Case Study:

How Fryer-Knowles, Inc. Cut Telecom Costs by 60% While Getting 15x More Bandwidth

The Challenge

Fryer-Knowles, Inc., Washington State's most experienced marine flooring and deck covering contractor, was running its entire business - phones and internet included - on an aging Ethernet Over Copper (EOC) bundle from Allstream. The setup delivered 6 phone lines and just 20 Mb of internet bandwidth, which was no longer enough to support day-to-day operations.

The catch: Fryer-Knowles was locked into that Allstream contract until 2025. Any plan for an upgrade had to account for a legacy commitment that couldn't simply be canceled overnight.

The Solution

We started by qualifying the Fryer-Knowles location with three major carriers - Wave, Lumen, and Comcast - to see what real options existed for the building. Comcast came out ahead, and Fryer-Knowles moved forward with a 300 Mb / 25 Mb Business Cable connection, a massive jump from their previous 20 Mb line. Their IT provider configured the firewall to run both connections side by side, so the upgrade could go live without disrupting business.

With the new internet in place, we turned to the harder problem: what to do about voice once the Allstream contract finally expired. Rather than replace one legacy system with another, we evaluated three modern UCaaS providers on Fryer-Knowles' behalf - Net2Phone, Avaya Cloud Office, and RingCentral - comparing features, reliability, and cost. RingCentral came out as the clear fit.

Once RingCentral was implemented, we brought in our partner Headset Advisors to make sure the team was equipped with the right headsets for the new system - a small detail, but one that makes the everyday experience of a new phone system actually feel better, not just different.

With RingCentral live, we were able to fully cancel every remaining Allstream service - voice and data - closing out the legacy contract for good. From there, we layered in a cellular data connection for redundancy, giving Fryer-Knowles a resilient, modern network with no single point of failure.

The Results

  
        Category
        Before
        After
      
        Internet
        20 Mb (EOC)
        300 Mb / 25 Mb (Comcast) + cellular failover
      
        Phone System
        6-line legacy EOC
        RingCentral UCaaS
      
        Monthly Cost
        $1,200 (Allstream)
        $470 total ($330 Comcast + $140 RingCentral)

Fryer-Knowles cut their monthly telecom spend by more than 60% - while gaining 15 times the bandwidth, a modern cloud phone system, and a redundant connection that keeps the business online even if one circuit goes down.

"I loved the new RingCentral solution - I wish we had transitioned to a UCaaS platform a decade ago."

- Susan Bittner, Owner, Fryer-Knowles, Inc.

Why It Worked

This project didn't happen overnight - it took patience to work around an existing contract, and a willingness to qualify multiple carriers rather than pushing one option. That's the advantage of working with an independent advisor: Fryer-Knowles got a plan built around their timeline and their business, not a vendor's quota.

Facing a similar mix of legacy contracts, limited bandwidth, or an outdated phone system? Schedule a consultation and let's map out your options.