{"id":93,"date":"2007-09-06T19:51:50","date_gmt":"2007-09-06T19:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psyphi.net\/blog\/?p=93"},"modified":"2010-01-26T19:53:43","modified_gmt":"2010-01-26T19:53:43","slug":"voip-peering-profits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psyphi.net\/blog\/2007\/09\/voip-peering-profits\/","title":{"rendered":"VoIP peering & profits"},"content":{"rendered":"

So… shortly, I believe from February next year but am probably mistaken, prices in the UK go up for calling “Lo-Call” 0845 numbers. As I understand it they’ll be similar, or the same as 0870 rates at 20p\/min or so.<\/p>\n

Now I wonder if the regulator has missed a trick here. It so happens that the nation is converting to broadband, be it ADSL or cable-based, and that very many of those broadband packages now come with VoIP offerings as standard.<\/p>\n

My point is that these bundled broadband VoIP packages invariably come with 0845 dial-in numbers and no other choice. Dialing out via your broadband ISP may well be cheap for you but spare a thought for those calling in at much higher rates.<\/p>\n

Having been tinkering with VoIP for a good few years I realise that actually this should be ok because calling VoIP-to-VoIP should be free, right? Wrong. Most of these ISPs don’t peer to each others’ networks – for two main reasons as far as I can see –<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They’re competitors and have little business reason to peer, apart from keeping the small proportion of aware customers happy.<\/li>\n
  2. These ISPs make profits from users dialing in – 0845 is a profit-sharing prefix with which both BT and the ISP in question have a stake. This old story is of course also true of many telephone help-desks and similar. Keeping the customer on the line longer means more profits for the company and its shareholders.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It seems to me that the world could be a better, more communicative place through more thorough VoIP network peering but I simply can’t see it becoming widespread whilst profits stand in the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    So… shortly, I believe from February next year but am probably mistaken, prices in the UK go up for calling “Lo-Call” 0845 numbers. As I understand it they’ll be similar, or the same as 0870 rates at 20p\/min or so. Now I wonder if the regulator has missed a trick here. It so happens that … Continue reading “VoIP peering & profits”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[129,130,101],"class_list":["post-93","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-capitalism","tag-profits","tag-voip"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t