Within zero (0) to four (4) hours of initial notification to support, a Support Engineer will already have begun working to fix the problem. They are assessable by email at support@fathomvoice.com and by phone at 765.251.8640 ext. 2. How-To Guides, Demonstrations, Tutorials and other literature are provided for your convenience. These offer helpful tips and support to walk you through whatever issues you may be encountering. Additional support can be provided but depending on the nature of the issue you may be billed if it is not related to your phone service.

Fathom Voice agrees with you that down time is unacceptable. We will follow strict guidelines when switching from your current provider to ensure that you don't miss a call. Whether moving your current system or installing one for the first time, our target is: "no downtime, period." We offer a Five-9's guarantee (99.999% up-time) which relates to 6 minutes of down-time each year. We have a financially backed guarantee that our network will not go out for more than that or you will be compensated for the time lost.

Fathom Voice has taken extra efforts in order to assure your phone system stays online during unexpected events. We have put in place a disaster recovery plan that has many levels to it. One of the more important levels is the battery backup plan. This allows the power to go out, but your phones still have the ability to run off of the battery power for a limited amount of time. Thus, allowing time for the power to return and you have no down time. Another level is our disaster recover call forwarding plan. We can forward all of your calls to go to a different extensions, or number, in order for you to receive the calls made to your business at this time. This again offers no missed calls and no down time. The third plan we have in place is a mass message or text to employees with an automated script to explain what has occurred and what proper procedure should be. This allows for you to reach every employee with sending out one text or message.

All of those actions are available to take if something were to happen to your place of business or the power that runs your network. But, what about our network? We are glad you asked! We have different servers located across the country allowing us to offer a five-9's guarantee for up-time during the year. Meaning we guarantee that .99999% of the time our network will be up and that only leaves 6 minutes of down-time a year! We financially back our promise as well, so you can rest easy knowing that your phone system is financially guaranteed by Fathom Voice. How can we do this? Well, we have servers from the east coast to the west coast that are completely mirrored. Meaning, at one time all of our data is not only located in one server with the potential for a crash to bring our system down. If one of those servers would go down then the information would automatically be "transferred" to the other locations. With this ability to "float" and not be in a physical location we could loose over ¾'s of our servers that cover the United States and still have no down-time. It's with this plan that we are confident in offering the industry's best down-time guarantee to all of our customers.

We have a couple different ways we can provide your employees phones.

1. 1. We could set up a phone at your existing office and forward all calls to their cell phone.
2. 2. We can install an extension at their house or remote site, assuming they have sufficient bandwidth.
3. 3. We can provide them a virtual extension that gives them a number but all calls are forwarded to their cell phone. Ask a Fathom Voice sales representative for more information on this fantastic offering!

You bet! You can go online and purchase the extensions there or just contact us here at Fathom Voice and we will make it happen for you. VoIP phone service is easily scalable whether you are adding or subtracting a line. Price breaks are offered on lines as you continue to grow because we are committed to helping your company grow and succeed.

Absolutely. Each Fathom Voice VoIP phone uses its own port or shares one with your computer. As a result, you may take that important call while entering the client's data at the same time! VoIP calls do not require that much bandwidth and should have no affect on the speed of your Internet. Please visit our Bandwidth Requirements scale in order to assure you have enough bandwidth to accommodate the number of phones you require.

Any new features or upgrades to our service or network are automatically done to all of our extensions and you will be notified of the available features. We are constantly innovating and creating new features so that we can offer premiere features along with our world-class voice service. Weeks Communications does not purchase old or used equipment but contact us for helpful ideas of places to sell your equipment for the best value.

When newer technology rolls out, you are not required to upgrade unless a new industry standard or a legal issue requires it (think analog vs. digital TV). However, we will be offering promotional pricing so you may find it more inexpensive than you thought to move to a new product.

We are so confident that you will love our services, that we don't feel the need to rope you into a long-term agreement. All of our voice contracts are based off of a month to month term. If at any time you wish to cancel your service all you have to do is give us a 30 day notice and it will be cancelled at the end of the month. We stand behind our services to the end, and we hope that your service with us will never end because we are able to keep you happy and satisfied.

Yes... We understand that this is not really a yes or no question so if you would like more specific details please contact a Fathom Voice sales associate for more information at info@fathomvoice.com. Explain your question to them and they will be more than happy to assist you. This is typically brought up only with extremely large clients that have at least 500 or more extensions. If you are not at this level the answer would usually be a no.

No, our phones can share the CAT5 cable your computer uses for networking and Internet connectivity. For the phones with no CAT5 cabling, we can use an Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA) to provide an analog single line to that device using the existing CAT3 cabling.

If there is CAT5 cabling assessable in the office the phones can use the same port that the computer uses allowing you to not have to rewire the building or choose the phone or computer.

This could be handled the same way as mentioned previously for phones that do not have a nearby CAT5 port. We would install an ATA device in the closet where the device currently terminates. The ATA device converts from IP (Internet Protocol) to analog allowing us to use the CAT3 cabling.

No problem! All it takes is following the "Transfer Call" process and you can transfer calls easily throughout the United States as long as every office site is connected to the Fathom Voice Data Center with a certified IP Phone.

To see the service plans and products we offer please go to our VoIP Buying Guide page. You will find a list of the phones we sell and recommend along with our voice service.

We have created a scale for you to use when evaluating your Internet speeds and how many phones to purchase. This scale tells you how much bandwidth will be required to use your phone and have crystal clear voice quality. The phones can be set to use more or less bandwidth if that is necessary. At Fathom Voice, we use the highest bandwidth available in order to offer the best voice quality possible.

There can only be one Billing Contact at a time for a particular company, and we email our invoices to the designated contact person. In order to have multiple email addresses receive these emails, create an email distribution list and set the distribution email as the Billing Contact.

Watch how to change your billing contact information

To add/remove/change the billing account contact log into Go.FathomVoice. Once inside of Fathom select “Settings” from the left side column. Next select “fathom users” from the pop out list. Depending upon your desired action, whether you wish to add/remove/change contacts, select the appropriate Fathom user. Under the Edit User box on the right, either select or deselect the box next to “Billing Contact”.

1. To set up or change your credit card information log into Go.FathomVoice. Once inside of Fathom select “Settings” from the left side column. Next select the “credit cards” tab underneath the bold Billing section. There you will see the credit cards that the company has on file.

2. To edit a current card: select the credit card you wish to change. Inside the Edit Card pop out you will be able to make all of the necessary changes to your credit card. Once you are finished select “Update Card” on the bottom left side of the box.

3. To delete a current card: select the credit card that you wish to delete. Inside the Edit Card pop out select “Delete Card” on the bottom right of the page.

4. To set up a credit card: select “+ new credit card” from the bottom of the page. Then you will be prompted to fill out all of the necessary information about the card. Once all information is complete, click “Save New Card” at the bottom of the right side tab.

*Important to note- make sure the box next to “Make Default” is selected to make it the primary card on file for your account.

To view your bills online log into Go.FathomVoice. Once inside of Fathom select “Settings” from the left side column. Next select the “transactions” tab underneath the bold Billing section. You will then see “Account Balance”, “Create Transaction”, and “Monthly (followed by the invoice month and date)”. To check your account balance or to post a payment you can click the “Account Balance” tab. If you wish to view an invoice, select the particular month of your choice and you will see a breakdown of the charges and services you received. To download a copy of your invoice select “Download Invoice”. This will bring up a new, printable, page for you to view your invoice.

No, we do not mail any of our invoices. This is done to ensure we offer the most efficient billing process possible. Which in turn allows us, and you, to save time, money, and use less paper!

A credit card or ACH is our preferred method of payment, however paying by check is also acceptable in approved circumstances. We mandate every company have a credit card on file.

If you pay by check, we will charge the card we have on file for your company the date posted on the invoice. If an ACH transfer or card expires, is discontinued, or has insufficient funds, we will contact the billing contact to correct the issue within 2 business days. If past 2 days 10% charge of your monthly bill will occur. If past 5 business days, you will receive notification and charged an additional 25% of your monthly bill. If the charge not been paid in 8 business days, we will put a suspension on the account. If not paid in 10 business days, service will be terminated and 100% of payment is due. After 45 days of not being paid we suspend your ability to make and receive calls. If quick payment becomes an issue finance charges will be added to your account.

As Fathom Voice’s spokesperson, Graham keeps our clients informed about our company, provides VoIP information and is the Artificial Intelligence that helps manage our data centers. You might have received emails from Graham, as he helps us send out messages to our clients; sends you emails if you have voicemail to email enabled; or informs you of your invoicing if you are the billing contact!

To sign up for automatic payment with a credit card:

Watch how to set up Automatic Payment

1. To set up or change your credit card information log into Go.FathomVoice. Once inside of Fathom select “Settings” from the left side column. Next select the “credit cards” tab underneath the bold Billing section. There you will see the credit cards that the company has on file.

2. To edit a current card: select the credit card you wish to change. Inside the Edit Card pop out, you will be able to make all of the necessary changes to your credit card. Once you are finished select “Update Card” on the bottom left side of the box.

3. To delete a current card: select the credit card that you wish to delete. Inside the Edit Card pop out select “Delete Card” on the bottom right of the page.

4. To set up a credit card: select “+ new credit card” from the bottom of the page. Then you will be prompted to fill out all of the necessary information about the card. Once all information is complete, click “Save New Card” at the bottom of the right side tab.

*Important to note- make sure the box next to “Make Default” is selected to make it the primary card on file for your account.

To sign up for automatic payment with an ACH transfer:

1. Contact our billing department at billing@fathomvoice.com to request an ACH form. Upon receipt of the form, please print, fill it out and then scan or fax it to us. This process will create an automatic transfer agreement to have invoices paid through your account.

2. You will continue to receive and view your invoices at any time.

Any questions on your invoice can be directed to our Accounting Department at billing@fathomvoice.com. Please include the invoice number in question, your company name and a summary of the issue or question.

If you are a tax exempt company, please provide the appropriate documentation to billing@fathomvoice.com and we will update your account.

We require all clients have a credit card on file to ensure there is a backup in place in the event of not receiving payment on time. This encourages our check paying clients to pay on time and avoids the hassle of issuing late payment charges.

One suggestion is the invoices could be going into your Spam/Junk folder. Please add Graham@fathomvoice.com to your contacts and check your Spam/Junk folder. If after doing so, you still are not receiving invoices, please confirm your billing contact information on your Fathom account.

A negative balance on your account indicates what is still owed on your account. You can post a payment on your account to get rid of the negative balance by posting a credit card payment or issuing a check. To review a breakdown of your activity, select the Account Balance tab on your account-CRT stands for credit, INV indicates an invoice and PMT is payment.