Calling Mobiles over VoIP and per second billing

brathnach

Hey guys,

My current setup is firing away well. Im using blueface on the landline end of things and smartvoip for any mobile bound calls. I have this setup in a business environment so the number of calls are decent. Probably 20 mobiles and 30 landline calls per day.

Ive been using smartvoip(dot)com not for a while and while Im very happy with it and their rates Ive found myself in one of those 'hard to win' situations. Im getting all calls to irish mobiles in at 7c/min.

Now that sounds good and all that. However probably half the calls made to mobiles either dont get answered and go to voicemail or just go directly to voicemail. Now in this instance the caller usually hangs up because theres no answer and even though the call only lasted 4 seconds its a 7c charge regardless. I've noticed over a period of a day that maybe half the calls would fall into this category. Somedays more, somedays less

Just wondering if anyone else has found themselves in a similar dilemma. Would it be better to use [EMAIL="bluef@ce"]bluef@ce[/EMAIL] and use the per second billing (which i think is what they have) or is there another provider out there that would provide per second billing that would give me good rates for mobiles?

Just thought Id throw it out there. I know 7c isnt bad at all compared to other operators but more than half my bills are made up of these 7c charges where no phone conversation has taken place.

hopefully someone can give me a bit of guidance,

cheers

rob

Johnboy1951

Not answering your question, but a comment .....

if the majority price such calls at approx 19c/min, and a few offer what seems to be real bargain prices, then I am inclined to question how they can afford to do so ...

one might assume they make up the difference in charged Vs cost in some other manner, for instance by charging a bit extra on other calls ..... in other words like using the low mobile rates as a 'loss leader'.

but if the user does not make any other type of call will the provider continue to supply the same service endlessly .... a service on which they appear to be losing money? or will they find another means to make up their losses?

Those are the type of thoughts I have when viewing apparent bargain prices for some calls, from some service providers.
I do not have the answers to those thoughts/questions.

Maybe someone with the info might post what the actual rate per min is for connection to the mobile networks that would be charged to the likes of Blueface, VoipWise etc etc.
If it is anywhere close to 19c/min then I would doubt that I could continue to use a service only to make 7c/min calls without some form of 'catch' which would recoup the difference in the service cost and what I should be charged.

None of the above is meant to directly finger any service provider in any way, but there are some who offer seemingly impossible rates, and IMO, a business cannot indefinitely offer a loss-making service without some means of making up those losses.

regards.

Earth Traveller

Smartvoip is not necessarily making a loss on its 7 cent per minute rate to Irish mobiles. From what I know, COMREG, the Irish regulator, sets a minimum per minute price for connections to Irish mobiles. The minimum is relatively high but it does not apply to a provider like Smartvoip, which is based abroad. Smartvoip can terminate mobile calls in Ireland at lower rates than an Irish provider is required to charge, which does seem a bit crazy.
Smartvoip is owned by Betamax GmbH & Co KG, a company based in Germany.

Johnboy1951

Earth Traveller wrote: »

Smartvoip is not necessarily making a loss on its 7 cent per minute rate to Irish mobiles. From what I know, COMREG, the Irish regulator, sets a minimum per minute price for connections to Irish mobiles. The minimum is relatively high but it does not apply to a provider like Smartvoip, which is based abroad. Smartvoip can terminate mobile calls in Ireland at lower rates than an Irish provider is required to charge, which does seem a bit crazy.
Smartvoip is owned by Betamax GmbH & Co KG, a company based in Germany.

If that is the case then I have misunderstood the situation.
I had thought that the mobile termination rate was set by the provider - O2, 3, Vodafone etc - (with regulation by Comreg) and thus could not understand how one company could connect to a mobile service at half the price charged to another ..... regardless where they are based.

regards.

brathnach

I think earth traveller summed it up there pretty well. Calls to Irish Mobiles or to any other mobiles for that matter are the bread winners for Smartvoip and the other betamax companies. They have free landline deals that a fair usage policy applies to so this is obviously subsidised by the charged calls. When the call doesnt originate in Ireland it falls outside comreg's control and hence the lowest rate is usually when you call into Ireland from another country. It is a bit sad though that its cheaper to ring an Irish Mobile from another country than it is in Ireland. I know blueface attempted to try and set it up so the actual calls to the mobiles were placed from outside the state but the compromise and loss of control on quality wasnt worth it for them

On a seperate note I signed up with €10 credit to voipgain.com today - another betamax company. Advertised Irish Mobile rate €0.05 per min ex VAT. Great! Rang a 087 for five seconds to check connectivity - charge is €0.089 per min ex VAT. :mad: Seriously annoying. However I've noticed two 1/2 cent increases from smartvoip over the past 6 months or so I decided to try something else out. One thing about smartvoip - its always worked for me and they charged me what they said they would. Voipgain is obviously working off a different business model!! Ill see if theyre customer service responds (which they reportedly never do) to my query.

Johnboy1951

I am definitely not getting it .... from the above it appears that the Irish mobile operators are quite happy to offer connection into their service for very little cost ..... but only to those from outside the jurisdiction!

Yet they charge heavily for the same connections from with Ireland.

Comreg supports or encourages this situation.

Is that what the above really means?

I find that difficult to comprehend tbh.

regards.