Lane
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-----Original Message-----
From: Nitzan Kon <nk3569@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:12:02
To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion<asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com>
Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] Setting up a VOIP Provider
I agree 100%. The technological aspects anyone with a little bit of
Unix skills can achieve. Getting out there and selling your service
is the real challenge. With literally hundreds of providers to choose
from - what will make customers choose your service over others?
The second aspect is keeping costs under control. A mistake a lot of
companies make is to invest a fortune in advertising. While having
new customers come in is great- if you spend millions on advertising
there is no way you could price your service competitively. Customers
may stick for a while, but once they realize there are more cost
effective solutions out there they'll flee.
Case in point- Vonage. They spend a fortune on advertising, and get
new customers all the time - but their churn rate is so high (3%)
that they had a net gain of only 2000 customers last quarter. IMHO
Vonage will not survive long term, especially as increased competition
from cable company VoIP is rising. At their price level they have too
much competition.
--
Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation
www.future-nine.com
--- On Wed, 8/20/08, Alex Balashov <abalashov@evaristesys.com> wrote:
> From: Alex Balashov <abalashov@evaristesys.com>
> Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] Setting up a VOIP Provider
> To: "Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion" <asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com>
> Date: Wednesday, August 20, 2008, 3:31 PM
> I'd say the real problem is the same as it is in making
> as business
> model as a service provider of anything.
>
> Most people who are enthused about Asterisk can solve a
> great deal of
> the technical challenges; what is lacking is developing
> effective,
> scalable business processes, including provisioning,
> customer care,
> interop, administration, training, collections, sales,
> marketing, etc.
>
> These are essential in order to be able to make the
> operations support
> growth by lending a replicability and decomposition to the
> day-to-day
> things involved that allow you to hire and train others and
> create
> streamlined workflows at decreased (ing) marginal cost.
>
> I'd say that's where the service failing you're
> describing comes from.
> Even for organisations with great technology and support,
> it may be that
> nobody will ever know about them unless you invest heavily
> in marketing
> - the right kind of marketing, too. I've seen tons of
> those; good
> providers full of knowledgeable engineers and top
> reliability, who might
> as well be operating out of their parents' basement as
> far as the
> outside world is concerned.
>
> It's getting those things right that costs money and
> time, and demands
> an objective experience and a certain art. The actual
> technological
> challenges are simple in comparison, if not necessarily
> trivial.
>
>
> Joe Antkowiak wrote:
>
> > The problem isn't setting it up -- anyone who
> knows a bit about linux and is
> > capable of learning a few networking concepts can do
> so, that's why there are SO
> > many out there. The problem instead is managing it
> and resolving problems
> > without having an aneurism. ITSPs are like ISPs were
> in the late 90's, the few
> > who manage to keep customers happy and keep growing
> are the ones that will survive.
> >
> > Lane Sullivan wrote:
> >> Hello everyone,
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I love reading all the posts here and have learned
> tons in the last few
> >> months. I have successfully setup 2 dealerships
> with Asterisks and am on my
> >> 3rd. I wanted to ask this question for information
> purposes so I can see
> >> everyone's view on the subject.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I have a buddy with an ISP that provides me with
> SIP service through his
> >> upstream provider. Problem is he is slow (VERY
> SLOW) and so far the support
> >> sucks. I ordered a few 800 numbers months ago and
> still don't have them, my
> >> caller id still does not work since he setup the
> account.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> My question is this: How hard is it to setup a
> VOIP provider to the people
> >> here in my area since the competition sucks?!?!?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> The obvious next question is costs involved. I
> understand setting up a
> >> system like Vonage etc. is HIGH dollar but what
> about a smaller setup?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Thanks in advance and I look forward to the
> reading material,
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Lane
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
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>
> --
> Alex Balashov
> Evariste Systems
> Web : http://www.evaristesys.com/
> Tel : (+1) (678) 954-0670
> Direct : (+1) (678) 954-0671
> Mobile : (+1) (706) 338-8599
>
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