How do I get cheaper phone service for a small business?

I have had an Moma for several years and it is rock solid. Their premier subscription allows you to specify another number to fall back to in case of an internet/service outage.

Moma = Ooma.

If there doesn't seem to be a lot of telephone companies around there, try calling a telephone repairperson and using them as a recommender.

A take-out restaurant? So basically, their phone lines are absolutely essential to their business? I don't have a suggestion, other than to keep the above firmly in mind before encouraging them to use some unproven alternative.

$160 for Business Class land lines is NOT all that much. If there's a long distance plan on the bill, you can cancel that, since the business doesn't use long distance. You can change the Long Distance to Undecided and not have any. It's not a block, it just means that there's no automatic dialing for LD. The business lines may be enriched with every feature known to man, with just Call Waiting and Caller ID activated. Also, if they have roll-over, that costs something (you know, where if the first line is busy, it rolls over to the second line.) If they can do it, they can have one phone for incoming calls, the other for the credit card machine. The rollover service is about $10 per month. The difference between lines fully loaded with features and just regular Flat Rate Service is about $20 per line. If you use only one line for incoming calls, you can add Caller ID as a separate service for between $7 and $10 per month. There are three classes of businss telephone service: 1. Message Rate Service. 1MB. This is the cheapest rate available. Typically has an outgoing call allotment of about 40 free calls, then each outgoing call is .10. Not advocated for lines that use a lot of short, calls. Such as a credit card machine or an alarm system. 2. Flat Rate Service. 1FB. This is the one that most businesses have. It provides unlimited local calling, and the rate is determined by how large the local calling area is. Local phone service in Miami is cheaper than Local Phone service in Atlanta. Miami's local, free calling area is relatively small, Atlanta's incorporates the entire metro. 3. Fully Loaded Service. 1FB with all the features. This is how many small business lines are sold. There's a feature package associated with each line. If one has it, the other must too, this drives up the cost of the monthly bill. The feature package includes Caller ID, Call Waiting (the two most popular features) *69, Call Blocking, Speed Dialing, Call Forwarding, 3-Way calling and a bunch of other esoteric services. It may also include the features necessary for Voice Mail. The features would be Call Forwarding Busy Line and Call Forwarding Don't Answer. The voice mailbox would be extra (tariff reasons for that.) Another thing to look for is Yellow Pages advertising charges. Many local businesses are billed monthly for their directory advertising. I used to do this for a living. My recommendation would be: Change to 1FBs for both lines. Use one line for incoming calls, the other permanantly attached to the credit card machine. Put Caller ID and Call Waiting on line #1. Now you don't need Rollover. Frankly, the reduction in the bill might be $20 per month. Call and see if there are any special bundles or packages your Aunt & Uncle can take advantage of. Other than that, what you have is pretty darn good. Shit costs something.

You could try hosted VOIP. There are two approaches. One uses a phone line (such as ringcentral.com) and one uses an internet line (such as 8x8.com). Worth investigating.

The problem with VoIP is that you need to be on the Internet to use it, and getting business internet access with the reliability and repair time of those current phone lines is going to cost a lot more than $160/mo. I suppose you could get something that has a smartphone client, or a GSM stick, but there's a lot to be said for the simplicity and reliability of "copper comes out of the wall and there's a dialtone on it".

I would strenuously counsel against adding "internet reliability" to your phone service through VOIP.