Teesside businesses have bought their phone systems from us since 1987, from our offices at Preston Farm in Stockton-on-Tees. The question has not changed much in that time: which system should we have? In 2026 the answer comes down to three kinds of system, and to one date that affects all of them.
The three kinds of phone system
| Hosted voice | Microsoft Teams Phone | Mitel MiVoice Business | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | On our network, with nothing to install in your office | Inside Microsoft 365, joined to the phone network through us | A system you own, on your site or hosted by us |
| Suits | A business that wants flexibility without equipment to maintain | A team that already works in Teams all day | A business that wants to own its system, or needs the call handling of a contact centre |
| How people answer | Desk phones, a softphone on the computer, or the mobile app | The Teams app, or a Teams-certified desk phone | Mitel desk phones, cordless handsets and conference phones |
| Who looks after it | Our service desk, remotely | Our team, alongside your Microsoft 365 | Mitel engineers who work for Odyssey |
The everyday features are available on all three: an auto-attendant on the main number, call queues, voicemail, opening-hours rules and outgoing calls that show the business number rather than someone’s personal mobile. The choice is about where the system lives and how your people work, and many businesses end up with two of them joined together.
Hosted voice: nothing in the office
Odyssey Voice is a phone system that lives on our network instead of in a cabinet in your office. Your numbers, auto-attendants and call routing run on our side; every extension rings on a desk phone, a softphone or a mobile app, wherever the person is working. There is no equipment to buy, power or maintain, and a new starter, a desk move or a change to the opening-hours rules is a call to our service desk, usually done there and then.
It suits an office that wants to stop thinking about its phone system. If you already own a system that supports SIP, the same service supplies SIP trunks so you keep it after the switch-off.
Microsoft Teams Phone: calls inside Teams
Teams Phone adds ordinary telephone calls to the Teams your staff use for chat and meetings. Each person who makes or takes outside calls needs a Teams Phone licence, and the licence needs a connection to the phone network: we provide that through Direct Routing to our own telephony platform, so your numbers ring in Teams and the people who look after the connection are at our service desk, not in a call centre.
It suits a business whose staff live in Teams all day. Where part of the business does not, reception or the warehouse for instance, Teams Connect lets Teams users and extensions on an Odyssey phone system call each other, so the office can move to Teams while the shop floor keeps its handsets. Our guide to Microsoft Teams Phone covers the licences and the four ways Teams can reach the phone network.
Mitel MiVoice Business: a system you own
Mitel MiVoice Business is the system we install where a business wants to own its phone system, or needs the call routing, presence and resilience of a busy customer team. It can be installed on your site or hosted on our infrastructure with failover, and it is supported by Mitel engineers who work for Odyssey. Several of our longest-standing clients run hosted Mitel.
Where calls need queuing, recording and reporting, or the caller’s record on screen as the call arrives, contact centre and CTI is built on it.
Keeping your 01642, 01429 and 01325 numbers
Customers know your numbers, so the numbers move with you to whichever system you choose. They are ported from most providers on an agreed date, and until then the lines you have keep working. Porting usually takes 10 to 20 working days for single numbers, longer for ranges.
The step before the port matters more than the port itself. Every line and number in the building gets listed first, with where it goes and who answers it: the main number, the direct dials, the number on the van, the fax nobody uses. Only what is on the list moves, and the list is also where the lines that cannot move to a phone system at all turn up.
What changes on 31 January 2027
BT and Openreach retire the analogue and ISDN network on 31 January 2027, and no new analogue lines can be ordered now. Every phone system that still depends on those lines has to move, which is why many Teesside businesses are choosing a system this year rather than next.
The phones are the easy part. The alarm, the lift, the card terminal, the door entry panel and the fax often have lines of their own, and each needs a digital replacement arranged with the company that looks after it. Our PSTN switch-off check shows what in your building still runs on the old network.
Handsets for the desk, the warehouse and the boardroom
Nobody has to have a desk phone. A softphone on a laptop or the mobile app suits a lot of people, and the people on the phone all day want a headset more than a handset. Reception, the sales floor, the warehouse and the boardroom usually do want a physical phone, and we supply desk phones, cordless handsets and conference phones matched to the system, Mitel, Yealink or Poly, each configured with its user and extension before it reaches you.
Will your internet connection cope?
On all three systems the calls run over your internet connection, so if the line struggles on a Monday morning that comes first. We check what your address can get and recommend business broadband or a leased line to carry the calls as well as everything else, with a 4G or 5G backup so the phones keep ringing if the line fails.
Who installs and supports it in Teesside
Our own engineers install the system and the handsets, never subcontractors, and the same service desk in Stockton-on-Tees supports it afterwards, answered within three rings. We do this for businesses across Teesside and the North East, including Middlesbrough, Stockton, Billingham, Thornaby, Hartlepool, Darlington and Redcar.
If you would like the three options compared for your business, see our business telephone systems page, ask for a proposal, or call us on 01642 661888.