You open a provider's website, see "virtual PBX from 375 UAH/month" and put that figure in your budget. A month later, the bill is three or four times higher. Nobody lied: the cost of IP telephony is made up of several items, and the PBX subscription is only one of them. Using Stream Telecom's real rates, we break down what goes into the bill and calculate the budget for a team of 3 and a team of 10 sales managers.
Why the listed price ≠ the real bill
Most providers put the lowest figure on their home page: the subscription for the entry-level plan. That's honest, but incomplete. The real price of IP telephony for business depends on how many managers you have, how much they call, which numbers they dial, and what else your phone system has to do: record calls, pass calls to your CRM, handle a queue.
- Virtual PBX subscription
- Number of user seats
- Minute bundle for landline and mobile calls
- Overage minutes (especially to mobiles)
- Extra numbers and channels
- A plan upgrade to get CRM integration
- One-time fees: connection, setup, voice greeting
6 cost items of IP telephony
To work out how much IP telephony costs for your company, split the budget into six parts. Under each one is what people usually find out only after connecting.
- Virtual PBX subscriptionA fixed fee for the plan: seats, numbers, features.You pay for the whole plan, even if not every seat is used.
- Phone numbersLandline, mobile SIP, 0800. Some are included in the PBX plan.Every number beyond the plan is a separate monthly fee.
- Call minutesA bundle of minutes to Ukrainian landline and mobile numbers.Unused minutes expire; overage is billed at a separate rate.
- Multiple channelsSo several customers can get through at the same time.Without them, the second caller hears a busy tone and goes elsewhere.
- Call recordingQuality control, dispute resolution, team training.Agree on how long recordings are stored in advance.
- CRM integrationCaller card on incoming calls, Click to Call, history in your CRM.Not included in every plan — sometimes you need a pricier one.
Virtual PBX: what exactly the subscription covers
The virtual PBX is the brain of your phone system: it routes calls between managers, runs the voice menu, transfers calls and collects statistics. The cost of a virtual PBX at Stream Telecom depends on the plan:
| Plan | Monthly fee | User seats | Numbers included | CRM integration | Call recording |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | 375 UAH | 5 | 1 | No | Yes |
| Business | 750 UAH | 10 | 6 | Yes | Yes |
| Business Pro | 1,500 UAH | 20 | 6 | Yes | Yes |
Monthly billing prices. 10% off for 6 months, 20% off for 12 months.
Business Pro adds queue management (the call center module), auto-dialing, a report builder with 100+ reports, automatic handling of missed calls and online chat. If you don't need these, there's no point paying for Pro.
The Start plan is the cheapest, but it has no third-party CRM integration, no voicemail and no time-based call routing, and the voice menu has only one level. If your managers work in a CRM, your real entry point is the Business plan at 750 UAH.
Seats can run out as the team grows. An extra internal line costs 25 UAH/month on Start and 40 UAH/month on Business and Business Pro. Calls between employees inside the PBX are free on every plan.
Numbers and channels: what's included and what each extra one costs
Office IP telephony usually needs at least one landline number for customers. Stream Telecom provides landline numbers in 19 Ukrainian cities, as well as mobile SIP numbers and 0800 numbers. Connecting a number costs from 50 UAH.
- Numbers in the PBX plan: 1 number on Start, 6 numbers on Business and Business Pro.
- Extra SIP number: 90 UAH/month on Start and 50 UAH/month on Business and Business Pro. The same number costs almost twice as much on Start.
- 0800 number: free for the caller, but the company pays for incoming minutes — from 100 UAH/month plus 0.44 UAH/min on the Start-0800 plan. Connection costs 100 UAH.
A separate item is multiple channels. A number without extra channels takes one call at a time: while a manager is on the line, other customers hear a busy tone. Channels are added to a number for a monthly fee:
| Channels | Monthly cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 3 channels | 25 UAH | 2–3 managers on the line |
| Up to 5 channels | 40 UAH | A small sales team |
| Up to 10 channels | 50 UAH | A team of 6–10 managers |
| Up to 20 channels | 70 UAH | Support desk, call center |
| Up to 60 channels | 150 UAH | A large contact center |
Minutes: bundle or pay-as-you-go overage
Minutes are the most variable part of the budget. They decide what you actually pay under any IP telephony rates. Stream Telecom minute bundles:
| Bundle | Monthly fee | Landline, min | Mobile, min | Overage: landline | Overage: mobile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S-50 | 50 UAH | 300 | 50 | 0.10 UAH | 0.60 UAH |
| S-150 | 150 UAH | 500 | 200 | 0.10 UAH | 0.50 UAH |
| S-500 | 500 UAH | 1,000 | 1,000 | 0.10 UAH | 0.45 UAH |
| S-1000 | 1,000 UAH | 1,500 | 2,500 | 0.10 UAH | 0.40 UAH |
| S-2500 | 2,500 UAH | 3,500 | 6,500 | 0.10 UAH | 0.38 UAH |
Prices include 20% VAT. Per-second billing. International calls are billed under a separate price list.
The fine print worth reading before you sign up:
- Unused minutes don't roll over. A bundle is valid for one calendar month — whatever you don't use is gone.
- You can change your bundle once a month; the new one starts on the 1st. The change itself is free.
- If the subscription isn't paid, the number is blocked, and once you pay, the fee for the full calendar month is charged.
- International calls are billed separately, in hryvnias at the NBU exchange rate, plus 20% VAT.
- Per-second billing works in your favour: a 40-second call costs 40 seconds, not a full minute.
With the S-1000 and S-2500 bundles, the virtual PBX works only with Stream Telecom numbers. If you want to connect your own numbers from another carrier to the PBX, choose a separate plan in the Cloud PBX section.
Call recording and CRM integration
Call recording is included in every virtual PBX plan, Start included — there's no extra charge. You can listen to recordings online in the web panel or download them as MP3 or WAV. However, the storage period, storage volume and who can access recordings are agreed when you connect. If you need a six-month call archive, say so from the start.
CRM telephony integration is the second feature that affects the bill. Ready-made modules are available for dozens of systems: StreamCRM, KeyCRM, Zoho, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Bitrix24, OneBox and others. Technically, integration is available from the Business plan up. But if you need custom work via the API — non-standard routing or field syncing — it's priced separately for the project.
If you don't have a CRM yet, take a look at StreamCRM: telephony and the customer card work in one system, with no separate integration needed.
One-time setup fees
On top of monthly costs, your first bill will include one-time fees. They're small, but it's better to know about them in advance:
| Service | Cost |
|---|---|
| Number connection | 50 UAH |
| Virtual PBX installation | from 100 UAH |
| Changing PBX settings | from 100 UAH |
| Voice greeting by a professional voice actor | from 400 UAH |
| IP phone setup | 150 UAH |
| VoIP adapter (ATA) setup | 250 UAH |
If your managers use a smartphone or computer — the Stream Phone app or any SIP client — there are no costs for IP phones or their setup at all.
Example: a team of 3 and a team of 10 managers
Let's calculate the real cost of business IP telephony for two typical scenarios. We assume the same workload per manager:
- 22 working days a month
- ~720 min/month to mobiles per manager
- ~180 min/month to landlines per manager
- monthly PBX billing
What these receipts show. First, the PBX subscription is only 21–27% of the real bill; minutes take up most of it. Second, as the team grows, IP telephony per manager gets cheaper: 467 UAH vs 357 UAH, because larger minute bundles have a lower price per minute.
For a team of 3, taking S-500 for 500 UAH looks logical. But it includes only 1,000 mobile minutes, and an overage of 1,160 min × 0.45 UAH adds another 522 UAH. That's 1,022 UAH in total — more than S-1000 at 1,000 UAH, where all the minutes are already included.
How to pay less for IP telephony
Checklist: what to ask a provider before connecting
- How many numbers and seats are included, and how much does each extra one cost?
- Do unused minutes expire, and what's the overage rate for calls to mobiles?
- Is billing per second or per minute?
- Is call recording included, and how long are recordings stored?
- Which plan includes integration with my CRM, and is there an extra charge?
- How many channels do I need so customers never hear a busy tone?
- What one-time fees will be on the first bill?
- Do the listed prices include VAT?
- The real cost of IP telephony = PBX subscription + minutes + numbers and channels + one-time fees.
- For 3 managers, the budget is about 1,400 UAH/month; for 10 managers, about 3,566 UAH/month.
- Minutes are the biggest cost item, so choose a bundle based on actual traffic.
- If you need CRM integration, budget for the Business plan, not Start.
Tell us how many managers you have and how they call — we'll match a PBX plan and minute bundle with no overpaying. And you can test it free for 14 days.
FAQ: the cost of IP telephony
How much does IP telephony cost for a small business?
For a team of 2–3 managers, the real budget at Stream Telecom starts from 1,400 UAH per month: the Start virtual PBX plan (375 UAH), a minute bundle and multiple channels. The exact amount depends on how much your managers talk and which numbers they call.
Is call recording included in the virtual PBX price?
Yes, call recording is part of every Stream Telecom virtual PBX plan — Start, Business and Business Pro. The storage period and access to recordings are agreed when you connect.
Can I get CRM integration on the cheapest plan?
No, the Start plan doesn't include third-party CRM integration. It's available on the Business (750 UAH/month) and Business Pro (1,500 UAH/month) plans. Custom API work is quoted separately.
What happens to unused minutes?
A minute bundle is valid for one calendar month, and unused minutes don't roll over to the next. So it's best to match the bundle to your actual traffic — and you can change it once a month for free if needed.
Do the prices include VAT?
Yes, minute bundle and call prices on the Stream Telecom website already include 20% VAT. International calls are billed separately at the NBU exchange rate, plus VAT.
How can I save on IP telephony?
Pay for your PBX plan for 6 or 12 months (10% or 20% off), match your minute bundle to real usage and don't buy seats "just in case". Start with the 14-day free trial to see your actual call volume.
Calculations are approximate and based on the rates published on the Stream Telecom website as of October 2026. A manager will confirm the exact cost for your setup: sales@streamtele.com.
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