Connecting to LD Providers
When selecting long distance providers for your calling card system, it is usually best to select multiple carriers. Most calling card companies provide service to almost anywhere in the world, but focus on a particular region of the world. For this reason, it is best to have an A-Z long distance provider that can send your calls to anywhere in the world and also a regional long distance provider that focuses only on the region of the world that you are targeting. Although A-Z providers are convenient, their rates are usually higher than regional specialists. If you wish to have the best of both Worlds, convenience and low rates, you can become a member of Arbinet (www.arbinet.com), which is an exchange of long distance providers and companies that are originating calls. Presently, the Arbinet membership fee is approximately $13,000. The links below are long distance providers you can consider:
www.mantistele.com
www.teleworks.com
When searching for a long distance company, there are four major factors to consider: price, quality, reliability, and capacity.
Price
Just as in any other business, the idea is to buy low and sell high. Do your homework before selecting a carrier. Often, the price per minute will differ depending on which city you are calling. For example, calling Lagos, Nigeria is 3 cents per minute, while calling Abuja is 8 cents. Also, for many countries, mobile phone charges will be significantly higher than land line charges. For example, calling any land line in the United Kingdom may cost 1 cent per minute, but calling a mobile phone can cost upward of 25 cents per minute. Visit the sites listed above to get an idea of what rates are available.
Also pay attention to the billing increments that the long distance company is charging you. As a calling card company, you should be receiving wholesale rates and wholesale billing increments. Generally, wholesale billing increments should not be greater than 30 seconds.
Quality of Voice
Long distance companies in the VoIP business differ tremendously when it comes to quality. Before signing any deal, make sure to ask the provider if you can test their service. Legitimate long distance providers will usually have a test environment in place for the purpose of quality assurance. Listen for excessive echoing and delayed response. You should feel that you would be able to carry on a long conversation with this voice quality without getting frustrated or having to repeat yourself many times.
Reliability of Service
The reliability of your long distance providers’ systems is just as important as the reliability of your own systems. If your long distance provider goes down, your customers’ calls will not be completed. Before signing with a long distance provider, ask them what kind of equipment they use and what kind of failover plans they use. Unfortunately, no long distance provider is perfect, thus it is always best to have a backup long distance provider in case the first one goes down. Also, be sure to ask your provider what their Post-Dial-Delay (PDD) is to different destinations. PDD refers to the time, in seconds, that it takes for the destination party’s phone to ring after a customer has dialed that destination.
Capacity of Service
You may be under the impression that your long distance provider can handle an unlimited capacity of voice traffic. However, this is often not the case. Make sure to ask before signing with a long distance provider the amount of traffic they can handle to a particular destination. If you estimate that you will be sending 20,000 minutes of traffic per day to India, for example, be sure that your long distance provider will not reject some calls because of lack of capacity.