[asterisk-users] Rate sheet "normalization"

Wed Mar 28 11:28:24 CDT 2012

Adding to the top-posted discussion of doing this for free…

A one-time rate sheet is of no value. This is something that would need constant updating.

Think about the open source projects that provided something useful and were improved by the community for a couple years, then became static—continuing to do what they did, but not receiving any more support from the community. They may continue to be of value, even though they don’t improve.

If the same thing happened with the rate sheet, it would quickly become not only valueless, but dangerous to rely on—and there would likely be no free replacement to enable you to stay in business.

--Don

Don Kelly

PCF Corp
People Come First
651 842-1000
651 842-1001 fax

From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of C. Savinovich
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 10:58 AM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Rate sheet "normalization"

Sure someone will benefit from it. But what about all those others who are financially affected by it? I certainly do not think that someone necessarily always contributes. It ultimately affects our economy, because money doesn't circulate, and many people who are in a perfect position to disburse money just don't do it.  It affects an entire industry (the software industry) that could flourish and create even better products thanks to a competition that could exists if there were financial rewards.  Ultimately, free software (not open source) affects the little guy and benefits the big guys.  Gone are the days when a talented programmer could create a program and make a million dollars from his basement with his talent. If your company name is not Google, if you don't do a tap and a dance to an investor, then you got no chance, as opposed to the days when you could just sell your own version of Vicidial and make money for a year.

But rather than discussing about the pros and cons of open source, which is here to stay, I would think that some people are doomed to fail if they think they can run a business entirely on free rides.  The goal of Open Source is to benefit from sharing and share ahead, but unfortunately a segment of the market has gotten to the point that it only takes but doesn't give back.

Christian Savinovich

VoIP & Telephony Consultant

646-982-3572

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Rate sheet "normalization"
From: Leandro Dardini <ldardini at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, March 28, 2012 10:38 am
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
<asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>

Continuing with the top post...

I believe in open source philosophy. A software or a list of telephone prefix makes no difference. If you want to make such list open source, you'll be sure somebody will contribute to maintain it update and all will benefit from it.

Leandro

2012/3/28 C. Savinovich <c.savinovich at itntelecom.com>

I really don't think it is fair for anyone to give out such work for free.  Unfortunately, many people are used to asking for free software solutions for all their problems.  Whatever happened to paying for someone else's time and effort?

Christian Savinovich

VoIP & Telephony Consultant

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Rate sheet "normalization"
From: Alex Balashov <abalashov at evaristesys.com>
Date: Wed, March 28, 2012 10:00 am
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion 
<asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>

We solve this problem for our customers all the time, in various situationally-specific ways. But yes, we are not really in a position to genericise it and give it away. It's not because we are greedy. The time and resources just aren't there.

--
Alex Balashov - Principal 
Evariste Systems LLC 
235 E Ponce de Leon Ave 
Suite 106
Atlanta, GA 30030 
Tel: +1-678-954-0670 <tel:%2B1-678-954-0670>  
Fax: +1-404-961-1892 <tel:%2B1-404-961-1892>  
Web: http://www.evaristesys.com/, http://www.alexbalashov.com

"A E [Gmail]" <all.eforums at gmail.com> wrote:

On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 6:52 PM, Markus <universe at truemetal.org> wrote:

Hi,

this question is not Asterisk specific, but since there are so many experts present on this list, maybe its OK to ask anyways.

I'm having a hard time "normalizing" rate sheets from different providers. What I mean with this: the goal is to always get the cheapest rate for a given destination. What I would like to do is throw like 10 rate sheets from different providers together and as output get a single rate sheet with only the cheapest rates. However, some providers are listing a country, lets say Germany, as code "49" with a specific rate, and another provider will list each city individually, and each code separately, e.g. Berlin "4930", Hamburg "4940" etc., and probably different cities have different rates as well. Now, if the "49" route of the first provider is cheaper, my system (a2billing) will still use the more expensive "4930" code because it is more specific.

I'm looking for some awesome, smart tool that will automatically "normalize" all these code differences and output a clean ratesheet with only the cheapest rates.

Does such a thing exist? I wonder how everyone else is "normalizing" their different rate sheets. With a homebrewn script?

Thanks!

Markus,

you're not the first person and certainly not the last person who's ever asked about this. I had tried this on several mailing lists a little while ago.  A tool that could handle 10 or maybe even 5 provider rate-sheets all of which can potentially completely differ in formats from each other. Even worse are the rate update sheets from each provider which are many a times different from the initial rate sheets that the provider may have given you and then again they will differ from the rate updates from the remaining 4 providers you've just painstakingly inserted into your DB.

Given the popularity of Asterisk and other popular OSS based telephony platforms with several successful businesses running 100s of millions of minutes, you'd think at least a few have sorted this problem out. But I believe those who have, never respond to these emails as it took them quite a bit of effort to create such a tool and aren't willing to just give it away.

Just what I have observed (and was even blatantly told by someone on some mailing list, can't remember exactly)

You may have to advertise in the commercial / business list or offer a bounty. There are several commercial solutions available but I think they all come as a "feature" of a larger billing/rating/routing platform

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