Tuesday 31 May 2016

VOIP SERVICE PROVIDER FOR BUSINESS

VOIP SERVICE PROVIDER FOR BUSINESS

Established in 2008, ARN Server LLC is a Call Center and Hospitality industry leading VoIP service provider across many countries including United States, Canada, United Kingdom, India, Philippines, Australia and Dominican Republic.

Always aiming to provide top customer support and best telephone service ARN Server LLC offers the lowest worldwide calling rates for services like VoIP for Call Centers, Toll Free Numbers, SIP trunking for call centres and many more. Get a free USA or Canada virtual phone number when you signup for a new account.

Learn How to Start Making Calls

CALL CENTRE / DIALER VOIP

ARN Server LLC is the choice VoIP service provider for call centers using predictive dialers, businesses using virtual hosted PBX systems and hotels looking to save money on their hosts calls. Our advanced dialer VoIP service can handle unlimited multiple calls at once without delays with a superb voice quality. Our billing is optimized to be best cost effective in a pay-as-you go manner.

ARN Server LLC call center customers usually call to countries like UK, USA, Canada, India and Australia for telemarketing campaigns with predictive dialers to automate the calls, ARN Server LLC serves call center VoIP service needs and support dialer calling. Contact us to get the best-in-market rates in call center VoIP services.

Signup for a VoIP Account Here

CARRIER VOIP / SIP TERMINATION

ARN Server LLC provides VoIP SIP service to call centers, hotels and businesses using IP PBX systems. We meet the telecommunication VoIP needs of worldwide call centers across Europe, America, Africa, Australia and Asia for local and long distance calls as well.

We aim to serve call center with the best VoIP quality service to our clients and the best customer support of 24×7.

We value your business and understand your situation, that is the reason why our VoIP services are contract free with no minimum call volume required, no setup fees and no cancellation penalty.

ARN Server LLC also provide services such as:

1-800, 1-866, 1-877 United States, Canada Toll Free Numbers

800 United Kingdom Toll Free Numbers

Free USA and Canada Virtual Phone Numbers on every new VoIP account.

Virtual Hosted Predictive Dialers and IP PBX's

Bulk SMS Messaging Service

SIP TRUNKING FOR CALL CENTERS

ARN Server LLC is a reliable VoIP service provider that offers inbound and outbound SIP trunking to the Call Centre industry since 2008.

What is SIP Trunking? SIPTrunking replaces analog traditional telephone service called Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) with a connection provided over the internet through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) normally called SIP provider (Session Initiation Protocol). In VoIP, SIP is the protocol used to send calls to the applications.

ARN Server LLC is includes a highly experienced team of technical engineers to provide the best VoIP service to its clients.

How Can i Open a SIP Trunking Account?

SIP / VOIP TOLL FREE NUMBERS

ARN Server LLC strives to provide the best SIP / VoIP - Toll Free Services to its clients in the call center industry. Our target is to provide the best and most reliable, cost effective VoIP service to all our call center clients to enhance their scalability and productivity. Hotels are also starting to use VoIP as an standard for their long distance calls .

ARN Server LLC Toll Free number services: Our customer calls are routed through a 1-800, 1-866 or 1-877 phone number using the ARN Server LLC switching platform to an IP, DID or a combination of end points. Our billing plan gives the opportunity to call centers to pay only for the minutes they use with no extra charges.

Currently we provide Toll Free Numbers from United States, Canada and United Kingdom. Our International Virtual Phone Number services are provided to our customers accounts so they receive calls from anywhere in the world.

Would you like to use SIP/VoIP Toll Free Numbers?

INTERNATIONAL TOLL FREE / LOCAL PHONE NUMBERS

A large number of companies maintain their call center activities outside UK, USA and Canada. For companies with call center operations outside their homeland ARN Server LLC provides International DID/Virtual Phone Number Services, your clients will always get in touch with you by dialing a local number.

ARN Server LLC provides DID numbers and SIP / VoIP Toll Free Numbers across over 32 countries countries. Your customers will interact with your call center agents more productively by calling a local phone number instead of an international phone number.

Asterisk 11 + FreePBX on CentOS 6.5

Step by step instructions for installing software PBX Asterisk 11.x and control panel FreePBX on CentOS 6.5

Conditions:
CentOS installed and has access to the Internet.

Contents

Before install:

1.  # yum -y update

Turn off SELinux:

# vi /etc/selinux/config

3.  # reboot

Additional repos:

5.  # rpm -Uvh http://pkgs.repoforge.org/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm

6.  # rpm -Uvh http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/x86_64/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm

7.  # yum -y install mc make gcc kernel-devel gcc-c++ ncurses-devel httpd mysql-server mysql mysql-devel php iksemel iksemel-devel crypto-utils openssl-devel gmime gmime-devel spandsp spandsp-devel openldap openldap-devel popt-devel libresample libresample-devel speex speex-devel libcurl-devel speex-tools svn sqlite-devel mod_ssl php-mysql php-pear-MDB2-Driver-mysqli php-mbstring php-gd php-mcrypt libxml2-devel lame bison audiofile-devel sox php-pear-DB php-posix

9.  # cd /root

10.# wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/asterisk-11-current.tar.gz

11.# tar -zxf asterisk-11-current.tar.gz

12.# wget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/libpri/libpri-1.4-current.tar.gz

13.# tar -zxf libpri-1.4-current.tar.gzwget http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/dahdi-linux-complete/dahdi-linux-complete-current.tar.gz

14.# tar -zxf dahdi-linux-complete-current.tar.gz

Installing DAHDI, libPRI and Asterisk

1.  # cd dahdi-linux-complete-2.9.0+2.9.0.1

2.  #make all

3.  #make install

4.  #make config

5.  # cd libpri-1.4.14

6.  # make

7.  # make install

9.  # cd asterisk-11.7.0

10.# ./configure --prefix=/usr --exec-prefix=/usr --with-crypto --with-dahdi --with-iconv -with-libcurl --with-gmime --with-iksemel --with-mysqlclient --disable-xmldoc --with-pri --with-spandsp --with-ldap --with-libcurl --with-popt --with-resample --with-speex

11.# make menuselect

12.# contrib/scripts/get_mp3_source.sh

13.# make

14.# make install

15.# make samples

17.# ln -s /usr/lib/libasteriskssl.so.1 /usr/lib64/libasteriskssl.so.1

18.# ln -s /usr/lib/libpri.so.1.4 /usr/lib64/libpri.so.1.4

19.# cat contrib/init.d/rc.redhat.asterisk | sed 's/__ASTERISK_SBIN_DIR__/\/usr\/sbin/' > /etc/init.d/asterisk

20.# chkconfig --add asterisk

21.# cp -rf configs/* /etc/asterisk/

23.# service dahdi start

24.# service asterisk start

Installing FreePBX

1.   # wget “http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/phpmyadmin/phpMyAdmin/3.5.5/phpMyAdmin-3.5.5-all-languages.tar.gz?r=http%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Fphpmyadmin%2Ffiles%2FphpMyAdmin%2F3.5.5%2FphpMyAdmin-3.5.5-all-languages.tar.gz%2Fdownload&ts=1358931580&use_mirror=ignum”

2.  # tar -zxf phpMyAdmin-3.5.5-all-languages.tar.gz -C /var/www/

in /etc/hosts:

4.  [IP PBX] pbx-mysql.example.com

[IP PBX] pbx.example.com

to /etc/httpd/httpd.conf:

NameVirtualHost *:443

to /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf:

7.  DocumentRoot "/var/www/phpmyadmin"

8.  ServerName pbx-mysql.example.com:443

9.  ErrorLog logs/ssl_phpmyadmin_error_log

10.TransferLog logs/ssl_phpmyadmin_access_log

11.LogLevel warn

12.SSLEngine on

13.

14.SSLProtocol all -SSLv2

15.SSLCipherSuite ALL:!ADH:!EXPORT:!SSLv2:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:+LOW

16.SSLCertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/localhost.crt

17.SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/private/localhost.key

18.

19.SSLOptions +StdEnvVars

20.

21.<Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">

22.SSLOptions +StdEnvVars

23.

24.SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" \

25.nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown \

26.downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0

27.

28.CustomLog logs/ssl_phpmyadmin_request_log \

29."%t %h %{SSL_PROTOCOL}x %{SSL_CIPHER}x \"%r\" %b"

30.

31.<Directory "/var/www/phpmyadmin">

32.Order allow,deny

33.Allow from [Admin IP]

34.

35.DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"

36.ServerName pbx.example.com:443

37.ErrorLog logs/ssl_html_error_log

38.TransferLog logs/ssl_html_access_log

39.LogLevel warn

40.SSLEngine on

41.

42.SSLProtocol all -SSLv2

43.SSLCipherSuite ALL:!ADH:!EXPORT:!SSLv2:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:+LOW

44.SSLCertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/localhost.crt

45.SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/private/localhost.key

46.

47.SSLOptions +StdEnvVars

48.

49.<Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">

50.SSLOptions +StdEnvVars

51.

52.SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" \

53.nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown \

54.downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0

55.

56.CustomLog logs/ssl_html_request_log \

57."%t %h %{SSL_PROTOCOL}x %{SSL_CIPHER}x \"%r\" %b"

58.

59.<Directory "/var/www/html">

60.Order allow,deny

61.Allow from [Admin IP]

62.# cd /var/www/

63.# ln -s phpMyAdmin-3.5.5-all-languages phpmyadmin

64.# service httpd restart

65.# chkconfig --levels 345 mysqld on

66.# chkconfig --levels 345 httpd on

67.# service mysqld start

68.# /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation

69. Change root password for MySQL

70.# cd /root

71.# wget http://mirror.freepbx.org/freepbx-2.11.0.tar.gz

72.# tar -zxf freepbx-2.11.0.tar.gz -C /usr/src

73.# cd /usr/src/freepbx-2.11.0

Edit php.ini:

75.# vi /etc/php.ini (or /etc/php4/apache2/php.ini)

76.upload_max_filesize=20M

77.# mysqladmin create asteriskcdrdb -p

78.# mysql -p asteriskcdrdb < SQL/cdr_mysql_table.sql

79.# mysqladmin create asterisk -p

80.# mysql -p asterisk < SQL/newinstall.sql

81.# mysql -p

82.mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON asteriskcdrdb.* TO asteriskuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY '[your password]';

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON asterisk.* TO asteriskuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY '[your password]';

mysql> flush privileges;

83.# groupadd asterisk

84.# useradd -c "asterisk PBX" -d /var/lib/asterisk -s /sbin/nologin -g asterisk asterisk

Edit:

86.# vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf (or /etc/apache2/apache2.conf):

87.User asterisk

88.Group asterisk

89.# chown asterisk /var/lib/php/session

90.# ./install_amp

In the database named asterisk for table named freepbx_settings change password for asterisk manager:

92.# mysql -p

mysql> UPDATE `asterisk`.`freepbx_settings` SET `value` = '[your password 2]' WHERE `freepbx_settings`.`keyword` = 'AMPMGRPASS';

93.# chown asterisk /etc/modprobe.d/dahdi.conf

94.# rm /etc/asterisk/ccss.conf /etc/asterisk/logger.conf /etc/asterisk/iax.conf /etc/asterisk/extensions.conf /etc/asterisk/sip_notify.conf /etc/asterisk/features.conf /etc/asterisk/sip.conf

Change something in freepbx admin panel, click Apply (default username/password – admin/admin)
Change default password

Additional installation:

1.   # yum -y install bind bind-utils mailx ntp

2.  # chkconfig --add named

3.  # chkconfig --add ntpdate

4.  # service ntpdate start

5.  # service named start

6.  # echo “nameserver 127.0.0.1” > /etc/resolv.conf

7.  # echo “nameserver 8.8.8.8” >> /etc/resolv.conf

8.  # yum -y install xinetd tftp-server

9.  # vi /etc/xinetd.d/tftp

10.-s /tftp -c

11.# mkdir /tftp &&

12.# chown nobody /tftp

13.# vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables

14.# service xinetd start

Add to iptables config:

 -A INPUT -m udp -p udp -d [IP PBX]/32 --dport 5060 -m hashlimit --hashlimit 10/m --hashlimit-burst 10 --hashlimit-mode srcip,dstip,dstport --hashlimit-htable-expire 180 --hashlimit-name SIP -j ACCEPT

How to start a VOIP Business

*Rates shown do not include E-911 charges or government mandated taxes. Providers offering unlimited calling plans may have restrictions. Read providers terms and conditions carefully before buying.

The first thing to do is decide what part of VOIP marketplace you want to serve. Here are some possibilities:

VOIP Provider services
VOIP consulting
Independent Sales/Service Agent for existing VOIP service providers
Value Added services with VoIP
etc.

Some general suggestions:

Pick an area that plays to your strengths. For example, if your strength is sales and marketing, pick an area where you can leverage those abilities
Learn all you can about the maketplace
Attend industry tradeshows
Read industry magazines, blogs, forums, etc
Read books
Do market research - talk to your potential customers
Ask questions

Tradeshow exhibits usually have knowledgable people available ready to answer questions
Many websites (like this one) let you ask questions

Test the waters — to the extent possible try before you buy, test the waters before making large commitments of time or money

Value Added services

If you have experience with VoIP or already in VoIP business, you can get benifit / new customers by introducesing some value added services on VoIP. Few value added services are mentioned in following, Within each service there are many choices.

PBX sales and service

Hosted PBX
Virtual Numbers
Hosted IVR / Auto attendents
etc

Message broadcasting / Call Center Solutions

Voice broadcasting / Auto dialer
here is a guide about starting new business for "Voice, FAX and SMS broadcasting services"
Appointment remainders, Emergency alert
Fax broadcasting
Call Centers
etc

Prepaid Cards

Retail prepaid cards from existing wholesale providers
Start your own brand of prepaid cards using services from existing wholesale providers
Start a new prepaid card provider company
Create new software package for prepaid card services
Create a Free Phone Booth
etc.

How To Install Asterisk For Your First PBX Solution

Asterisk is one of the best telephony solutions which is free to use. There are others such as yate that provide same type of solutions and even more custom ones. Due to the easy of implementation Asterisk has become more popular than anything else. Asterisk is very easy to use and lots of open source and closed source panels provide a GUI for it.

Installation of asterisk server:

Pre-requites for asterisk installation:

Asterisk requires a system running with kernel 2.6 and the header files must be present to compile asterisk on our system. Asterisk is written in c; we require gcc with the supporting libs such as termcap, and openssl. Asterisk add-ons require the mysql header files so please install mysql lib, mysql client and the headers to compile asterisk-addons.

Download all files:

Installation of asterisk:

Copy all the files to you server (I'm assuming you have copied all files to /usr/src/).
31 Steps for installing asterisk on your system:

tar -xzf zaptel-1.4.12.1.tar.gz
tar -xzf libpri-1.4.9.tar.gz
tar -xzf asterisk-1.4.20.tar.gz
tar -xzf asterisk-sounds-1.2.1.tar.gz
tar -xzf asterisk-addons-1.4.7.tar.gz
cd zaptel-1.4.12.1
./configure
make
make install
make config
service zaptel start
cd ..
cd libpri-1.4.9
make
make install
cd ..
cd asterisk-1.4.20
./configure
make
make install
make samples
make config
cd ..
cd asterisk-sounds
make install
cd ..
cd asterisk-addons-1.4.7
./configure
make
make install
service asterisk start

If all above comands run well then we have installed a new asterisk server on our system.

Creating first sip extension:

Please add the following lines to sip.conf (/etc/asterisk/sip.conf):

[common](!) ; this is template.

type=friend

context=internal

host=dynamic

disallow=all

allow=ulaw

allow=alaw

allow=g723

allow=g729

dtmfmode=rfc2833

[1000](common)

username=1000

secret=1000

[1001](common)

username=1001

secret=1001

[1002](common)

username=1002

secret=1002

[1003](common)

username=1003

secret=1003

[1004](common)

username=1004

secret=1004

Above we have created 5 extensions that can be used any sip client (xlite,cisco sip phone, ATA). All users will get registered. If it does not work then check out the firwall settings. Please disable those settings until setup is completed.

Creating first Dialplan:

No extension can talk to each other unless we configure its dial plan. We have to open extension.conf (/etc/asterisk/extension.conf). Add the following lines:

[internal]

exten=> _XXXX,1,Dial(SIP/${EXTEN})

Now all configured phones can talk. This makes asterisk a simple platform in PBX; not many skills are required to develop an office PBX.

Creating first Sip trunk:

Asterisk can make outbound and inbound calls, for outbound we require a provider to terminate our calls and to get calls routed to our system so for that we need a public IP.
Add following code to sip.conf:

[trunk]

type=friend

context=internal

host=<providers IP>

disallow=all

allow=ulaw

allow=alaw

allow=g723

allow=g729

dtmfmode=rfc2833

After the update our sip.conf looks as follows:

[common](!) ; this is template.

type=friend

context=internal

host=dynamic

disallow=all

allow=ulaw

allow=alaw

allow=g723

allow=g729

dtmfmode=rfc2833

[1000](common)

username=1000

secret=1000

[1001](common)

username=1001

secret=1001

[1002](common)

username=1002

secret=1002

[1003](common)

username=1003

secret=1003

[1004](common)

username=1004

secret=1004

[trunk]

type=friend

context=internal

host=<providers IP>

disallow=all

allow=ulaw

allow=alaw

allow=g723

allow=g729

dtmfmode=rfc2833

Now you have to add one line to extension.conf:

exten => _XXXXXXX.,1,Dial(SIP/trunk1/${EXTEN})

So our extension.conf looks like:

[internal]

exten=> _XXXX,1,Dial(SIP/${EXTEN})

exten => _XXXXXXX.,1,Dial(SIP/trunk1/${EXTEN})

With the above settings it is simple to create an IP-PBX with outbound trunk.
For any queries write us: skype:arnserver

How do I start up my own VoIP company?

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a fast growing industry that holds great potential for revenue and growth. People love VoIP because it is flexible, inexpensive, and convenient. It is a great way for businesses and enterprise level organizations to make long distance calls and to utilize other important phone services. Within a few decades it is predicted that VoIP will completely take over traditional telephony methods. Those looking to start a VoIP business may be tapping into a gold mine. Buying and reselling wholesale VoIP equipment and services can be a highly lucrative practice. With a smart approach and good work ethic, you may be able to start the next Vonage.

Why Start a VoIP Business?

Studying the ins and outs of VoIP is a necessity in order to understand the fundamentals on how it all works. In a nutshell, VoIP connects users to the internet to conduct telephone actions without traditional telephone circuits or services. There are many options and a great variety of different types of VoIP connections in the VoIP telephony industry. Each connection offers its own distinctive features and pricing options, so doing the research is well worth your time. Finding the best servers and VoIP software to use for your VoIP business will make sure that you can provide quality services to clients. Customer service, phone call quality, billing methods, and promotional deals are all factors to take into account when choosing the right VoIP service provider.

Different Types of VoIP Business

There are many types of VoIP businesses you can start building from the ground up. These businesses are:

Prepaid Calling Cards

Consultation Services for VoIP

VoIP Call Center Solution

VoIP Wholesale provider

ARN SERVER has partnered up with many of the top leading VoIP software providers to provide you with a one-stop solution for your business VoIP startup. We can help you setup your VoIP business with a VoIP dedicated server platform of your choosing and help you succeed in your business venture. Starting an internet telephony business will require a lot of research and hard work on your part, but by teaming up with us we can provide you with the resources necessary for your business to succeed.

How to Start a Wholesale VoIP Business

Hardware Equipment and Softswitch

After learning the basics of VoIP, the first step to starting your own VoIP company is creating a reliable and secure VoIP infrastructure. Hardware equipment and a hosted softswitch are used to route VoIP traffic from one client to the other. The server will combine the use of RTP, which handles traffic, and RADIUS, which is a centralized verification gateway that connects clients to network service. Having one server with these software is a great start but as your business starts to expand you should get at least two server to handle the increased volume of traffic. Having more than one server will also improve redundancies which mean that if one server fails another can take its place.

For a free consultation and a customized VoIP solution for your business, please give us a call at +1855-446-0436 send us an e-mail to sales@arnserver.com You can also check out our VoIP Server hosting plans.

VoIP Software, Billing, and LCR

You will also need VoIP management software with billing and least cost routing (LCR) services. The management software will keep track of clients and traffic suppliers account information. Billing is made on the same system for invoicing and financial data processing, linking directly to the client’s account.

Least cost routing is an important VoIP service for a VoIP wholesale provider. With LCR software you can setup the servers to route traffic to different providers that offer the lowest rate. Since you are acting as the middle man between one provider and the other, this is where the revenue in your wholesale VoIP business will come from. Rate isn’t the only factor that gets taken into account; call quality can play a huge role of satisfying clients’ calling needs. With LCR software, you can set parameters on call quality and block traffic from using routes that have low quality connection for calls. You can also set a limit on rates to make sure that each call being routed to will not cost you money.

8 Things You Need to Know About Setting Up Small Business Voip

Where do you start when you decide to switch to VoIP? Setting up a small business VoIP system seems like a challenge. Let these eight steps make installing your first business VoIP system a success.

1. Your Network Capacity

First and foremost, you need to know your network capacity. Can it handle the increase in data? Is it sufficient to sustain network flow? Do you have the proper LAN (local area network) setup for VoIP? Without a network, you won't have the infrastructure to use VoIP services. Have your network administrators give your network a check-up so you can check this important requirement off the list.

2. Your Internet connection

Know the bandwidth available to your small businesses. Each and every business has its own internet needs and requirements. Before you switch to VoIP, you need to make sure your current connection can handle VoIP service alongside your current internet use. Use our VoIP speed tester to test your current internet connection.

3. Calling Habits

Look at your calling habits. If you frequently make long distance and international calls, VoIP can help you optimize savings. If you usually limit yourself to local calls, VoIP will not be as cost effective—but it will allow you to quickly expand your calling area (and business!)

4. Publicly Switched Telephone Network - PSTN(landline)

Small business VoIP systems do need internet connections, but they also need electricity. Have a conventional landline in case of power outage or emergency—earthquakes, fires, snowstorms, and other natural disasters can all crash your network. With a backup landline, you’ll still be able to make calls.

5. Premises- or Hosted Phone System

How many users will your small business network have? The number of users can help you choose between a premises-based or hosted PBX (PBX stands for “private branch exchange,” the system that allows your office to have various extensions). If your business has fewer than fifteen users, and you don’t want to hire someone to deal with the phone system, try a hosted PBX. It does cost more for a hosted system, but it places the responsibility in the hands of experts.

6. VoIP Service

There are lots of VoIP providers out there. Hundreds. And each provider offers different services, options, and service plans. Do intensive research to find the best VoIP plan for your small business. Visit our Business VoIP Comparison page to start your research.

7. VoIP Equipment

Many providers supply standard equipment with their service. Once you’ve determined what VoIP features and services your small business needs, make sure you’ll get the appropriate equipment.

8. The Bottom Line

It may seem obvious, but make sure you budget for your switch to VoIP. Will you make a single, upfront payment? Set up a monthly plan? Or do you want to make a down payment and finance the remainder of the bill? Each provider has different payment and financing options, which can weigh in on your choice of provider. RingCentral, for example, offers annual payment for their plans, which can save you 33% off the month-to-month price. Check with providers for details (most will offer a custom quote).

Just as important: Make sure to budget in your return on investment. How much money, per month, will VoIP service save you over conventional phone service? Per year?

There are a lot of VoIP providers out there. Voipreview.org will help you find the best one for you.

What is VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol)?

Over the past few years, the acronym “VoIP” has become a household term. Anyone who

has made an international phone call has probably heard the term used at one point or

another. It has become a popular topic among “techies” discussing its numerous

applications in today’s society, as well as politicians discussing its growth and implications

on the world’s economy. Although most people have heard the term, very few actually

know what VoIP is and what the hype is all about.

VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, and it simply means what it implies: sending

voice conversations through the internet. Rather than sending voice through the traditional

telephone networks owned by the telephone conglomerates, VoIP uses the internet as its

medium to send voice. Since voice is nothing more than data, any internet connection in

the world can be used as a VoIP terminal for making calls with the use of a VoIP gateway or

an IP Phone.

A great reference for gaining a better understanding of how Voice Over IP works as opposed

to the traditional telephone network can be found on the How Stuff Works website at the

following URL address:

http://www.arnserver.com

What are the benefits of choosing VoIP?

Everyday more and more organizations switch their communication networks partially or

fully to VoIP. There are many benefits of choosing VoIP over the traditional telephone

network. The major benefits that these organizations are realizing include cost of

equipment and deployment, versatility, flexibility, interconnectivity, and time to market.

Cost Benefits of Choosing VoIP

· VoIP equipment costs are generally cheaper than traditional telephone switches.

· VoIP in a direct point-to-point environment has no toll charge.

· VoIP technicians are usually more readily available and more cost-effective than

standard telephone switch technicians.

· Billing & Call Management software for VoIP is generally less expensive than similar

software for legacy technology.

Versatility

VoIP is allows your network to be extremely versatile. VoIP allows you to interconnect with

multiple carriers (routes) very easily and quickly. Within a matter of minutes you can add

additional carriers that will provide you with the lowest route to a particular destination.

There is added flexibility so that if one route is down, your network can automatically reroute

to another carrier.

Interconnectivity

VoIP makes it easy to interconnect to multiple & redundant carriers. With traditional PSTN

networks, interconnecting with multiple carriers required additional expensive hardware,

and an extensive amount of time to setup the connection, sometimes taking several

months. As well, there is a very high connection charge occurred per month to maintain the

connection. With VoIP, the interconnection is very simple, taking only a matter of minutes,

and without the need for additional hardware and no connection charges.

Time to Market

VoIP allows your company to bring its solutions into service quicker than standard telecom.

You can connect to different routes quickly and reliably. This allows you to bring new routes

to customers at cost-effective pricing in a timely manner. You no longer need to wait for

months to connect to new routes.

How does PEC fit into the VoIP Industry?

PEC is a developer of software applications that integrate seamlessly with VoIP technology.

PEC is also a proud partner and reseller of Quintum Technologies, developers of the popular

Tenor VoIP Gateways. Combining the power of Quintum VoIP hardware with the versatility

and robustness of our software, we have developed numerous products to take advantage

of the benefits that VoIP offers. PEC develops the following products for the VoIP industry:

CardSaver™ VoIP Billing and Call Management

· Prepaid Calling Card Industry

· Postpaid Calling Services

· Pinless Calling Services

· Call Shop Services

· Inter-office communications

· Wholesale Long Distance Termination

VoiceSaver™ Voicemail and Auto Attendant

· Voicemail Message Bureaus

· Auto-attendant systems for offices

Insight IVR (Interactive Voice Response)

· Allows customers to develop customized call flows

· Used in almost every industry

Calling Card and Pin-less Solutions

In the prepaid calling card or pin-less calling business, like most other businesses, more

startup companies fail than succeed. Our intention is not to deter you from starting your

own prepaid calling card business; it can be and has been for many people an extremely

lucrative business. Our intention is rather to explain to you the differences between a

successful card business and a failing one so that you may learn from their mistakes.

PEC has a great deal of experience designing and integrating with products developed for

the Prepaid Calling Card and pin-less calling industries. We have helped over 400 clients

deploy VoIP and calling card solutions around the world. We have platforms running on 6

continents and in over 70 countries around the world. Through our day to day

conversations with our clients, we learn a good deal about how the industry is changing and

about new trends that are appearing in the market. If you have any questions, please do

not hesitate to contact us.

Setting Up a Solid Infrastructure

First and foremost, you must develop a solid infrastructure for your prepaid calling card

system to run on. Without a solid infrastructure, you will be spending more time worrying

about your system’s integrity than marketing your product. The following is a list of

equipment and services that you will require to start the business. We have also included

recommendations that we feel will ensure a solid infrastructure.

1. Billing, Card, and Call Management Software

We list this item first not only because it is one of the products that we provide, but because

it is the most vital on the list. Choosing a good billing software will ensure that every call

made through your system is tracked and no call is left unbilled. CardSaver™ by PEC is not

only a robust, dependable software package, but it is also the simplest and most userfriendly

package in the industry. CardSaver enables you to view reports on traffic passing

in and out of your system. CardSaver also gives you complete control over your calling

cards, including PIN generation, usage fees, expiration dates, and much more. It also

allows you to manage your agents/distributors and effectively sell your products through

resellers. CardSaver is a vital component for developing a solid infrastructure.

2. VoIP Gateway

The VoIP gateway that handles all of the calls into and out of your system is the next vital

component. If your hardware fails, your customers’ calls will not go through. 98% of our

customers use either Cisco or Quintum products. Some higher-end customers also use

Nextone gateways. These two vendors have a large following and many online forums exist

where you can go to receive answers to any questions that you may have regarding

configuration or specifications.

3. Server(s)

Server technology is constantly changing, and unless you are in the business, it is a

challenge to stay abreast of the latest and greatest. For this reason, our recommendations

on the right server to choose are based on the current technology available.

Systems with 60 concurrent calls or less:

Rackmount Server

Intel Dual Core Processor

1 GB RAM

(2) 80 GB+ hard drives

10/100/1000 Ethernet Adapter

Systems with 60 to 240 concurrent calls:

Intel Quad-Core Xeon Processor

2 or 4 GB RAM

Dual 10K SCSI hard drives (120 GB or more)

Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

Systems with 240 to 750 concurrent calls:

(2) Intel Quad-Core Xeon Processor

8 GB RAM

Dual 15K SCSI hard drives (250 GB or more)