[asterisk-biz] VoicePulse's New Tiered Pricing is a Huge Success!

[trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Wed, 2006-06-07 at 08:34 -0500, VoIP Street - Todd Routhier wrote:
> The reason it's rare to see a rate like that is not because it's cheap
> to terminate everywhere, it's because companies offer reasonable rates
> to these areas and actually lose money on the calls. How can they do
> this? They can lose money on these calls because they make a profit
> when terminating to the less expensive areas.
> 
that almost sounds like an argument to spend more on some calls so
others can spend less on theirs :)

> Before I can explain this you have to know what an RBOC and a NON RBOC
> is.. 
> 
> RBOC = Regional Bell Operating Carrier
> Non RBOC = A small telco in a one horse town that can and will rake
> anyone and everyone including other phone companies over the coals
> when they try to terminate a call to their one horse town.
> 
there are non RBOC (as in bell as in former AT&T) companies that are
quite large.  The rural ILECs are mostly in one horse towns (my town
doesnt even have 1 horse) and were never RBOCs but level3 is a bit
larger and still not an RBOC.  Just to clarify a bit further :)  And for
those that are dying to point this out, I am not saying l3 is an ILEC, I
just used them as an example of a large non RBOC.

In general as long as you arent cherry picking your normal calls will be
about 80/20 becuase the RBOCs own most of the local loops and thus the
customers that either dont care dont know or dont want to switch.


> So then, an 80/20 rule means that the calls you send to your carrier
> must be to RBOC locations at least 80% of the time. This is to protect
> them from offering a low blended rate where they expect average and
> customary blended usage and getting hurt financially by having a
> customer only send them the traffic they lose money on.
> 
not all providers that offer a blended rate however have such
commitments becuase they themselves may have individual rates for given
areas but offer blended rates to their customers to make it easier on
the customers to determine what a call will cost.  One thing the 70s and
80s taught me was that people really dont like wildly variable phone
rates, and the 80s saw the rise of flat rate national long distance, the
same thing that blended providers are doing now.  

It all depends on who you are selling to I guess, any provider that is
reselling off a blended rate system alone is being silly in my opinion
(or just really small and cant get any commitment together).  

However one thing that having your own LCR stuff will do is enable the
individual to violate realistics patent :) er I mean to be able to pick
the providers on a per call basis rather than a 'gee I think this will
save me money each month' plan wihch  the traditional phone companies
are stuck with currently unless a customer is willing to dial a
dialaround access code first, which telecom USA proved that many wont
after a while, btw where are all those telecom USA commercials?  :)  I
am of course speaking only about the US and maybe canada.


> Nothing wrong with VoicePulse offering the LCR macro but there is also
> nothing wrong with others learning the possible pitfalls of using it
> in conjunction with a blended rate carrier TDM or otherwise.
> 

nope I still have to give them kudos for their business model, since it
would appear at this time to give them a better edge in the market place
compared to some other companies.


> I am not taking sides here, just thought a clear explanation would
> help.. 

aww come on taking sides is fun, this is after all the intarweb :)


-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
Belfast IE +44 28 9099 6461    DE +49 801 777 555 3402
Utrecht NL +31 306 553058      US WA +1 360 207 0479
US NY +1 516 687 5200          FreeWorldDialup: 635378
http://www.trxtel.com we pay you to terminate calls with us!
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