Phone service providers

Wholesale VOIP is an emerging market. The wholesale VOIP providers offer IP services not only to the domestic and international clients but also to the corporate and other service providers. Long distance IP wholesale has emerged out to be a most compelling business for the VOIP since it enables them leverage the existing technology and infrastructure in a cost effective manner. As the VOIP becomes widespread, many service providers will need to use high-speed networks to build there businesses.

Wholesaling is a model which enables the providers to accelerate their ability to spread the capital cost of their investment and lowers their cost structure per user. However, this being said, there exists a cutthroat competition among the IP communication wholesalers for providing their customers with the best quality services at the best rates. Thus the wholesalers must constantly reinvent new ways to distinguish themselves from the existing players in the market. The IP long distance wholesaler must have offerings that they could do business with partners by making various service arrangements.

While shopping for the IP long distance wholesale providers there are a number of factors to look for other than the best rates from the competitive ones. Some of them are the sophistication of the service creation environment, customer support, Quality of service, endpoint equipment, end user interface, ability for customization of applications, scalability of the services, automated provisioning and the real-time CDR capability. The IP long distance wholesale voice services must match those of the PSTN. The customers of the international carriers expect the same voice quality throughout. It is quite a challenging thing to achieve especially when it is impossible to control QOS over the public internet?...?

The customer for an IP long distance wholesaler should look for the hosted services provided which definitely combines low minimums, high quality and easy implementation. One of the main issues to look out for selecting a wholesale VOIP provider is the voice quality vs. the bandwidth i.e. how much bandwidth is being used for providing the so said best quality. As the bandwidth becomes constrained how the voice quality is being maintained. Another important aspect is the number of services that can be supported by the connections (voice, data, dial-up modem, ISDN, fax, cable modem). The IP long distance wholesaler must have a distribution channel that fully understands that the demarcation point now lies on the desktop of the user and not the side of the user?s building.

A wholesale peering arrangement is also worth mentioning in this case. The service providers establish peering arrangements to exchange VOIP minutes with for wholesale VOIP services. These arrangements help local service providers to gain worldwide service coverage. In many cases the service provider must use Signaling System 7(SS7) to interconnect with the PSTN to provide wholesale services.

Yet another key point that needs to be addressed is the Billing System. The billing system must be flexible and allow the customers to devise their own rate plan. For example if the customer wants to change the way they do billing next week, it should be handled appropriately. The wholesale provider must provide you the call details and management records of all calls made through the network so that your system creates call records for management and billing to your retail customers.

The response to a customer inquiry must be quick and the wholesaler should be able to do a real-life demonstration of typical service to service-provider customers, so they can see, touch and interact with the same service that their customers ultimately will be using. This will enable them to see exactly what the end user experience is going to be like and if it is going to work for their particular application. One can also look out that the service providers have a direct connection with the wholesaler than the public Internet because at times these connections can be inconsistent. The customers must have access to a sophisticated and a personalized customer service with minimal upfront investments.

The discussion would be incomplete if we do not mention about the fraudulent practices in the VOIP industry which one must surely look out for. Fraud has become more frequent and menacingly sophisticated. You may have set a deal for a lucrative offer?.. testing must have been great but your wholesaler may not be in a position to increase your capacity when required at a later stage. Or for that matter the voice quality maintenance is an issue with the provider. There have been quite a number of cases in the VOIP industry where the provider has contradicted everything that had been written in the contract, refused to send CDRs and in the worst case even refused to return any of the invested money.

Thus in a nut shell the main consumer oriented features that will attract the customer to do business will be:

1. The customer should be able to enjoy the best deal or say the near best deal as compared to the contemporary economies.

2. Flexibility and creativity in the services that are offered to the user. Scalability and the scope of services are important considerations.

3. A commitment to the voice quality that should be excellent throughout.

4. The prices should be reflective of the underlying cost. The users must be capable of leveraging the economics of the Internet so that they have maximized returns in their VOIP investments.

5. The customers are able to access information to make effective choices and are confident in using this information to take advantage of the opportunities.

6. It should enable the partners to lower cost per subscriber and better support their retail customers.

And Oh Yes!! They should be able to deliver all the great things one has heard about VOIP, such as three-digit dialing around the world.