[Asterisk-biz] Stumped on LD questions......

[Paul]

programming dept wrote:

>L3 is certainly not the least expensive choice.
>  
>
What intrigues me so far is the wide range of prices I see for 
origination and termination. It looks like the range narrows as you grow 
into higher volumes. I am testing providers who require upfront minimums 
that range from $5 to $16. The US48 rates vary from .013 to .039 and I 
don't yet see any gain in quality or reliability for paying the higher 
rates. Funny thing is that you would expect the provider with a higher 
upfront minimum to give you the better rates but it is exactly the 
opposite with the 3 I am referring to here.

Origination providers are equally confusing. A typical statement from 
support people is something like "We allow multiple simultaneous calls 
but we might limit that in the future." I can understand that they still 
need to get the software to the point where it will limit that. In the 
meantime they should go ahead and clearly state what will be allowed at 
what price. I want to know upfront what it will cost if my customer 
grows to the point where he needs to allow up to 12 incoming calls at a 
time. I can't place him with a provider that only charges $2/month for 
an "unlimited" local DID, currently allows lots of simultaneous calls 
but reserves the right to limit it to one someday and can't decide what 
he will charge people who need more than that.

I am trying to encourage a provider to address this need. Some of us 
lower-volume users need to know exactly where we and our customers 
stand. I'm sure there are lots of sohos who can get by just fine with * 
connected to an ata from vonage and a pots line. It might be a few more 
years before they need to have a number hunt across more than 2 lines 
and it might be at least that long before they would use enough minutes 
to get kicked off the (NOT REALLY) unlimited soho plan. The rest of us 
need to see something sane and concrete in a rate plan. Still waiting.