[Asterisk-biz] Can some one help me to become a voIP provider ?

[Michael Young]

This is the goal of NetLogic - to enable people like you to become VoIP
providers. The hard part is billing. We have two options for billing: 1.
We send you the CDR information and let you figure out a billing system,
etc. or 2) we send bills out in your name according to the pricing you
have set to the customer. 
 
Option #2 requires you to pay a setup fee up front, around $2,000 (could
be more if you want certain features available to you). There is also a
fraction of a cent per call record charge.
Option #1 is really, really hard for you to keep track of, or you have
to spend big bucks for your own billing system.
 
If you purchase your Internet connection from us, we can then honor
diffserv and tagging and give your calls high quality connections from
end to end. We think that is an elegant way of handling potential
quality problems.
 
Check out http://www.netlogic.net/iax.html for our pricing.
 
Michael Young
NetLogic
myoung at netlogic.net
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Asterisk_List/ITS at itranser.com
[mailto:Asterisk_List/ITS at itranser.com] 
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 9:53 AM
To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion
Subject: [Asterisk-biz] Can some one help me to become a voIP provider ?
 

Hi, 

I have been offereing voIP service for some time for several important
customers (5-10 business with a high volume of international calls).  We
are mainly based on voIP consultancy (Asterisk setup, configuration,
etc), and we feel comfortable with the platform, but we think our
knowledge is limited on the aspects relationated to give voIP services
to a higher volume of customers, due to our limited infraestructure and
manual management we are required to do. 

Currently, we are doing the billing to our customer on an indirect way.
We setup a VOIP account for each of our customers, and we point it to an
external voIP provider. At the end of the each month, we access the CDR
and billing of each customer on that external provider, add a margin
(our beneficit), and send invoice to them. This is a factible way to
work when you have a limited number of customers (i.e, 10-20), but when
you have a higher number, is not the best way to work. 

We already contacted several providers that offers us some "reselling
packages"  including the billing, but on all the causes, we lost the
control. For example, I  can not setup my margins, and even worse, the
web page that is the "mirror" of my business to the customers, is not
personalizable (with my own logos and links).  Although some of them
offer me "a white label brand", hosted on their installations,  I also
lost control on my customers, and I can not access to reasonable prices
for the service, and the setup fee are to high. 

My idea was to use one primary account that offers me a good margin and
a secondary one for backup propouses, and have all the customers
contacting MY SERVER using that accounts to go to the exterior. Maybe
that way I have not the best routes, but it is enough for my current
needs (I would growth if my market growth).  However, in order to do
that, I have to install my own billing system. 

In conclusion, I would like to "growth" and have my Asterisk as the
termination point for my customers. To do that, I would need a billing
software thar allows me to setup margins. It would be great if that
software allows me also to provisioning users (so my customers/users can
request an account on-line) and it would be also desirable to be able to
have "resellers accounts" and the possibility to have resellers that
work with their own margin. 

I do not need to be a huge system. I want to offer the service for a few
customers (probably no more than 100 business) and some few residential
users (I am focused on business, no residential), but I would like to
have at least a reasonable point to start and avoid the manual
management I am required to do right now. 

Could some one suggest me any solution for this need ? I do not care to
pay a reasonable amount of money for services as far the solution fit my
needs (make your offer if you feel you can give me the solution) 

Thks for your help,
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