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How Often Should You Upgrade Your Phone System?
Considering how fast technology evolves, here's how often established and growing businesses should upgrade their phone systems.
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Business owners and professionals need their phone systems to be reliable, fast and up to date, just like the rest of their tools and technology. It’s important to review your phone system regularly to ensure it’s still efficient and aligned with your company’s changing needs.
Here’s everything you need to know about upgrading your business phone system, including when to update, what to look for and how to ensure your upgrade goes smoothly.
How often should you upgrade your phone system?
Upgrading timelines will differ depending on your business, industry and other factors. However, at a minimum, you should perform full maintenance checks every 12 months and reevaluate your communications setup every three to five years as technology continues to evolve quickly.
Many companies are proactive about modernizing as new capabilities emerge and customer expectations shift. That’s because older phone systems eventually hit a limit, especially when your business starts relying on tools or features your current setup wasn’t built to handle.
Recent research reflects this push to modernize. According to Sinch’s The State of Customer Communications report, 46 percent of business leaders plan to improve how their communications integrate with tools like CRMs and support platforms, and 97 percent are already using or preparing to use AI in their communication systems.
If you’re not sure whether it’s time to upgrade, start by asking yourself a few key questions.
Business-critical questions
- Has your business outgrown your existing phone system? If not, will you outgrow it in the next three to five years?
- Does your phone system include all the features your business needs to operate effectively?
- Is your current office cabling infrastructure suitable for your phone setup?
- Are you missing out on features or efficiencies by not upgrading?
- Is your current phone system still the right type for your business?
- Do you need a cloud-based phone system?
- Do you need an interactive voice response (IVR) setup?
- Do you need an auto-dialer?
- Do you only need a business phone number rather than a full phone system?
- Do you need virtual phone numbers?
- Do you need to switch to a private branch exchange (PBX) or a cloud PBX?
Quality questions
- Are you experiencing a lot of missed or dropped calls?
- Have you had any major phone system issues in the past year? How many?
- What is your overall call quality like?
- Have customers or colleagues complained about the quality of your outbound calls?
- Do you hear a hiss or any other background noise on calls?
- Do you ever notice a delay after dialing?
- How well is your phone system hardware and software performing overall?
- Have repairs become too expensive to justify?
- Are replacement parts getting harder to find?
- Is your network optimized for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)?
Service provider questions
- How is the support from your current phone system provider?
- Is your provider meeting your expectations?
- Are you paying too much for your system or ongoing maintenance?
- Are you contacting your provider more often than you were 12 months ago?
How are phone systems advancing?
The best business phone systems are advancing faster than ever, driven largely by artificial intelligence and machine learning. These technologies are reshaping everything from how calls are routed to how fraud is detected and how agents support customers in real time. At the same time, companies are also shifting away from legacy landlines in favor of more flexible, internet-based solutions like VoIP.
Most of today’s progress falls into four key areas.
1. Businesses are moving from landlines to VoIP.
One of the clearest advancements is the shift away from legacy landlines to VoIP. According to the FCC’s 2025 Voice Telephone Services report, VoIP now makes up about 78 percent of all wireline voice connections in the U.S., while traditional landlines account for only 22 percent.
Companies are choosing VoIP because it’s easier to scale, offers more modern features and integrates with the business tools they already use. As hybrid and remote work plans continue, internet-based calling has become the default for many organizations.
2. AI and machine learning are reshaping phone system features.
The rise of artificial intelligence is reshaping everyday telephony. Modern VoIP and unified communications platforms now offer built-in AI capabilities such as:
- Real-time transcription
- Language translation
- AI-generated call summaries
- Automated call distribution and predictive routing
These upgrades help teams work faster and reduce manual busywork. It’s why 67.8 percent of IT leaders say AI features are important or essential when selecting a unified communications platform, according to UC Today.
3. Technology is strengthening security and fraud prevention.
Security has become a major area of advancement. Today’s systems use AI to detect spoofed numbers, flag unusual behavior and perform pattern analysis to identify potential fraud. These tools have measurable results: the U.S. Treasury reports that enhanced AI and machine-learning processes helped prevent and recover more than $4 billion in fraud and improper payments — a significant jump from the prior year.
4. AI is elevating the customer experience.
AI is also transforming how businesses support their customers. Modern systems can read caller sentiment, provide real-time coaching to agents and pull up relevant knowledge-base content automatically during a call. This leads to clearer conversations and faster resolutions.
Customers notice the difference: Salesforce’s 2025 State of the AI Connected Customer report found that 50 percent of customers value AI when it improves service quality, and 49 percent appreciate it when it speeds up issue resolution.
Tips on how to upgrade your phone system
An upgraded phone system may cost anywhere from $20 to $60 per user per month for cloud-based options, while on-premise systems often range from $500 to $1,500 per handset, plus installation and ongoing maintenance. Most mid-tier VoIP plans that include advanced features — like video conferencing, CRM integrations and AI-powered tools — typically fall in the $25 to $40 per-user range, according to recent cost guides and industry pricing data.
When you’re determining whether it’s time to upgrade and evaluating the best options on the market, keep the following considerations in mind.
Easy expansion
If you’re like most established businesses, you want to grow and evolve, which usually means adding new employees who will need phone access. That’s why it’s important to choose a system that’s easy to scale. Cloud-based phone systems offer the greatest flexibility here, letting you add or remove users instantly without investing in new hardware. Many providers also offer flexible month-to-month contracts, allowing you to adjust your user count based on seasonal demand or business growth.
Call volume and participants
Modern VoIP systems only need about 100 kbps of bandwidth per concurrent call, according to common industry standards. The FCC’s Broadband Speed Guide also notes that VoIP requires less than 0.5 Mbps for a single high-quality call. Businesses simply need enough available bandwidth to cover all simultaneous calls plus normal internet activity.
A good rule of thumb is to reserve 100 kbps per active VoIP line and ensure your business broadband connection still has enough capacity for everyday business apps, video calls and file transfers.
Package details
Make sure you understand exactly what’s included in any phone-system package you’re considering and what each feature might cost. Today’s essential capabilities often include mobile app access, video conferencing, team messaging, call analytics, integrations with the best CRM software and AI-powered tools like transcription or automated call summaries. Many providers bundle these into tiered plans, with entry-level options starting around $20 per user per month and premium packages with advanced AI, analytics and collaboration features reaching $60 or more per user, per month.
Knowing which features matter most to your business ahead of time makes it easier to compare plans and communicate your needs to sales reps. It’s also important to understand any ongoing maintenance costs. And if you’re evaluating refurbished or older on-premise equipment, keep in mind that repairs can add up, especially as parts become harder to source.
Emergencies
It’s important to know how your phone system performs in an emergency and how quickly you can get back online if something goes wrong. Most modern systems run on VoIP, which means an internet outage can temporarily disrupt your service, unless you have safeguards in place. Leading providers now include automatic failover, which instantly reroutes calls to mobile phones or alternate locations if your connection drops.
When comparing systems, look for providers that offer 99.99 percent uptime guarantees and geographic redundancy across multiple data centers. These protections help ensure business continuity and minimize downtime during storms, outages or other unexpected events.
