Phones and internet when you open or move an office

As soon as you sign the lease

• Find out which providers serve the building, before you sign if you can. Some buildings have one wired provider; some have none.
• Order the internet. Installs take weeks, and months if the provider has to bring fiber to the building. Ask for the install date in writing. See questions to ask before signing an internet contract.
• Plan a backup connection. If the main line is late or goes down, a cellular backup keeps phones and card terminals working.
• Check the current lease for your old office. Internet and phone contracts don't end when the lease does.

A month out

• Decide what happens to your numbers. With a cloud phone system they usually move with you. If you're switching providers at the same time, see switching providers and keeping your number.
• Walk the new space for phone and network jacks, where the internet comes in, and where the network equipment will live. It needs power and some airflow.
• Plan Wi-Fi for the whole space, with a separate network for guests.
• Ask the landlord about the building's own lines: fire alarm, elevator phone, gate or door call box. Find out who pays for them and whether they are on copper. See what a POTS line is.

The 911 rules for business phone systems

Federal rules for business phone systems with several lines require that anyone can dial 911 directly, without dialing 9 or any other prefix first. Where the system can do it, it has to alert a central point at the business, such as the front desk, when someone calls 911. And it has to send the caller's location with the call.

Moving offices is when this breaks. Update the emergency address for every phone and user on the new system before the first day in the new space, down to the suite or floor.

Source: 47 CFR 9.16.

Moving day

• Confirm the internet is live before the movers arrive, not after.
• Plug in the phones and test inbound and outbound calls, including from a cell phone.
• Test card terminals, printers and anything that prints labels.
• Make a test call to your main number from outside and check the menu and after-hours rules.
• Leave the old office's internet running for a few days in case something was missed.