Included Accounts

The included account is designed for the reseller use ONLY and is not intended to be resold since it offers unlimited minutes.

We've made some changes to how the "Included Accounts" will be handled in order to prevent abuse of this where a reseller might put one of their high use clients on "their account".

Included Residential Account

Each reseller accounts will include one residential account for personal use.

This residential account has unlimited minutes (subject to softcap). It's a VOIPo-managed account and will not be managed in the reseller panel. This account will have VOIPo branding like a traditional VOIPo account. VOIPo support will handle changes to this account (such as password resets).


Included Account ATA

The included account includes a free lease of a VOIPo ATA for use with it.

The included ATA is subject to the same policies surrounding normal VOIPo accounts. It's provided on a free lease basis and must be returned or purchased upon cancellation of the reseller account.

This ATA cannot be assigned to other resold accounts since that would mean giving it to a client and it leaving your possession which would make it hard to get it back upon account cancellation.

VOIPo support will handle all provisioning for this ATA.

So we cannot manage our own accounts anymore?

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Originally Posted by computergeek7632

So we cannot manage our own accounts anymore?

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Not the "included account". It will be setup as a normal VOIPo residential account.

You'll be able to manage your resold accounts though.

I understand why you guys did this and its a very good idea. However couldn't you leave it so we could manage the Hardware part of it?

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Originally Posted by computergeek7632

I understand why you guys did this and its a very good idea. However couldn't you leave it so we could manage the Hardware part of it?

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The problem is someone could then assign a client to their free adapter.

The free adapter has to be returned to VOIPo if the reseller account is ever canceled and if they give it to a client, it may not be returned.

The wholesale cost on the adapters is in the mid $40s so we have to limit our potential for losses. If we didn't require the return of it, someone could simply buy $24.95 reseller accounts and cancel them getting a free adapter each time and we lose massive amounts of money. The wholesale cost on the PAP2s even in large quantities is in the mid $40s so we'd lose around $20 each time. This is really the only way to structure the free adapter.

If you purchase adapters from VOIPo, that's different and you can do whatever you want with them since they don't ever need to be returned. It's the free ones that cause the issue.

Hey I have a private question shooting you a pm now.

That might explain how when Brandon was fixing a bad DID and the config on the ATA hardware display cleared, there was no Included number anymore in the drop-down. I had it assigned to this ATA and a second account on line#2.

It does show the Included Account here https://cp.voipwelcome.com/billing/included_accounts and I see Toll Free Forwarded is now available to add.

I *think* many of us will want to keep our personal VOIPo number too, but convert it to a Reseller Account.

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Originally Posted by usa2k

That might explain how when Brandon was fixing a bad DID and the config on the ATA hardware display cleared, there was no Included number anymore in the drop-down. I had it assigned to this ATA and a second account on line#2.

It does show the Included Account here https://cp.voipwelcome.com/billing/included_accounts and I see Toll Free Forwarded is now available to add.

I *think* many of us will want to keep our personal VOIPo number too, but convert it to a Reseller Account.

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Yeah, they'll show on the Billing - Included Accounts page. That's where you go to set them up initially too.

The idea behind is that someone can move their primary service to VOIPo.

So for $24.95, you get your personal phone service, a toll-free number, and the ability to resell. Most people are already paying $24.95 or more for their own phone service so this is a pretty sweet deal for them to replace that and get the reseller component as a bonus.

We will have a way for people to "keep" their existing VOIPo residential account and make it their included account when they order...while getting a credit for unused prepaid VOIPo residential time added to the reseller account.

It would be great if the included account is made accessible by https://secure.voipo.com/
That avoids conflicts with using https://cp.voipwelcome.com/ on the same PC for Reseller business.

Both can then stay as active web pages.

QUESTION:

With the Included Reseller Account (You need a better moniker for it) will it be possible to make the Virtual Toll Free number an upgraded second line? Allowing outbound calls to send the outbound CID as the TF CID?

If so, I see little need for a local DID for most business use. While being small scale, the primary included number could be our Residential DID if we so choose.

• The numbers stay separate that way so the correct greeting can be used for a call.
• We could spin off additional metered Accounts as needed if they could send the Toll Free outbound CID.
• The Toll-Free numbers could come into some internally assigned number handling multiple TF DID routes
  
  • Then route it to TF SIP like sip:8775554444@in.voipwelcome.com
  
  

A Tangent
A better moniker: Biz Account, Seller Number, Seller DID.
Change the vague "Included Accounts" title on https://cp.voipwelcome.com/billing/included_accounts

It would be awesome if the reseller could have outbound toll free.

Unfortunately we're not able to pass the toll-free number as the outbound Caller ID.

Wholesale VoIP rates are very complex. Just one of our carriers as an example has over 1,000,000 rates for outbound calls. There are a lot of things that determine what rate applies including the to/from number combination, the phone companies on both ends, etc.

If they don't get a "valid" number they can match up with a rate, the call is automatically billed at the highest US rate in the entire ratesheet with all of our carriers. This is common with VoIP due, but not with landline/physical connections.

If we pass a toll-free number as the from number, it's considered invalid and not able to be rated with a rate, so it would go to highest. The main reason is that almost all the variables with rates depend on geography and since a toll-free number is not location-based, there is no location.

With a physical connection to the phone network, there IS a location even if a non-valid number is passed so it doesn't matter.

Convoluted I know...but this is the kind of stuff I spend 99 hours a day dealing with.

Very confusing :P

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Originally Posted by VOIPoTim

If we pass a toll-free number as the from number, it's considered invalid and not able to be rated with a rate, so it would go to highest.

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Great explanation!

Question: Does Voip have both an ANI and a CID? It seems to be as long as the ANI is valid, it wouldn't matter what the CID is set to. But I've never been able to get a straight answer to whether ANI is even sent properly with voip services.

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Originally Posted by uhf

Question: Does Voip have both an ANI and a CID? It seems to be as long as the ANI is valid, it wouldn't matter what the CID is set to. But I've never been able to get a straight answer to whether ANI is even sent properly with voip services.

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Not consistently. There's almost no standardization in VoIP. Some providers use ANI, some don't. It's about 50/50 with our upstream carriers as to which ones use it. Sometimes it's even changed upstream if a carrier is routing out through a fixed line trunk in some areas.

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Originally Posted by VOIPoTim

Some providers use ANI, some don't. It's about 50/50 with our upstream carriers as to which ones use it.

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Thanks for the answer. I've never gotten a good answer to this question from other voip providers. Many of the responses were along the lines of "huh?" :p

Along these same lines, what about calls to a toll-free number? Are toll free providers not expecting to see an ANI, and a DNIS?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by uhf

Thanks for the answer. I've never gotten a good answer to this question from other voip providers. Many of the responses were along the lines of "huh?" :p

Along these same lines, what about calls to a toll-free number? Are toll free providers not expecting to see an ANI, and a DNIS?

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It's kind of along the same lines. Eventually they do. Whether or not anything we send gets stripped out somewhere upstream varies. So ultimately the final carrier delivering the call will provide it. Whether or not the accept what we send, re-write using from number, or re-write completely with a third-party number depends on the carrier.