[asterisk-biz] Common charging patterns for US-based carriers

[Nitzan Kon]

Most carriers bill based on when the call is answer()'ed even
for international. They should most definitely not bill a call
unless and until the channel is answered.

Having said that, it is very common for grey routes and even
white routes in some countries to false-answer the call, and
only then start ringing. The end result is that you get billed
despite not completing a call, or get billed from the time it
starts ringing rather than the time you start talking. In this
case the provider can do nothing about it as the call indicates
answered.

If this happens only on some countries, it's probably just
grey routes acting up. If it happens with EVERY country,
then it is a problem.

--
Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation
www.future-nine.com

--- On Fri, 9/5/08, SIP <sip at arcdiv.com> wrote:

> From: SIP <sip at arcdiv.com>
> Subject: [asterisk-biz] Common charging patterns for US-based carriers
> To: "Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion" <asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com>
> Date: Friday, September 5, 2008, 3:10 PM
> We've had a few carriers for PSTN termination over the
> years, and with 
> our most recent one (Vitelity), I've noticed something
> that's unusual in 
> OUR experience, so I'm wondering how common it is.
> 
> For what they call "international" calls -- i.e.
> calls outside the US-48 
> (they're ALL "international" to US, since
> we're not a US-based company), 
> they start charging based on when the call was initiated
> and not when it 
> was established. Whereas, for US-48 calls, they bill based
> on when the 
> call connects. Is that normal? Was the first we'd seen
> it, so I was just 
> somewhat curious whether that was common practice. It was
> wholly 
> unexpected for us, as we bill our customers based on when
> the call 
> connects to the other party and not when it starts
> 'dialing' to the 
> other party.
> 
> Just somewhat curious as to everyone else's experience
> with carriers. 
> We've certainly no complaint with Vitelity's
> service -- just thought it 
> was a little odd.
> 
> 
> N.
> 
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