A 28-person real estate brokerage in Atlanta was paying $4,100 per month for their phone system — two PRI circuits, a maintenance contract, and per-feature charges that had accumulated over 8 years of "just add it to the bill" decisions.
We migrated them to cloud VoIP in one weekend. The new system cost $672 per month. They saved $3,428 in the first month. The implementation cost (28 IP phones at $130 each) was $3,640. Break-even: 11 days.
Here is exactly what happened.
The Old Setup
| Line Item | Monthly Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2 PRI circuits (46 channels) | $1,680 | Only used 8-12 concurrent calls |
| Maintenance contract | $480 | Annual increases, now 3x original |
| Voicemail licenses (28) | $224 | $8/user/month for voicemail |
| Call recording (12 agents) | $360 | Only recorded sales team |
| Auto-attendant license | $85 | Single license for one menu |
| Conference bridge | $125 | Rarely used |
| Long distance charges | $340 | Average monthly |
| IT contractor (phone admin) | $400 | 8 hours/month at $50/hour |
| Feature add-ons (caller ID, etc.) | $406 | Accumulated over years |
| Total | $4,100 |
What They Were Actually Using
I pulled 90 days of CDR data. Reality:
- Peak concurrent calls: 11 (they paid for 46 channels)
- Voicemail: 19 of 28 users checked voicemail regularly
- Conference bridge: used twice in 3 months
- 35 ghost channels generating zero calls but full charges
The New Setup
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| 28 users x $24/month (VestaCall standard plan) | $672/month |
| Included: unlimited calling, voicemail, recording, auto-attendant, conference, mobile app, video | $0 extra |
| 28 Yealink T33G desk phones | $3,640 one-time |
| Implementation and porting | $0 |
| Monthly total | $672 |
The Migration Weekend
Friday 5 PM: Phones delivered to office. Pre-configured with auto-provisioning — plug in Ethernet cable, phone boots, downloads config, ready in 90 seconds.
Saturday 10 AM: All 28 phones plugged in and tested. Configured ring groups (sales team, admin team, property management). Set up auto-attendant. Connected to their CRM (Follow Up Boss).
Saturday 2 PM: Training session — 45 minutes. Covered: making calls, transferring, voicemail, mobile app setup. Everyone had the mobile app installed and tested before leaving.
Monday 7 AM: Number port completed (submitted Tuesday prior, 5 business days). First call on new system at 7:03 AM. Zero issues.
Monday 5 PM: Old system disconnected.
6 Months Later
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $4,100 | $672 |
| Missed calls | 22% | 4% (ring groups) |
| CRM call logging | 30% manual | 100% automatic |
| After-hours calls answered | 0% | 45% (mobile app) |
| Agent who said "I love this system" | 0 | 24 of 28 |
The 4 agents who did not say they loved it were neutral — none wanted to go back.
For a free bill analysis to see your potential savings, visit VestaCall. Send your current invoices and get a detailed comparison within 48 hours.
Disclosure: I work on platform systems at DialPhone. Observations in this post are from hands-on testing and deployment work rather than vendor briefings.
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