[asterisk-biz] Experimental/new VoIP rate search engine.

[Nitzan Kon]

--- On Sun, 1/4/09, Trixter aka Bret McDanel <trixter at 0xdecafbad.com> wrote:

> > - Customer support will be non existent (or
> worthless).  How are you
> > paying for it when your markup is %10 or less
> (whatever it may be)?
> > 
> or it will be a pay to call service.  Each customer support
> call will be like a MSFT customer support call where you pay 
> just to talk to someone who may or may not be able to help you.

I think the market will eventually shift that way, once all the
"we-want-to-be-Vonage" providers burn out of cash.

> This can be a good thing for customers that do not need
> support, they can get a lower cost per month, and the business 
> still remains profitable that is providing the service.

I agree. In essence over 90% of customers never really need
support, or need it once every blue moon. The real support drag
on providers is those customers who open a new case every week
(sometimes because they're bored, literally). So those are the
only ones who will really be impacted.

> Why an automated lookup of the proxy IP and how well
> connected that is, and if possible the media gateways they 
> send to if in a different network would be good, the AS 
> number and all that could be searched to see if its on a 
> single homed network or multihomed etc.

Very good ideas. Could be used to quantify "quality". :)

> and so on.  There are a lot of other costs that have to be
> included in any "rate comparison" system.

I agree, but from a search perspective typically the lowest
international rate providers are pay-as-you-go and specialize
in international termination - so much of the "typical" costs
like termination/signup fees don't apply. Either way the plan
is to do some sort of graphical representation of those kind
of fees (whether there are extra fees or not).

Thanks for the thoughts/ideas guys. It'll be a lot of work to
implement all of this - but I agree that simply the lowest
rate is not necessarily the best way to search. :)

-- Nitzan
http://www.comparevoipproviderrates.com/