[asterisk-biz] calling card business

[Dan Miller]

I haven't sized the market lately and was primarily North American focused
when I did.

It appears that there are lively country pairs for calls originating from
urban areas in the U.S. (to Latin America, South America, Carribean, Middle
East)

Can't speak to call volumes because we haven't systematically gathered info
lately.

There will always be a baseline of voice traffic over public networks, but
it does seem like Skype, Trufone.... other softphone based approaches would
choke off more expensive alternatives once people get low price (of shared),
connected PCs.

Dan

On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 7:23 AM, Alex Balashov <abalashov at evaristesys.com>wrote:

> IP is compelling for access, but the carrier world is still firmly TDM.
>  That, and IP just isn't as reliable at this point.
>
> When someone offers a cheap TDM switch, I get intrigued.
>
> David Knell wrote:
>
> > It's not dead; it's merely changed.
> >
> > Last time I bought a TDM switch, I paid about US$150,000 for 64E1s - so
> > it'd switch about 1000 calls.  Several years later, we run that traffic
> > volume and more through two commodity Dell servers which, with
> > bandwidth, cost us about $250/month.  And it takes a few hours to hook
> > up to a new carrier, rather than weeks or months in the TDM world.  So
> > it's no wonder that there's a lot of TDM equipment coming onto the
> > market; IP is too compelling.
> >
> > There is also a lot of activity around cellphones - for example, a
> > couple of the UK calling card companies have launched MVNOs with an
> > emphasis on cheap international calling (such as Lycatel with
> > Lycamobile), selling SIMs through their existing distribution, and
> > existing carriers are starting to offer cheap international calling
> > packages, both to postpaid and prepaid customers.
> >
> > Question back at you - what do you say when someone asks if you can sell
> > their TDM switch?
> >
> > --Dave
> >
> >> is it dead? i have many people e-mailing me asking if I can sell their
> >> switches (NACT, DTI, Excel) I also know from last year the intelecard
> >> show was a bust...so what do you guys think? are we all just heading
> >> to mobile phones and unified communications? what about the people
> >> that have credit issues? prepaid cell phones?
> >>
> >> --
> >> Thank you,
> >>
> >> -Wes-
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--
> >>
> >> AstriCon 2009 - October 13 - 15 Phoenix, Arizona
> >> Register Now: http://www.astricon.net
> >>
> >> asterisk-biz mailing list
> >> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
> >>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
>
>
> --
> Alex Balashov - Principal
> Evariste Systems
> Web     : http://www.evaristesys.com/
> Tel     : (+1) (678) 954-0670
> Direct  : (+1) (678) 954-0671
>
> _______________________________________________
> --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com--
>
> AstriCon 2009 - October 13 - 15 Phoenix, Arizona
> Register Now: http://www.astricon.net
>
> asterisk-biz mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-biz/attachments/20090920/f16f6d91/attachment.htm