Wholesale VoIP Provider Comparison

Halea

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I've tried out the following wholesale voip providers for the functionality mentioned next to their respective names and wrote my impressions below.

I want to pick only one of the group for both origination and termination, unless one particular provider is notoriously more suitable for origination I would then split origination and termination between two providers.

I would appreciate it if you could share the outcome of your experience. And if there are other/better alternatives please mention it too.
I am looking for under a quarter per DID recurring monthly fee, fraction of a penny per minute origination and termination cost, and very low cost porting fee - if any.

#1 - bulkvs (tried origination, termination) : VERY BEST PROVIDER FOR USA DIDs AND TERMINATION
SIP URL forwarding and/or userid password registration : Both work well.
origination : good quality, attractive pricing
termination : good quality, attractive pricing
web portal : delayed CDR, average website with missing functionality, YET VERY DEPENDABLE.
outbound callerid : restricted to DID if using userid/password reg. Fully settable if using SIP URL forwarding.
Number porting : Didn't try. Headache free porting from uncommon source in 7 days sharp. DIDs carried by bandwidth.com.
Support : Very responsive, OUTSTANDING SERVICE.
International calling : No. North America calling only.
Anyone has any info about how long this provider has been around? (At least since 2015 based on various forum feedback)
No more worries about this vendor's business acumen and longevity based on ver positive actual experience over the last 6 months.

Prepayment deposit: Minimum $25 with PayPal. No cuts or additional processing fee on deposits.
Incoming call CNAM fees: $0.0020 on all incoming calls - mandatory

#2 - Call With Us : VERY GOOD TERMINATION PROVIDER FOR USA AND INTERNATIONAL - OUR GOLD STANDARD FOR INTERNATIONAL CALLS

#3 - Localphone : Very good termination provider for EU if accurate caller id is not a requirement

#4 - Signal Wire : Stunning termination quality in the USA

#5 - Nexmo (tried origination, termination)

This is actually a voip development platform much like Twillio and Signal Wire. It was acquired by Vonage which had been re-engineering its voip business for some time now.
SIP URL forwarding and/or userid password registration : Both work well.
origination : Good quality AND very competitive monthly flat rate. But, no per minute pricing.
termination : Good quality, but not attractively priced.
web portal : Development platform, not very easy to use.
outbound callerid : CID only settable to verified phone numbers.
Number porting : Didn't try.
Support : Very good, very knowledgeable but a little slow to act on new tickets.
International calling : Works well, although rates are not attractive.
Overall impression: Very positive for quick voip/sip/sms application prototyping.
Warning: EU based business, only accepts Euros for payment (Not really an issue with PayPal except for the exorbitant fees) and keeps records in EU. Record-keeping in EU might have ramifications on privacy rules and regulatory compliance which need to be clarified. Vonage says that it is in process of moving business to the USA, but actual workers at Nexmo could not confirm such move was imminent.

#6 - Twillio : Good platform for development, but it has fierce competition

#7 - Telecoms Xchange (tried origination, termination) : Worth having it around

SIP URL forwarding and/or userid password registration : Only SIP URL forwarding
origination : Good quality but not very attractively priced. Only 1 DID provider but top tier.
termination : Good quality, attractive pricing - depends on actual underlying carrier.
web portal : Quite good and functional but with broken/missing features.
outbound callerid : Fully settable
Number porting : Didn't try.
Support : Didn't try
International calling : Excellent routes to Canada, France and some EU countries.
Challenge: As many trunks are country or region specific management with static settings like with FreePBX/Asterisk is a significant challenge. In addition, quick pace rate adjustments by the carriers make things even more time consuming.
Overall impression: Not as attractive as it was once touted by WM, it certainly doesn't have near 300 carriers. But, one could hand pick half a dozen that work well, especially for international calling and use them with relative satisfaction. Service is reasonably good. The owner/operator is responsive and friendly.

#8 - IP Communications : Does not really stand out except for its free DIDs (which may suddenly disappear)

#9 - anveodirect (tried origination, termination) : Does not stand out

SIP URL forwarding and/or userid password registration : Only SIP URL forwarding
origination : good quality, attractive pricing
termination : good quality, attractive pricing
web portal : Quite good and very functional
outbound callerid : Fully settable
Number porting : Didn't try, way too expensive
Support : Didn't try
International calling : Didn't try

#10 - v1voip / now 'call48' (tried origination, termination) : Overall impression: Good for termination/outbound calls. No longer using this provider
SIP URL forwarding and/or userid password registration : Both work well.
origination : good quality, attractive pricing
termination : good quality, attractive pricing. Random sound quality issues made their trunks unusable.
web portal : quasi real-time CDR, unpolished/unfinished website offers miserable user experience.
outbound callerid : restricted to DID if using userid/password reg. Fully settable if using SIP URL forwarding.
Number porting : Not good
Support : Not good. Bad!
International calling : Only with the right "product" on the right switch. Support needs to be involved to make it work, but it actually never worked!
Prepayment deposit: Minimum $20 with PayPal. 3.5% of deposit amount charged as processing fee.
Incoming call CNAM fees: $0.0029 on all incoming calls - mandatory

Thanks for your input.

Edit :
1) Updated some of the findings. Added international calling info.
2) 11/01: Added prepayment deposit requirements and ancillary fees like CNAM. Also updated number porting feedback and impressions.
3) 04/30/2020: Updated impressions of v1voip (now call48), bulkvs and added Telecoms Xchange and Nexmo. New ranking scheme (best on top of the list, worst at the end) with a few more providers and our overall opinion of them.
 
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krzykat

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bulkvs (termination)

Anyone has any info about how long this provider has been around?

I think they've been around since about 2008, but they changed their name with their increased services. They used to be known simply as BulkCnam
 

wardmundy

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With BulkVS you are forced to pay $.005 per inbound call for CNAM lookups. So, if your grandma calls you every hour, you might want to buy your DIDs elsewhere.
 

Halea

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With BulkVS you are forced to pay $.005 per inbound call for CNAM lookups. So, if your grandma calls you every hour, you might want to buy your DIDs elsewhere.
Thanks Ward. I'll remember to tell my grandma to not call me so often. :balloon: (Seriously though - thanks for the info)
Edit: They might have reduced their CNAM rate since their rate sheet shows $0.002 per call now. One annoying thing about their service is the delay in getting the CDR. On the other hand their MRC for US-48 DIDs is the lowest I've seen by far. $0.06 vs $1.25 at flowroute for instance.
 
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kenn10

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I've used AnveoDirect for several years now. I have both origination and termination. I ported several DID's to them and it was painless (but costs $15/number to port.) It took about a week for the port to complete. They give good flexibility on routing the DID's with both a primary and second route. If you have a backup server that you can fail over to, this is handy. I have never known Anveo to go down or block inbound calls. The ability to choose which providers you want for outbound calls is a big plus.

DID's for the USA are $0.19/month -- one of the cheapest I've found. The only caveat is that they do not support 911 service. I keep one DID with another provider (Vitelity at $1.49/month) for the purpose of dialing 911.

Their customer service is responsive and good.
 

jerrm

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(but costs $15/number to port.)
By far the worse thing about AnveoDirect. No telling how much recurring income they are losing from folks that might otherwise be porting numbers to them if it didn't take over a year to recover such a large port fee.

I keep one DID with another provider (Vitelity at $1.49/month) for the purpose of dialing 911.
If 911 is the only reason for Vitelity, BulkVS is only $0.49/month.
 

Halea

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I think they've been around since about 2008, but they changed their name with their increased services. They used to be known simply as BulkCnam
Thanks, that's reassuring.
 

Halea

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By far the worse thing about AnveoDirect. No telling how much recurring income they are losing from folks that might otherwise be porting numbers to them if it didn't take over a year to recover such a large port fee.


If 911 is the only reason for Vitelity, BulkVS is only $0.49/month.
I wonder what's anveodirect's angle on the porting fee. Even more consumer oriented providers are porting for half what anveodirect is charging.
 

Halea

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I ported several DID's to them and it was painless (but costs $15/number to port.)

Their customer service is responsive and good.
Since I need to port quite a few numbers and considering their porting fee, origination with anveo direct is out of question. But I like very much their low cost routing engine, so I am inclined to pick them over v1voip for termination. What's the latest with the short / unanswered call surcharge issue with them?
 

jerrm

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I wonder what's anveodirect's angle on the porting fee. Even more consumer oriented providers are porting for half what anveodirect is charging.
They need to control churn to some degree and discourage being a short term parking spot for things like to porting away and then back to the wireless carriers to get promos, but $15 is too high.
 

krzykat

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I wonder what's anveodirect's angle on the porting fee. Even more consumer oriented providers are porting for half what anveodirect is charging.

I think its wrapped up into the cost of labor to do the porting. $15 is probably a profit center, but others that do it for less than half may be losing money, but don't care as long as they can maintain a long term relationship.
 

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