Trial: Relaxed BYOD Policy
You asked...and received.
As you probably know, our policy has been to require users to use our provided device only and not permit BYOD. This decision was originally made to make sure that we keep service levels consistent, curtail abuse of residential service, and streamline support/training.
Since launch, we've had a huge number of users asking about BYOD and some have presented somewhat legitimate usage cases.
We've also had a HUGE amount of interest in service from HostGator customers overseas that want the service to call family/friends here in the US. International customers make up approximately 40% of the HostGator customer base (1.3 million sites) so that is significant, but we didn't expect such a high interest level from them in our service. Shipping devices internationally is not really a suitable option to address this.
We've shaped our service over the last 2 years from feedback and we're open to making changes if there is a valid argument and large enough demand as long as we can fit it into our existing business model and targets. Our model is not changing and our focus will remain on providing traditional VoIP service to residential users with our devices and fully managing those devices.
With that being said, we are going to relax our BYOD policy on a trial basis. Our concerns?
1) Users blaming service for 3rd party device issues. We do not support or guarantee anything will work with a device if we don't provide it, so we do not want any issues out there related to them to reflect on us.
2) Users contacting support for assistance with third-party devices or asking us to change features to work with 3rd party devices.
3) Users abusing residential plans with multi-user devices.
I'm not being negative...just honest. Everything we do has some kind of reasoning behind it and this one I'm still a little resistant to. Ultimately the reason we're even doing this is just pure demand. Again, this is a trial. If any of these issues become a problem, we'll end it (grandfathering existing in) and go back to not allowing BYOD at all.
Essentially if you choose to use BYOD, you'll be on your own. Just like if you have an iPhone, it's only supposed to be used on AT&T. With some Google skills, you can unlock it and use it on T-Mobile too, but that completely voids your warranty and Apple will not help you if you have issues.
BYOD with VOIPo is similar. Officially we do not support BYOD at all. We will, however, being permitting it.
I think everyone understands our stance on it and can understand why we don't support it.
BYOD Ground Rules:
1) We will provide no support at all when using 3rd party devices.
2) Some features are device specific or tested only with our provided device. We do not guarantee that all features will work with third-party devices and we will not tweak things to make them work.
3) Since 3rd party devices open expose us more to abuse, we will be monitoring and permit only one registration from one location at a time from any third-party device.
4) BYOD accounts will be limited to 3,000 minutes per month of total usage and will not have access to unlimited usage like our started residential accounts.
5) We're setting up a "BYOD Community" on our forums at forums.voipo.com. We have a lot of very knowledgeable customers which can help and ALL discussions about BYOD issues should be kept there and not mixed in with anything related to the standard service. Uses that do not abide by this will be subject to termination.
This new, relaxed BYOD Policy is in effect now. If you have any questions or need SIP credentials, please contact support.
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Originally Posted by Brian
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