[Freeswitch-users] UK SIP Trunk providers

Tue Oct 29 18:02:58 MSK 2013

On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 1:18 PM, Alex Kinch <alex at alexkinch.com> wrote:
> I don't often post on this list (which is why I'm replying to the digest -
> apologies if we've moved on since then), but I just wanted to comment on a
> few things in this thread.
>
> @Richard - when you talk about SIP trunks, it's probably best if you clarify
> whether you're looking for a 'retail' solution e.g. something you can use
> yourself in an office environment for a PBX, FS box, etc or resell to
> clients that want to do the same) or wholesale - whereby you're going to be
> aggregating traffic from multiple customers via SIP trunks, hosted PBX, etc
> etc. There'll be a few differences both technically and commercially between
> these two offerings - e.g. most wholesale providers will only deliver
> inbound traffic to a SIP URI, and will more often than not expect traffic to
> originate from one or more static IP addresses.
>
> @Cal not sure what AQL ratecard you're looking at that charges 26ppm for UK
> Mobile Orange, I'd hazard a guess you need to divide that by 10? Even when
> you do that's still a little on the  expensive side for wholesale.

Take a look at http://www.aql.com/telecoms/site/aql_tariff.pdf
Page 257, peak is £0.128, off peak is £0.269.

I asked them about this before and they said "the majority of our
customers make calls during the day, so we charge more during the
evenings".

I lol'd hard.

>
> Wholesale providers charge minimums as they are, as the name suggests,
> wholesale. They are high volume low margin operations, and often don't sell
> 'retail' services direct to the public - e.g. Magrathea, Simwood - and will
> (last time I checked) require you to sign a declaration that you qualify to
> be a wholesale customer.

Correct.

In hindsight I should have perhaps clarified with OP on whether his
usage was going to be commercial or wholesale.

>
> Gamma, BT, Kingston etc obviously do have retail offerings but also have
> separate wholesale divisions. Gamma and BT (and I'd imagine Kingston too)
> will also provide you retail services that you can white label and sell on
> to your customers under your own brand - no equipment required.
>
> Companies like Gradwell, AQL (who jointly own  a third party called
> Telephony Services, who you might have come across), SureVoip, SipGate are
> (in my humblest opinion) retail providers. They may also have white label
> offerings like the above.
>
> Now... if after all that you fit into the wholesale customer category, you
> might want to split your requirements into UK and international, and again
> split inbound (numbering) from outbound. Why? Because as (I believe) Andrew
> said, there's no one service that'll meet all your needs.

Agreed

> Example: Voxbone will happily provide you numbers in umpteen countries, but
> you'll find that they're i) expensive for UK numbering (actually they're
> expensive full stop, but that's just my personal opinion), ii) there is a
> minimum spend, and iii) they won't help you much with your outbound
> requirements (except for 999/112/911 etc traffic in a few countries).
> Likewise, Magrathea and Simwood wouldn't be a bad choice for UK numbers, but
> if you want numbering in the US, Australia, etc, they're probably not going
> to be able to help.

Agreed

>
> As for BT IP Exchange, let's leave that discussion for another day, but
> suffice to say it's not a regulated interconnect product  - so comparing a
> provider who hosts their numbering on BT IPX with one that leverages TDM
> connectivity to BT is like comparing apples to oranges both technically and
> commercially.
>
> I'm not going to tag on a plug for my company to this thread as it'd be bad
> etiquette - but ping me a mail off-list if you want to chat further.
>
> Cheers,
> Alex
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 29 October 2013 12:35, <freeswitch-users-request at lists.freeswitch.org>
> wrote:
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: "Cal Leeming [Simplicity Media Ltd]"
>> <cal.leeming at simplicitymedialtd.co.uk>
>> To: FreeSWITCH Users Help <freeswitch-users at lists.freeswitch.org>
>> Cc:
>> Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 12:34:52 +0000
>> Subject: Re: [Freeswitch-users] UK SIP Trunk providers
>> I would advise against AQL for wholesale services, they are just another
>> reseller aggregate but with *significantly* higher rates (26p/min to UK
>> orange, what?!)
>>
>> Their technical sales team are also difficult to work with, the majority
>> of people I spoke to there clearly did not understand the product they were
>> selling.
>>
>> Avoid.
>>
>> Cal
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 10:59 AM, Ben Langfeld <ben at langfeld.co.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>> Just curious where you guys see AQL fitting in that categorisation? I've
>>> used them in the past and they seem good. I also thought they were one of
>>> the bigger providers in the UK, but since no-one has mentioned them...
>>>
>>>
>>> On 29 October 2013 07:39, Andrew Cassidy
>>> <andrew at cassidywebservices.co.uk> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I think the point to be made here is that your choice should be
>>>> determined by your requirements and budget. As we know neither of those, we
>>>> can't give you specific recommendations.
>>>>
>>>> The majority of people I encounter use 'consumer' grade services, with
>>>> or without their own equipment as necessary. That said these are largely
>>>> small businesses.
>>>>
>>>> In all seriousness there's always a best tool for the job and no one
>>>> service that'll meet all needs.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 29 October 2013 08:42, Cal Leeming [Simplicity Media Ltd]
>>>> <cal.leeming at simplicitymedialtd.co.uk> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Let's be clear on definitions here;
>>>>>
>>>>> BT, Kingston - Top of the food chain, only financially viable for those
>>>>> with lots of cash and traffic
>>>>> Magrathea, Simwood, Gamma  - Designed for wholesale, scalable to many
>>>>> millions of minutes per month.
>>>>> SipGate, SureVoip, Gradwell, GBC - These providers are designed for
>>>>> consumers, only necessary if you are not running your own equipment
>>>>> NumberGroup, Sol4 - they are essentially a reseller aggregate, or to be
>>>>> more blunt, an unnecessary middleman
>>>>>
>>>>> If someone is running their own switch, why would you want to go with a
>>>>> consumer grade service which not only limits your CLI capabilities, but also
>>>>> increases complexity, affects latency and inflates call rates. Likewise, why
>>>>> would you go through a middleman when you could just go direct to the
>>>>> supplier with no minimum spend on outbound traffic? Though typically inbound
>>>>> does require a small min spend of around £50/month (which is tiny in
>>>>> comparison with VoxBone who charge a min spend of around £600/month [needs
>>>>> clarification]), which is really the only valid reason (that I can think of
>>>>> right now) to go with any of these reseller aggregates.
>>>>>
>>>>> Cal
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 8:05 AM, Andrew Cassidy
>>>>> <andrew at cassidywebservices.co.uk> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Magrathea are pretty much the industry standard for volume.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Depending on your requirements, there are many others such as SipGate
>>>>>> and Gradwell. There are also people from at least 3 UK trunk providers in
>>>>>> this list, including SureVoip, NumberGroup and PowerTel.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 29 October 2013 00:29, Cal Leeming [Simplicity Media Ltd]
>>>>>> <cal.leeming at simplicitymedialtd.co.uk> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi Richard,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This topic was discussed a few months back, you can read the thread
>>>>>>> here;
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> http://markmail.org/message/xdjhmpkzd7txndji#query:+page:1+mid:ncuirf776l5hjovc+state:results
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> http://freeswitch-users.2379917.n2.nabble.com/DID-providers-any-thoughts-jan-2013-tt7586851.html#none
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Since my last post, our chosen UK providers are Magrathea and
>>>>>>> Simwood.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This inter-op was over a period of 6 months but based on low traffic
>>>>>>> (<=500 calls a month), so others with higher throughput may wish to
>>>>>>> chime in.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Magrathea - Over a period of one month, I've not had a single
>>>>>>> problematic call, routing/quality is always good, and they seem to
>>>>>>> have almost every dialing code possible for DIDs. I have not dealt
>>>>>>> with their technical staff yet, but their sales people were friendly
>>>>>>> and knowledgeable.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Simwood - Over a period of two months, I had 2 call routing issues to
>>>>>>> international destinations and they are missing at least one number
>>>>>>> range (Bournemouth). However it's worth noting that Simwood were very
>>>>>>> quick to help, they identified the routing problem within 5 minutes
>>>>>>> of
>>>>>>> me reporting it, and despite being a low profit customer they treated
>>>>>>> us as a high priority. I've also spoken to numerous staff there, they
>>>>>>> always come across as friendly and, more importantly, competent. I
>>>>>>> would have no problem recommending Simwood to others.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> For international routing - I'm still in the process of reviewing
>>>>>>> TelServ and Flowroute, I'd like to use Voxbone but their min spend is
>>>>>>> too high for us.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I cannot choose between Sim/Mag, they are both extremely good
>>>>>>> companies - use both (redundancy is a good thing anyway!)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Cal
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Mon, Oct 28, 2013 at 10:34 PM, Richard Mace
>>>>>>> <richard.mace at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> > Hi,
>>>>>>> > Can anyone recommend any SIP trunk providers, ideally based in the
>>>>>>> > UK?
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > Thanks
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> > Richard
>>>>>>> >
>
>
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