[Asterisk-biz] Flat Rate Long Distance Providers

[Paul]

I thought when he said flatrate he was talking about the same rate for 
all calls to the US or US48. If you read the terms of service on the 
so-called unlimited plans you will see that reselling is a definite no-no.

That being said, broadvoice.com plans work with * but they have a clause 
in the terms where they can charge per minute for additional call 
instances. I guess you have to config * to prevent that from happening. 
I suppose you could have additional lines with them if you had a lot of 
people making calls at the same time. They will set the caller id for 
you so you could have 10 unlimited "lines" that all present the caller 
ID of your published business number.

I have been taking the time to start reading the terms of service for 
all these so-called "unlimited" plans. I will give them a little bit of 
credit when they clearly put the word "residential" in  the big print 
but  the fine print seems to support my opinion that there is a lot of 
false/deceptive advertising going on here. If you go on to read the 
terms that apply to "unlimited business" plans you will see that they 
use wording which a good judge would consider to be too vague. A good 
example is that they all showcase features related to call forwarding 
and locate-me types of things but then state that "extensive call 
forwarding" is sufficient reason to terminate an account. You can't get 
away with that in court. You have to put some numbers in the contract.

I am developing a paper on this subject that my small business clients 
must read and sign before I will provide consulting to them. In other 
words, I am telling them not to LNP numbers to these providers or 
publish numbers they get from the providers. I think some of you should 
consider taking the same cautious approach or you will be going to court 
and losing.

Ed Greenberg wrote:

> Most voip providers will only sell flat rate to people who can only 
> originate one (or maybe two) calls at a time -- such as users of a 
> hard or soft phone, or an ATA device.
>
> If you were to connect to such a service with Asterisk, all your users 
> would be able to initiate simultaneous calls on the same service. A 
> great business model for you, but not for your provider.
>
> I imagine that the providers could sell flat rate to Asterisk users 
> and restrict the number of concurrent outbound calls. Why do they not?
>
> </edg>
>
> --On Tuesday, January 18, 2005 10:29 AM -0500 Ty Carter 
> <tmcarter at ultrastat.com> wrote:
>
>> We are looking for a flatrate long distance provider to
>> integrte with a hosted Asterisk implementation.  I would like
>> to have a SIP/IAX handoff to whatever carrier. We want the
>> ability to turn LD to any of our subscribers for a flat rate
>> as well.  This request is for USA only.  Int'l would be a per
>> minute basis.
>>
>> Any sugggestions are greatly appreciated.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>>
>> Ty Carter
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
>
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