If you are in sales or consulting, live in the USA or Canada and work most of the time from home, you might find the following article on setting up high quality, low cost, sales communication system worth the time it takes to read.
I’ve been working from a home office since 1995 and have had a variety of communication set-ups and have tried a number of different telephone service providers including Pac-Bell, Sprint, Nextel, British Telecom and T-Mobile.
In setting up my new home office, I had planned to use my cellphone as my only phone with T-Mobile— they have an all you can eat voice and data plan that is reasonable. Unfortunately the signal in my office is very poor and a non-starter for professional communication so I needed a plan “b”.
When I ordered the Internet service I went to the local cable company, Comcast, as they have upgraded their technology and service level and offer a competitive introductory rate for broadband. I declined their phone service at $60 per month however as I knew I could install VOIP myself for a lot less.
I had used Vonage for six months and Skype for about six years in the UK and tried Skype here for a few months, investing in a high quality USB microphone and a noise cancelling headset, but found voice quality very choppy and plenty of times would just get cut off or the sound quality was not good enough for sales conversations. It’s hard enough to get someone on the phone — when you do, static on the line and garbled communication is intolerable.
I was spending about $30 per month on the Skype service and was not happy with service, although Skypetogo was useful in speaking with overseas family members on my cellphone for the price of a local call when out of the office on my cell.
I did some homework on DECT phones
to connect to the VOIP 
system and went my local BestBuy to buy a set and get a couple of recommendations on VOIP. After more homework I opted for the Ooma Telo VOIP system at the basic level and paid just over $200 for the device. The Ooma Telo system (pictured) gives you unlimited phone calls in the US and you pay a fee in advance for International calls at similar International rates to Skype (1.5 cents/minute), but there is no monthly fee, except for local taxes – about $3.00 per month in my case.
I bought a Bluetooth enabled Panasonic KX-TG6581 DECT 6.0 
system with a desk unit and 2 handsets…this is a great phone, optional upgrades are a DECT repeater and extra handsets.
Already the owner of the excellent over the ear Plantronix Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset with a boom 
microphone, I paired this with the handset.
I installed the Ooma system, connected up the DECT phone in about 10 minutes and after the new number was provisioned, started making calls within an hour….crystal clear calls.
I’ve had the system for over a month now and the quality is excellent, my cell phone usage has dropped in half and I have renegotiatied my rate down with T-Mobile. The ROI on this total investment will be less than 6 months. If I had been using Comcast phone services my ROI would have been less than 3 months.
Take-aways
1. There is no room for compromise in quality of your voice communication when selling over the phone .
2. The Ooma Telo system works great and will pay for itself in months.
3. Bluetooth headsets have come a long way and I wear the Voyager Pro all day…I dont even notice it is there.
4. The Panasonic DECT 6.0 phones have a long battery life, work extremely well with Bluetooth and have everything you need.
