VOIP Provider

[lordhyde]

Hi everybody,

I'm brand new in GoAutoDial,

I need your help because I'm a little lost in the SIP & VOIP part.

I understand that GoAutoDial will manage my database, operators and calls.

That I need to set it up with a VOIP Provider through wich my operators will make the calls.

I'm looking for a good VOIP Provider, but after watching a few, I realized that I don't know wich package suits best my needs.

What I need is to make a lot of calls to mexican numbers (preferibly, also mobile phones). But I don't know if I need just a single VOIP account or multiple accounts for my operators... I'll have 10 operators making calls.

Can some one help me to find the best needs for my project?
Basically the questions are:
1. Just VOIP Plan or something else (Is this the same as SIP?)
2. Wich VOIP Plan would be the best?
3. Just 1 account or multiple VOIP accounts?
4. Can you recommend me a good VOIP provider to make calls to Mexico?


Thank you,
Abraham

[williamconley]

One account. Each account may have an "agreed upon" maximum number of calls at any given time. Most providers will allow up to 20 calls without special arrangements (but never assume).

Vicidial will expect each campaign to have a single account to call through.

Your operators actually should not be making any calls. When Vicidial is set up properly, your agents will log in and just sit there. Vicidial will dial numbers, and each time Vicidial encounters a live pickup will immediately hand the call to your operator. This allows Vicidial to call MANY numbers simultaneously and keep your operators much more busy than if they were dialing one number at a time per operator.

When choosing a provider, you need to find out the price per minute and the minimum price per call, and the increments for billing after that.

ie: 1.5 cents per call ... 60 second minimum per call.

Also be aware that some providers will have issues with Dialers. You must be up front about this or you could face sudden shut-down. Also some have limitations regarding the percentage of calls that are answered (ASR=Average Seizure Ratio) and the average call duration (ACD).

For listings of providers, you are actually looking for SIP or IAX providers that can call Mexican phone numbers for the least price available and are known to work with Asterisk. Lists of them are available on many Asterisk support/technical/forum sites.

There is also a listing for those providing service for Vicidial, but this list may be a bit outdated: http://wiki.vicidial.org/index.php/VICI ... _Providers (I haven't looked recently, so i have no idea if it is up to date at all)

[vccsdotca]

Just wanted to mention that we welcome Call Centers on our network

[williamconley]

I do not think "we welcome call centers" is enough information:
What is your minimum ASR (or state that you do not have one);
what is your minimum ACD (or state that you do not have one);
what countries do you call to;
how many channels can you give "a call center" immediately (having no experience with the client in question);
Otherwise I would not be surprised if Mflorell deletes your post

(but WITH that information, he may be tempted to move it to the VOIP Suppliers WIKI where it should be).

[vccsdotca]

Will, I didn't want to sound like an advertisement so I didn't give much details. We are in fact in the wiki under VoIP providers if anyone is interested in more details. Unlimited channels available, no LCR and ASRs above 90% if not 100.

[williamconley]

LOL

so to not sound like an advertisement you ended up sounding like one ... but if you had referred the poster to the wiki while mentioning YOU were ON the wiki ... that would have been much less like an advertisement and much more informative.

and ASR above 90% is impossible for a Dialer (Average Seizure Ratio of 90% means 90% of calls are answered? ok, maybe not impossible, but not very likely)

What's an LCR?

What happened to Average Call Duration? (Many providers require a specific minimum call duration these days and charge a premium or cut off the client if they do not meet it ... not worth the effort for those carriers if you cannot meet the percentage)

[vccsdotca]

I help where I can lol ...

Well in terms of the call completion stats, we have a good network with some carriers being unlimited calls and some are capped at our specific volume needs.
-LCR= Least Cost Routing, aka pick the cheapest route and send the calls through. We use top tier carrier services only and avoid this routing method.

-Our channel capacity is unlimited so as long as the line is free it will ring through how ever it would depend on the capacity needed by the client.
We prefer 20-30 seconds per call but the minimum is 6 seconds for USA.

I find restrictions are are always necessary. Whenever I see someones VICI stats their dropped percentage is well above the 3% legal limit due to ambitious dial ratios. Not only does it waste VoIP minutes but I would imagine their customers get very annoyed at the dropped calls all day long

[williamconley]

So your ASR is really 90%? (which obviously has NOTHING to do with dropped calls, since calls that are not answered are not included in this ratio, by definition).

Also I asked what your minimum AVERAGE call duration limit is (not the shortest amount you will bill for a call). Billing is a question for the accounting department, but ACD limit being set too low means Call Center Dialers Can't Use You.

So what (if any) is your minimum AVERAGE call duration limit? (in seconds?)

[vccsdotca]

lol , we don't boot anyone off for volume minimums. We have quite a bit of call center traffic. If we had the restrictions you speak of, we wouldn't be able to support call centers. Hey Will, seems like you could use a test run over there

[williamconley]

i was not talking about VOLUME minimums. i was talking about ACD and ASR minimums. Volume speaks to pricing, ACD/ASR minimums speak to "We won't take your calls any more" and shutting off the service. I think it's very important to know if a carrier will shut off your service if your ASR drops below a specific level so you can avoid the carrier entirely. Worse yet, I've had clients with carriers who actually didn't KNOW they had ASR/ACD minimums, and found out when they were required by the REAL carriers (not the reseller my client was purchasing through) to drop the client.

So: Do you have ACD/ASR requirements? If so, what are they? If not, are you a reseller or do you actually have your own Telco switches (if you do not have your own switches, you're a reseller and policy is determined by those from whom you purchase ...).