Hosted IP PBX FAQ's
1. What is the
Cost of a hosted PBX solution including hardware, software and
installation?
OneStopTel has
the lowest cost of overall ownership with a simple, economical plan of $45 per
phone line plus the cost of any requested phone sets.
2. Can a
telecommunications solution be implemented in phases for minimal disruption?
OneStopTel can phase in a solution so that the business client and users have a smooth and transparent cutover.
3. Does your
vendor provide technical support 24 hours a day by 7 days a week?
OneStopTel has a staff of trained technicians ready to respond to problems 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
4. Does the system have high reliability and availability?
OneStopTel has built our hosted IP PBX platform on a “cloud computing” network that is not
only extremely reliable with diverse components but also stays available at the
carrier grade rate of 99.999% available uptime.
5. Is the system easily scalable?
Being on a cloud computing network allows OneStopTel and our clients to easily and quickly scale their
systems. Increasing capacity with legacy systems used to take days or even
weeks but now are possible in minutes just by adding additional phones.
6. Does your system allow Multi-vendor interoperability? Can you use your existing network
equipment with the new solution?
OneStopTel can integrate with your existing phone equipment easily by adding analog telephone
adapters (ATA’s). However you would not have the many additional features that
VoIP was made for unless you use the newer VoIP phones that contain these
features.
7. Do you get a Full suite of communications features & business-enabling applications?
Cost savings on phone calls
are not simply the only reason to use a hosted IP PBX system. Many of the cost
savings come from the additional features that you get with an IP telephony
system. The OneStopTel system can provide many value added services like call
history logging, conference call capabilities, document sharing, follow-me
features, etc.
8. How easy is it to implement, manage and maintain the system?
With OneStopTel IP telephony systems, life easier for your IT team, not more difficult. Because the new
system works on the existing network, everything is managed similarly. If
management of the IP telephony solution is not straightforward and intuitive,
how long will it take your team to ramp up to the point that the system will be
supported adequately? It’s imperative that changes be made quickly and easily
so that the addition of a new system doesn’t add burden to busy IT personnel.
Some of the most important factors of convergence are how it simplifies life and how it
saves organizations in terms of management time and money. Does your staff need
to train with the vendor every month, and can you afford their time out of the
office? How difficult is it to train users on features of the system, and will
they be calling for help more often than usual because of the IP telephony
implementation?
In reality, users should be calling your help desk less frequently with a new IP telephony
system. Even employee moves, adds, and changes (MACs) should be simple for
either the user or one IT staff member to make within a few minutes. You should
also no longer need a service provider to make these alterations for you—this
will save you money and time.
9. Is it easy and cost effective to integrate your multiple sites on one network?
OneStopTel easily combines and integrates your company’s multiple locations onto one
network architecture. This means that although you have the diversity and
safety of each location having its own phone system, all the features can be
easily shared by one and all of the locations. One main number can be shared
and phone calling and transfers between locations are free of per minute
charges. Furthermore, your combined service can receive the high
volume phone service discounts available only to the largest corporations.
10. Is there an overall cost savings over the life of the service?
When comparing systems, remember to add the projected cost of managing the system as well as
any additional peripheral facilities and equipment. With OneStopTel, easy
management by the client for most tasks results in a much lower cost over the
long run.
11. How easy is the system to use by the actual users?
This is major factor that you will want to consider with any system. Sure, there will always
be some training needed as employees become familiar with system, but such
training should not be difficult or tediously long. The actual phones and call
management software program should be intuitive and simple with clear
instructions whenever possible.
Features like forwarding of voice mail calls, ad-hoc conference
calling, simple call transferring should be simple for employees, even
those who have to learn to use the system without training such as
remotely located employees. Such ease of use can only improve your
customer service and employee productivity in the long run.
12. Is your
network ready for such a system?
By testing
your data network’s ability to successfully support IP telephony traffic and
discovering potential performance problems before your system is installed, a
network assessment helps you plan, design and implement a successful IP
telephony solution.
The assessment
can be handled by a technical network provider or by the
vendor you choose, since both should have the experience with IP
telephony that they apply to interpreting the test results.
In order to
achieve toll-quality voice, you need to deploy IP telephony over a properly
architected network infrastructure - i.e., it has to provide sufficient
throughput and meet latency, jitter and packet loss requirements.
Throughput:
How much bandwidth you need depends on the how many simultaneous calls your
organization has going on, the voice encoding scheme used in the IP handset or
soft phone, and the signaling overhead.
Latency and
Jitter: Latency is the time it takes for a caller’s voice to be transported
(packetized, sent over the network, de-packetized, replayed) to the other individual.
Distance and lower-speed circuits can cause delay. Latency that’s too high
interrupts the natural conversation flow (you may have spoken with someone
using VoIP - you think they have stopped talking but they haven’t-that’s
latency). Latency cannot exceed 100 milliseconds one way for toll-quality
voice. Acceptable quality voice can go up to 150 milliseconds and participants
can still carry on a decent conversation.
Packet Loss:
Packet loss results in a metallic sound or conversation dropouts. It’s caused
by congestion, distance and poor line quality. Because IP telephony is a
real-time audio service using Real Time Protocol (RTP) running over User
Datagram Protocol (UDP), there’s no way to recover lost packets. A mere one or
two percent packet drop degrades voice quality.
A thorough
assessment uses active application traffic across the LAN and WAN in order to
reveal what’s going to happen when IP telephony is introduced into the mix.
Test engineers send a variety of network traffic packets - using different
application protocols, packet size, packet spacing and quality of service (QoS)
levels. The tests simulate the various types of IP telephony traffic that are
likely to occur on a live network. In addition to measuring peer-to-peer
traffic, the engineers can also generate real-time client
transactions against production servers, including communication with IP PBX
servers. This comprehensive approach enables the test engineer to pinpoint the
source of potential problems and make recommendations for resolution, thus
avoiding unwelcome surprises following the implementation.
Pilot Installation and Testing
If you have an
integration partner or the vendor you have selected works with regional
resellers and consultants, call and schedule a time to determine your needs
list. If your organization or the vendor does not have an integration partner,
get an engineer from the vendor in to help you with this list. With this person
(or people), look closely at the current design of your network and make a list
of any equipment upgrades or new purchases you’ll need to make in order to
optimize the infrastructure for IP telephony.
Update any
existing network diagrams you’ll be using. Be sure to label it so you know it
is the original (pre-IP telephony). Next, sketch your new network diagram with
the gear included. Determine if there is any overlap and if perhaps you don’t
need as many switches as you thought. If you’re not working with an integration
partner, you may want to invest some money in having a technology expert take a
look at your new proposed network diagram. It’s better to make major changes in
the planning stage as opposed to after you’ve taken delivery of your IP
telephony equipment. An expert can also make sure you maximize your equipment
purchase and may make modifications to your diagram that will save you money in
the long run.
After you’ve
come up with your new network diagram, begin deploying the gear onto a test
network. This will not only help ensure the new system works optimally, it will
help you get accustomed to the new equipment so other deployments (to other
locations, for instance) go smoothly. At the beginning, the test network should
not affect anybody’s workday. During the second phase, transition some
noncritical employees or departments to the test network. This will help you
further test the system in a real-world scenario and also gets users familiar
with it.
Go Live
After you have
played with the system for a few weeks or months and made appropriate
configuration changes to adapt to your entire organization, you can begin
rolling out IP telephony company wide. An installation in phases tends to work
best, even if the phases are over one week. The larger your enterprise, the
longer it will take and the longer you may need between phases.
After the
rollout, it’s imperative that you schedule end user training. You may handle
this by department or location, depending on your organization. Vendor
representatives are often available to be onsite to provide expertise and
demonstrations during end user training sessions. While your choice of
solutions will likely be rich in features, these features should also be
intuitive to the end user; therefore training should take just two or three
hours, as opposed to all day.
Make sure that
the team you’ve put together is available for the duration (right through user
training), at least on some level. If you’ve chosen a project leader, this is
the person who will know all the details, even if he or she is not working
daily on all of them. Once you’ve made the switch, sit back and start
enjoying the many benefits of IP telephony.
13. What is the
contract termination policy?
OneStopTel
offers extremely competitively priced services with discounted pricing for
phone handsets. In order to install and rent such hardware, it is necessary to
request a 24 month commitment. If at any time during the commitment
period, you are not satisfied with quality of service, you may return the
hardware, pay a contract termination fee of $20 per phone and be released from
any further liability.
14. What start up
costs are there beyond setup and equipment fees?
You must
ensure a there is a broadband connection with enough capacity available to
handle your voice traffic. OneStopTel will help you to determine your
requirements at no extra charge and will then interconnect the phone equipment
to your broadband router and you will be good to go.
15. What day to
day usage costs are not covered by a service plan? What are the rates for
International calls for example?
OneStopTel has
over 20 years of experience and deep expertise with international networks and
this allows us to have some of the lowest rates and best overall quality in the
industry. We even have the patent pending "Qualirouter" technology
that maximizes the connection quality to every international
destination.
16. Can the
system handle outbound and inbound faxes out of the box? Can I just plug in a
fax machine or do I need special equipment?
Yes, unlike
some of our competitors, the OneStopTel platform, instantly recognizes fax
transmission and routes it through at the highest quality level.
17. Do I need
add-ons or extras to handle old style analog phones that I already have or that
remote or branch offices have already installed?
If you have
analog phones or an old PBX, you can still use our service by adding an ATA
device (analog telephone adapter.) You will still get great quality and low
rates with these converters but some of the cutting edge features may not be
available. This functionality will depend on the type of older system that you
have as well as your current needs.
18. How does the
system handle remote and mobile workers?
One of the
best features of the OneStopTel IP PBX is how easily and seamlessly you can
connect remote personnel and offices. Regardless of their location throughout
the world, your remote offices and staff are just additional extensions to your
central system (or they can be separate if you wish.) You benefit with volume
discounts and cost savings as well as with the speed and efficiency of 4 and 5
digits dialing on any extension.
19. If I
underestimate my requirements and need a major upgrade or my company grows,
what are the additional costs for upgrading?
This depends
on the system that you need but one thing is sure that all of the OneStopTel
hardware and software are built "backwards compatible." This means
that you will never have to waste any hardware or phones already installed; you
just add what you need as you grow.
20. How do you
guarantee your quality of service?
OneStopTel has
a patent pending technology called QUALIROUTER. This radical new system routes
distributes calls across multiple terminating networks and automatically
adjusts its routing to maximize calls to the best performing network. It's like
having a team of 100 technicians monitoring your traffic flow and instantly
adjusting the quality of the network.
21. What about
emergency services; do you provide full 911 or E911 services? Will dispatchers
know my location automatically? And how about remote workers?
One of the
limitations of VoIP is the need to program the location of the phone into the
system. This is done by the installers when they install the system and is a
small additional charge per month.
22. How do I know
you are going to be around in two years, let alone three?
OneStopTel's
parent company, World-Link Telecom, Inc., has been around since 1992 and has
always been a leader in providing technical solutions to large companies and
industry carriers. Now this innovation is being made available to any company
throughout the world. Custom call routing programs that can solve many customer
service issues are also available at competitive rates.
SALES AND
COMMERCIAL FAQ's
1. What is OneStopTel Int’l LD Service?
OneStopTel Int’l LD Service is the very
efficient and cost effective source that allows the Telecom Industry to
complete their calls and/or fill their networks as simple, secure and fast as
1, 2 & 3.
2. How experienced are the managers operating OneStopTel Int’l LD
Service?
The OneStopTel
concept and system has been developed and refined over 10 years of
international carrier operations and intensively over the last 2 years. The
capabilities are based on many independent and proprietary software tools that
were built for cost efficiency and automation by our technology partners. You
can say that these tools were built by a carrier* for carriers and were
tested in tough high volume environments.
The people that work and manage the OneStopTel Int’l LD Service have
decades of experience in International network design and operations and are
committed to helping People First, Then to excellence, efficiency and profit.
*
OneStopTel
3. Is OneStopTel Int’l LD Service an exchange? How is it
different?
OneStopTel Int’l LD is not an exchange
trading platform. Instead we offer voice Origination and Termination service,
and we decided to share with you what we consider the most efficient and effective
ways of helping you capitalize on the routes you’d like to provide or receive and
increase your profit. OneStopTel Int’l
LD Service has improved the traditional telecom concept in 3 significant
ways:
·
First, the functionality is different and better. OneStopTel performs the network operational back office work so you do not have to
by combining all the routes to a particular destination, and then grading the
quality (and price) of those routes so as to seamlessly blend the quality into
usable grades of service. We have defined them as Grade B- Best Value and Grade
C- Cost Cutter.
·
Secondly, OneStopTel has a very cost effective and
simple pricing structure. As long as you meet the low monthly minute
thresholds, there is only a reasonable $0.0025 per minute fee to calculate,
simple! (complete the Industry Partner Profile and receive more information).
·
Thirdly, flexibility – by adding the modern Vnet (virtual network switching)
service to your account, you can add your own vendors (up to 3) for any
destination and have even more choices with pricing and quality.
4. How does the OneStopTel Int’l LD Service help PTT’s or other large
international carriers?
In at least three distinct ways:
·
First, since PTT’s operate large
networks that carry ongoing monthly costs; keeping such networks filled is
important. With OneStopTel, a PTT type of Subscriber can quickly
lower (or raise) pricing for a destination to rapidly increase or decrease
traffic based on their own network capacity needs.
·
Secondly, since PTT’s negotiate
with other large carriers on a continual basis, by being OneStopTel Subscribers, PTTs can easily
determine a good price range for a destination and for different quality grades
so as to better negotiate.
·
Thirdly, PTT’s can join OneStopTel and easily have more options when
terminating international voice minutes. Price sensitive marketing programs can
now be addressed quickly and efficiently, without affecting other less price
sensitive traffic currently flowing to bilateral partners.
5. How does the OneStopTel help Emerging IP carriers?
As a small operating Telecom Company, OneStopTel gives you the tools and
power to compete and fill your routes to grow your revenue and eliminates most
of the headaches and expenses related to carrier operations such as facility
space, utility bills, human resources that can be used in a more productive
way, etc.
6. How flexible is your software? Can I bring in routes for my exclusive
usage?
Yes, as stated above, Vnet allows any OneStopTel Subscriber to bring in their
own vendors; we call this Grade Y for
Your own. This powerful capability creates a carrier network operations center
for your exclusive use. You can bring in your own vendors AND your own carrier
buyers and create a virtual wholesale negation types environment for your own
carrier clientele for a very convenient small port charge. What is better than
that!
7. Why should I pay for Vnet ports, when we can just connect to vendors
directly?
Vnet gives you the power of having
hundreds of routes at your selection and conveniently graded by quality of
service. By placing your own vendor side by side with such grades of service,
you can now easily compare your own vendor’s routes to the OneStopTel and easily and conveniently select any of up to 5 routes
for each destination; Grade B, Grade C and your own 3 routes; an entire back
office and network operations department is now easily available through your
desktop.
8. What is Grade B and Grade C?
“Grade B- Best Value” is what the
Telecom Industry defines as Premium High Quality Grade of Service and “Grade C-
Cost Cutter” is what the Telecom Industry knows as the standard wholesale
quality and where the price is the most important factor to be in routing.
The main difference between them is quality.
For each breakout, Grade B routing table includes only the OneStopTel Route Termination Provider that perform better than the
quality and reliability (ORQ) threshold that WLT Quality team has set.
Similarly, for each breakout, Grade C
routing table includes only the OneStopTel Route
Termination Provider performing better than the (relaxed) quality and
reliability (ORQ) thresholds set for Grade C.
In other words, OneStopTel Route Termination Provider are considered good enough to
enter a routing table for a Grade of Service and breakout only if they meet the
reference (threshold) ORQ values that the WLT Quality team has set for that
specific Grade of Service and breakout.
Furthermore, to achieve truly premium
service, Grade B traffic is coupled with specially designed operations policies
that ensure closer quality monitoring and higher prioritization of problem
resolution.
9. What do I win through 2 Grades of Service?
By having 2 Grades of Service you win
because you get the power of having choices. The principal feature associated with OneStopTel is that it allows Subscribers
to compare quality and price info for each breakout and decide whether they
want to send their traffic over the premium-quality Grade B or the
price-oriented Grade C service.
This is special since it replaces the
heavy management and operational workload usually performed by OneStopTel Int’l LD clients necessary
when maintaining two Grades of Service.
Carriers now also have the flexibility
and option to send call traffic over Grade B for some destinations and over
Grade C for others depending on their price and quality needs.
10. How does OneStopTel come up with offered rates?
OneStopTel issues rate updates
once a week (every Wednesday) for each breakout and Grade of Service based on
an auto-pricing algorithm. Loyal to our neutrality mission, offered rates are
equal to the effective cost as calculated during the last 7 days for that
destination and Grade of Service.
11. How is the “effective cost” calculated?
For Grade B, the effective cost of a
breakout is calculated, by taking the total dollar cost of Grade B traffic that
completed during the last 7 days and dividing by the total minutes of call
traffic.
For Grade C, the definition is exactly
the same but the calculation is made for the last 7 days of Grade C traffic
(instead of Grade B traffic).
12. What are the billing increments available?
Billing is either 1 second minimum and 1
second additional increment or 30 seconds minimum and 6 seconds additional
increments (except Mexico
which is in 1 minute minimum and 1 minute additional increments and domestic USA is 6
seconds minimum and 6 seconds additional increments). The actual increments are
described in your contract.
13. How often are rates increased in OneStopTel? What time period is
required for increases?
OneStopTel posts new rates
every Wednesday. The rates posted on Wednesday are the maximum rates for the
week. Any rate changes, either increases and/or decreases that are below the
maximum weekly rate are effective immediately. The maximum weekly rate remains
fixed until the next Wednesday.
14. Where do I find the most current effective cost rates?
They are available by clicking on the
link “Effective Cost Details” displayed on the main screen to “Buy Int’l LD
from OST” when you log in to your account.
15. Where can I view your dialing codes; how many breakouts are
available?
By clicking on a destination’s name, you
will see the corresponding codes associated with that destination. Or, if you
go to the destination details page, you will see these same codes for that
destination. We also offer a complete list of codes by request. The code list
is continuously updated to provide the most accurate and up to date
information. Our current list is comprised of more than 1000 breakouts.
16. How often do you update OneStopTel code table?
Based on the market demands, whenever OneStopTel, considers to add, delete or implement a code change to OneStopTel code table, we will send an
“official code change notice” on Fridays and such notice will be effective the
following Wednesday (5 days after).
17. How long will the procedure to connect take overall from start to
finish?
After we receive a properly completed
set of documents (the contract kit), it usually takes 3-5 business days.
18. When will the technical testing be performed for OneStopTel Subscribers
wanting to send traffic and for Route Termination Provider?
This is the last step in the
provisioning process before turn up and occurs just after the legal step is
completed (contract and application for new accounts signed).
19. If my current capacity with OneStopTel is full, how fast can your
NOC add more capacity when I request it?
Once Financial department has approved
the request, the technical side will be done within 24 hours.
20. If I am interested to “Buy Int’l LD from OST”, can OneStopTel warranty
that my calls will always complete?
Although OneStopTel will do its best to complete all calls you send, there
does not exist any carrier or exchange that can deliver 100% performance.
However, if you control that the numbers you are sending are valid, OneStopTel will do its part and will
make sure that your calls complete at least at the standard quality threshold
set for each destination under each grade of service. However, if there is no
route available on OneStopTel for
that destination, the system will send the calls back to your network, so you
can send it to your next available route (route advance); therefore, you will
not lose your calls. Furthermore, you
may also bring in your own vendors and connect them to your OST Account for
those routes where the Grade C quality does not meet your expectations and the
Grade B price does not fit within your range.
21. Are your routes tested by your people before being placed in
routing?
For Grade C, we are using an automated
system that makes decisions based on historical data. If no such info is
available, we allow a Provider to enter into the Grade C routing table. Routes that perform below our reference ORQ standards get removed by auto-routing in less than an
hour, automatically.
For Grade B, a route can enter the
routing combo either after extensive testing performed by our Network
operations department or if the route is receiving real traffic over Grade C
and its performance is higher than the standards we have set for Grade B.
22. If my Vendor I have selected on Grade Y is giving me only one T1 (24
channels), but I am currently Originating two T1s, can the overflow traffic go
to OneStopTel by default?
It is not possible to be done through
the OneStopTel functionality. The
reason is because in order to complete a transaction (buy or sell) through OneStopTel, an authorized web user must
have logged in with his user name and password and select the grade of service
where he agrees to pay the amount displayed.
However, this can be done by you
requesting your routing department to place OneStopTel Trunk Group as 2nd in your own routing combo.
23. I am interested to sell through OneStopTel, how do I enter my
rates for the whole A-Z? Is there an easier way than by entering one by one on
the web site?
Yes, OneStopTel support
staff will enter the first A-Z rate list offered by you into your “Sell Int’l LD to OST” rate table.
Just forward your A-Z rate table along with your Country Codes table to Sales@OneStopTel.net and request those
rates to be entered. Your rates and codes will then be compared and matched
with OneStopTel's codes
and entered accordingly. In the near future, an easier automated way
to upload rates will be provided.
24. I am able to Provide Termination to some routes. What if I can only
complete some of the codes belonging to an OneStopTel breakout?
When a Provider can only complete “some”
of the codes in a OneStopTel breakout,
it is very important that you do the following:
- Contact your OneStopTel account manager and inform him/her about this
- Configure your
router/softswitch to return Q.931 code 34 (‘No circuit/channel available’) for
all calls not belonging to the set of cods you are able to complete
Failure to comply with both these steps
will result in low quality (low completion rates and/or capacity) and most
likely in removal from OneStopTel routing
tables.
25. If my company is only able to complete calls to a specific code
range of a destination, Will OneStopTel consider to create a breakout on OneStopTel
for the code(s) that I propose to sell?
OneStopTel is always open
to accept proposals where there are new opportunities that could benefit many
of OneStopTel Subscribers whether
they are Buying or Selling Voice Termination.
The procedure is as follows:
· Send an
e-mail to Sales@OneStopTel.net with
your company name, sales contact info and the detailed proposal regarding the
codes and the rate you can sell them at.
· OneStopTel will
verify that the codes you have proposed are correct.
· If codes
are correct and there is a significant opportunity in the market for your
breakout, then your account manager at OneStopTel will
notify you that your codes were accepted and you should re-send your sell rate
for confirmation. (OneStopTel will enter
the rate for you only the first time).
· A
notification of that new breakout will be sent to all OneStopTel Subscribers
on Friday; and that new destination will be displayed on the next Wednesday for
Subscribers to start sending traffic.
26. I am a small network provider in Eastern Europe.
How can you assure me that I will receive traffic even for smaller traffic
destinations such as Estonia?
That’s the power of OneStopTel; Thousands of Carriers, One Connection! If your route
has good quality and a rate that places it amongst the price leaders for that
destination, then you will receive traffic automatically. Hundreds of carriers
send traffic to either Grade B routes or Grade C routes depending on their own
needs and price sensitivity and/or quality demands.
27. After I enter a Sell rate on OneStopTel offering a new route, how
much time will it take to enter the routing table for that breakout?
OneStopTel routing is the
quickest in the industry and is updated every 15 minutes. Therefore, if the
price you enter to sell your route in OneStopTel
is very aggressive; or at least lower than the maximum weekly rate posted
on line, your trunk group will be placed in the routing combo for that
destination under Grade C automatically; and your network should be receiving
traffic for that route within minutes.
28. If I am sure that my route has superior quality; how can it be
placed directly into Grade B?
Under normal conditions, if your route is
superior, it will score higher on the ORQ index while receiving standard Grade C traffic and
will be automatically upgraded to Grade B. If a route’s pricing is not
competitive enough to attract much Grade C traffic AND your offer is lower than
the Grade B effective rate, please send us an email at Support@OneStopTel.net with your
company details, the breakout name to be tested as well as the ASR and ACD you
promise to provide us with. Our Network Operations department will quickly
retest and decide whether a route’s quality is good enough for Grade B.
29. If I am Providing Termination to OneStopTel, Do I have to keep
my ORQ performance above
thresholds 24/7 for a destination in order for me to continue being in your
routing combo?
The system reviews quality every hour by
looking back at traffic during the last 6 hours. To stay in routing, Route
Termination Provider need to meet the ORQ threshold set for each destination and Grade of
Service during each monitoring period. If thresholds are not met, the ‘failing’
Provider will be temporarily removed from routing until the quality improves.
It has to be pointed out that ORQ thresholds are relaxed to accommodate peak time
quality fluctuations.
We also recommend that during peak
times, calls not completing due to congestion, should be rejected instead of
seized which helps eliminate failing with fast busy signals. This tactic will
raise the ORQ index, since only seized calls are considered in calculating ORQ.
30. How is traffic distributed between multiple OneStopTel routes and Route
Termination Providers per destination?
OneStopTel maintains two
routing tables for each breakout: one for Grade B and one for Grade C. Route
Termination Providers that meet the quality requirements set for each Grade Of
Service are then sorted in ascending cost order (i.e. as per LCR). Therefore,
to route a call, there are two steps:
OneStopTel identifies the
target breakout and finds what the Grade of Service is the Subscriber trying to
send us traffic has chosen for that breakout.
The incoming call is tried over the
Least Cost Provider available for that Grade of Service. If call is rejected,
the next least expensive Provider is tried and so on. If we reach the end of
the routing table and none of the available Route Termination Provider seizes
the call, call is returned back to the Subscriber trying to send us traffic
with appropriate codes for call advancement.
31. Can Subscribers see the number of call attempts per destination?
OneStopTel will total all
account call attempts and target volumes in version 3 service release. In the
current version you will only be able to see the number of call attempts
hitting your routes as a Provider through OneStopTel.
32. Can we see the actual call usage hitting my network?
Yes. Upon login, Subscribers authorized
web users will see a summary of call traffic received or sent through OneStopTel under their account for a
particular destination. A report will also be available that allows a period
selection and various filters (destination, price, etc.)
33. What if pricing for some destinations on Grade B and/or Grade C does
not fit into any OneStopTel Subscriber’s LCR?
Then no traffic will be sent for those
specific destinations; and Route Termination Provider should review the prices
they’ve posted on www.OneStopTel.net and
consider entering decreases so that the possibilities of getting traffic to
their routes become higher.
34. How can I cancel my rate offer on your website?
After you log on and go to the “Provide
Termination to OneStopTel” page, you can replace the last rate you offered by
entering 0.0000, and this command will pull you out fo the routing for this
destination.
35. Once account users log in, can their company’s name and logo appear
on the screen?
The name or user ID of the person login
in will appear. Currently we cannot customize the website with a different logo
but this feature may be available in the future.
36. For a OneStopTel account to be credited the port charge of $60 per week,
70,000 minutes of traffic per 24 VoIP channels should be processed.
If an account requests 48 VoIP channels (or 2 T1s) and only passes
105,000 minutes (and uses 36 channels,) does OneStopTel charge the full amount
for the additional 24 channels or will this be pro-rated based on the traffic
so that $90 more is charged in this case?
No. Since the OneStopTel system is standardized for all Subscribers, the Port
charges will be credited to each account automatically as the system measures 70,000
minutes of weekly usage for each 24 channels. Thus, if you ordered 48
channels, the default charge is $140 per week; if you pass 110,000 minutes, the
system will automatically credit you $70 for the first 24 channels processing
70,000+ minutes but since the second 24 channels only processed 40,000
minutes, the system will charge an additional $60 for the second T1. An account
always has the option to decrease/increase capacity based on traffic activity.
37. If I would like to Send you traffic, Can I send you calls from
different IP addresses?
Yes, our system allows us to accept your
traffic originating from different IP addresses, as long as you inform us about
this when setting up the account. All management and billing will be done on
the account level (not the IP address one), which means that there will be no
extra workload for you to manage your multiple IP addresses.
38. I am a seller. What percentage of short calls do you consider acceptable? How about
long calls?
Based on our analysis on historical traffic profiles
and after taking into account the industry standards, we expect calls of true duration shorter
than 60 seconds to contribute no more than 2% to the total cost for any given breakout. Similarly,
we expect calls of true duration longer than 7200 seconds to contribute no more than 0.5% to the
total cost for any given breakout. If short or long calls contribute more, we consider it as a strong
indication that the terminating route experiences False Answer Supervision (FAS) or False Disconnection Supervision (FDS) problems.
FINANCIAL
FAQ's
1. How are payments from OneStopTel clients handled?
Payments to OneStopTel are underwritten by Euler Hermes, the largest credit
insurance agency in Europe.
Euler Hermes ACI recently received an
upgrade to an AA rating from “Standard And Poor’s”. All accounts are submitted
to Euler for proper identification and Subscribers are credit insured by Euler
up to an approved spending and credit limit.
2. Can I Provide Termination Service to OneStopTel on prepaid basis?
No. OneStopTel policy is NOT to prepay for any routes. OneStopTel has been rated by Dun
& Bradstreet for all 14 years of its existence and OneStopTel shareholders include a large, public carrier.
Furthermore, OneStopTel has
received multi-million dollar credit lines from Citibank and Euler Financial,
two of the world’s largest debt issuing companies. An account should not be
overly concerned about payment risk from OneStopTel.
However, if an account still insists on
receiving a surety of payment, please note that all OneStopTel Route
Termination Providers, including international network providers, can
be credit insured of payment by Euler for the small fee of 1% of monthly
revenue. This fee is paid directly to Euler Hermes by the Subscriber needing
the surety. Euler Hermes is the largest insurer in Europe
and acts as an underwriter securing the financial risk of selling to OneStopTel.
3. How will I get paid as a Provider of Termination for OneStopTel?
OneStopTel Route Termination Providers are paid based on the
contractual terms. OneStopTel only
pays using EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) for convenience and accuracy.
Because OneStopTel uses FedWire
payments within the USA
are available within one hour after they were initiated, except those cases
where the beneficiary bank delays the payment for internal purposes.
International payments will take 3-5 business days, depending on the
beneficiary country and on the correspondent bank. In the case of international
companies we strongly recommend you to have your bank SWIFT code available to
expedite the payments.
4. How often is billing done?
Billing is done once a week on Monday.
Invoices are sent to Subscribers Monday or Tuesday, depending on regular
invoice processing cycles. The bills are sent via email.
5. We are a big company and would prefer to use our own contract to
connect to the OneStopTel Int’l LD Service. Can this be done?
OneStopTel has large financial
underwriters such as Citibank and Euler financial as well as several other
large investors that carefully reviewed our legal and financial processes and
stand behind our company. Since, it has been extremely arduous for management
to get the legal language that you see on our web site and its terms of use
approved by these multiple parties, changing any such language would be
extremely time-consuming if not impossible.
OneStopTel management
predicted the need for some flexibility and there is another option. If there
are terms or conditions specific to one particular OneStopTel account, then such language can be inserted within
Schedule A or as an attachment to Schedule A. This schedule details the pricing
terms and conditions where management has some flexibility and this can allow
us to implement any such conditions much quicker than any other alternative.
Please have your legal person or commercial manager draft such language and
email it to us for review.
TECHNICAL AND
OPERATIONS FAQ's
1. What kind of signalling do you provide? How can I establish technical
connection with OneStopTel?
OneStopTel is able to provide
H.323, SIP, SS7, ISDN, MF and DTMF signalling types. For VoIP-type
interconnection, H.323 is the preferred protocol.
2. Who are the available circuit providers If I want to connect TDM to OneStopTel?
· ConEdison Communications
· AT&T
· Verizon
· Keyspan
· And TelX Carrier Hotel (9th Floor at 60 Hudson St in
NYC).
3. What kind of equipment do you have?
OneStopTel uses Mera MVTS
Session Border Controller, Cisco AS5850 and proprietary Software
interconnecting the TDM and IP Platforms.
4. What type of equipment do I require to have to be compatible with
yours?
You need to have any equipment that is
compatible to standard TDM or IP protocols.
5. What are the Q.931 Release Codes that OneStopTel provides through
VoIP connectivity?
Whenever call handling is initiated, OneStopTel forwards to the incoming
party the Q.931 code returned by the terminating party. In most cases, that
would be code 16 (‘Normal Call Clearing’), but
please note that this is not the only one. Whenever call handling is not
initiated, OneStopTel returns Q.931
code 34 (‘No circuit/channel available’), so that
call route advances to client’s next routing alternative.
6. What are the acceptable H.245 tunnelling values?
Subscribers sending traffic to OneStopTel are advised to have H.245 tunnelling
parameter enabled (ON). It is acceptable to send traffic with H.245 tunnelling
either ON or OFF.
Route Termination Provider are also
kindly requested to be able to negotiate and accept both types of traffic (ON
& OFF,) otherwise completion rates and Average Call Duration will be
severely affected, resulting in them being removed from routing.
7. How are routing combos formed? Every how many hours?
OneStopTel operates a modified
least cost routing (LCR) routing machine to automatically update its routing
tables for each Grade of Service and breakout.
More specifically, every 1 hour, for
each Grade of Service and breakout, an automated routing system compares the
quality performance of each vendor having an active rate for that breakout with
the reference (threshold) ORQ index set for that Grade of
Service and breakout; and decides whether they should belong to both
Grades, to Grade C only or to none. OneStopTel Route
Termination Providers that do not meet that ORQ value are no longer considered for routing for that
Grade of Service and breakout. The routing table is updated by sorting the
remaining OneStopTel Route Termination Providers
in ascending rate order (i.e. Least Cost Routing).
Additionally, every 15 minutes, the
auto-routing system goes through all recent rate changes and updates all
routing combos accordingly, so that available Route Termination Providers are
sorted as per LCR almost in real time.
8. What is the ORQ index?
ORQ is an abbreviation for “Overall Reliability and Quality” index. ORQ is a measurement of each OneStopTel Provider’s performance, for
each destination breakout, in terms of quality (ASR, ACD, PDD) and reliability
(stability, number of TTs opened, mean time to repair or MTR, and capacity in
channels). The higher the ORQ index, the better the OneStopTel Provider’s ORQs for that destination.
The ORQ index plays another major role. By setting reference
(threshold) ORQ values for each breakout and Grade of Service, OneStopTel can neutrally identify if a route is good enough for
both Grades B and C, or only for Grade C, or if route should be completely
excluded for that destination.
9. How many calls does it take to select a route for Grade B traffic?
Assuming that a Provider receives call
traffic over Grade C, 60 call attempts in the last 6 hours are required. If
these 60 calls are attempted in less then 6 hours, the system will make the
change earlier in the next auto-routing cycle.
10. What is the AutoTTS system?
Automated Trouble Ticket System or
AutoTTS is an online system enabling OneStopTel
Subscribers to interact with OneStopTel’s Operations department efficiently and almost real-time.
For Subscribers sending traffic OneStopTel, AutoTTS is a quick way
to report online degraded quality performance. It is particularly helpful when
a Subscriber is not satisfied with quality provided over Grade B or switches to
the more expensive Grade B for a breakout not completing acceptably over Grade
C.
For OneStopTel
Route Termination Provider, or those Subscribers receiving traffic from OneStopTel, AutoTTS automatically opens
and manages trouble tickets, or TTs, by comparing measured quality performance
with quality thresholds (in terms of ASR, ACD and PDD,) that were specified
for each Grade of Service and destination.
11. What is the network topology that OneStopTel operates?
The core of OneStopTel service is based on clustered and load balanced MVTS
Session Border Controllers with full hardware and software redundancy allowing
for 99.999 carrier grade availability. This type of soft-switch topology
transacts all inter-carrier signalling and routing logic for carrier traffic
and related peripheral components handle protocol and codec conversions.
Carrier grade and fully diverse CISCO
AS5850 gateways process any necessary conversion between TDM inbound and/or
outbound circuits and the OneStopTel VoIP
core via SS7 signalling. Additional proprietary software integrates these
network platforms with OneStopTel
databases and web interfaces. For VoIP interconnections, OneStopTel supports 2-way H.323/SIP translation and connects
with any codec using G.729, G.729A, G.723.1, G711A-Law, G.711mU-Law, GSM and
GSM FR protocols.
All systems are located at OneStopTel’s data centre and powered by
diverse and fully redundant UPS systems including a backup diesel generator for
automatic switching between power sources and batteries in case of any power
failure. Multiple and diverse fiber routes connect the OneStopTel NOC to most New York city carrier hotels including 60
Hudson Street, 111 Eighth ave. and 67 Broad street.