ALERT Anveo Direct WARNING

[krzykat]

In tinkering around with their portal the last few weeks, I like the idea of routing calls just over the "prime" carriers - the usual LECs and CLECs that are reliable enough. Did you have this experience with choosing just the prime routes and not the "Standard" or "Value" ones?

I use prime only and it seems to be pretty responsive.

 

[rchalk]

OK, I discovered that I had the outbound for my one customer set to All Routes. I have changed it toPrime, and we'll see if there are any complaints.

 

[centrex]

Virtually flawless. Have has quick response even on free tickets. Sip traces are a differentiator and essential.

+1. Almost two years with them now and it is a very powerful and reliable platform.

 

[rchalk]

Well, to be fair toAnveo Direct, I changed the routing to Prime Only, and there have not been any (reported) problems since. I guess the issue is not the provider, but the level of service I chose. I stand corrected, and apologize for any misrepresentation I may have made.

 

[w1ve]

Use em for lots of outbound traffic. Only a couple of issues, always to wireless destinations, and on certain carriers. I blocked those carriers, and all is good. 100% for last six months.

 

[david l]

Anveo Direct is Great, except
BC, Canada area code 250
mostly when routing to rural destinations in interior bc. Even to a bridge at Telus (local ilec)
- would give busy signal
only carrier i found at Anveo that works consistently is Iristel
I blocked all routes except for that.
but my users got annoyed so switched to vitelity as the main outgoing route

smart route etc made no difference, Anveo treated the busy signal as a successful connection

 

[wardmundy]

Just a heads up that Anveo Direct has dramatically changed their billing methodology for calls and call attempts of short duration. See this thread on DSL Reports for details. We no longer recommend Anveo Direct based upon cost and for other reasons that will become obvious.

Dear Anveo Direct Customer,

We would like to inform you that we updated Anveo Direct Terms of Use. The change replaces "Short Calls" and "ASR" sections with a new "Conforming Outbound Calls and Surcharge" section. The new "Conforming Outbound Calls and Surcharge" section makes it easier to understand our requirements for outbound calls routed through Anveo Direct service.

The PREVIOUS Terms of Use had
"
SHORT DURATION CALLS
If in any given day (UTC time) fifteen percent (15%) of completed calls have a call duration of twelve (12) seconds or less Anveo Direct will bill an additional surcharge of $.02 (two cents) for each call in excess of the fifteen percent (15%) threshold. This surcharge is in addition to all applicable usage charges and rates.
ASR RATIO
Customers agree to maintain at least 40% ASR ratio for outgoing calls. ASR ratio is calculated as the percentage of the total number of outgoing calls answered to all outgoing calls sent to Anveo Direct. If during a 24 hours period ASR ratio is below 40% then Customer agrees to be charged $0.01 for every call below the 40% threshold.
"

Which was REPLACED with
"
Conforming Outbound Calls and Surcharge
Anveo Direct Outbound Call Termination is a wholesale service for conversational voice traffic. If in any given day (UTC timezone) customer's outbound calls fall into any of the following categories, Anveo Direct may bill an additional $0.01 per outbound call attempt:
1. the ratio of the answered outbound calls to the total number of outbound call attempts is less than 60%
2. the total number of answered outgoing calls that have a call duration of fifteen (15) seconds (or less) exceeds 15% of all answered outgoing calls
The surcharge is in addition to all applicable usage charges and rates.
"

The updated Anveo Direct Terms of Use were published at »anveodirect.com/about/tos

Best regards,
Your Anveo Team

 

[krzykat]

I'm interested in your thoughts on this one. I'm still using them for quite a bit of traffic, and based on the terms, I assume I'll be fine. 60% call completion rate, and 15% shorts is not out of the norm for carriers. I believe VoIP Innovations shorts are tighter, and I've never had an issue there. I think if you do robo-calling you'll get tagged, but for normal conversational, I don't think you'd ever get hit.

 

[wardmundy]

The concern I had is for folks that may ring several smartphones with every call to a registered extension. This was also mentioned in the DSL Reports thread. In this sort of setup, you'd really get ding'd for all of the unanswered calls. Aside from that and robocall apps, I wouldn't think it would be a problem. V1VoIP (similar pricing) doesn't impose these charges as far as I can tell.

 

[jerrm]

...for other reasons that will become obvious.

More color on that would be appreciated.

Based on this one issue, I would tend to agree with @krzykat. Looking at my anveo direct traffic this should be mostly a non-issue, at the overall rates an occasional day hitting the surcharge won't likely be an issue.

But... there isn't much of the ring-all type activity going on. Still, worth being proactive and keeping an eye on the real world impact.