I guess that in some retrospective. the traditional calling card business is dead - however, new services such as PokeTalk.Com, 012Global and others introduce a new spin to this highly traditional market.
The introduction of Dual and Tripe IMSI SIM cards had spun a totally new breed of calling card, a SIM bound one - one that no longer requires the printing of cards, but is now bound to an electronic element. In some form, I guess the business will never really die - it will simply morph into a new one. My company caters to 6 different calling card operators, each one doing its own thing. We've developed a highly versatile and robust calling-card/prepaid/postpaid/IVR development framework, which our customers utilize to build these systems using Asterisk. Some of these are racking up to 800 concurrent calls at any given time of the day - which means, around 35 million minutes a month catered using Asterisk. Nir S On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 10:17 PM, Dan Miller <[email protected]> wrote: > I haven't sized the market lately and was primarily North American focused > when I did. > > It appears that there are lively country pairs for calls originating from > urban areas in the U.S. (to Latin America, South America, Carribean, Middle > East) > > Can't speak to call volumes because we haven't systematically gathered info > lately. > > There will always be a baseline of voice traffic over public networks, but > it does seem like Skype, Trufone.... other softphone based approaches would > choke off more expensive alternatives once people get low price (of shared), > connected PCs. > > Dan > > > On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 7:23 AM, Alex Balashov > <[email protected]>wrote: > >> IP is compelling for access, but the carrier world is still firmly TDM. >> That, and IP just isn't as reliable at this point. >> >> When someone offers a cheap TDM switch, I get intrigued. >> >> David Knell wrote: >> >> > It's not dead; it's merely changed. >> > >> > Last time I bought a TDM switch, I paid about US$150,000 for 64E1s - so >> > it'd switch about 1000 calls. Several years later, we run that traffic >> > volume and more through two commodity Dell servers which, with >> > bandwidth, cost us about $250/month. And it takes a few hours to hook >> > up to a new carrier, rather than weeks or months in the TDM world. So >> > it's no wonder that there's a lot of TDM equipment coming onto the >> > market; IP is too compelling. >> > >> > There is also a lot of activity around cellphones - for example, a >> > couple of the UK calling card companies have launched MVNOs with an >> > emphasis on cheap international calling (such as Lycatel with >> > Lycamobile), selling SIMs through their existing distribution, and >> > existing carriers are starting to offer cheap international calling >> > packages, both to postpaid and prepaid customers. >> > >> > Question back at you - what do you say when someone asks if you can sell >> > their TDM switch? >> > >> > --Dave >> > >> >> is it dead? i have many people e-mailing me asking if I can sell their >> >> switches (NACT, DTI, Excel) I also know from last year the intelecard >> >> show was a bust...so what do you guys think? are we all just heading >> >> to mobile phones and unified communications? what about the people >> >> that have credit issues? prepaid cell phones? >> >> >> >> -- >> >> Thank you, >> >> >> >> -Wes- >> >> _______________________________________________ >> >> --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- >> >> >> >> AstriCon 2009 - October 13 - 15 Phoenix, Arizona >> >> Register Now: http://www.astricon.net >> >> >> >> asterisk-biz mailing list >> >> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: >> >> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz >> >> >> -- >> Alex Balashov - Principal >> Evariste Systems >> Web : http://www.evaristesys.com/ >> Tel : (+1) (678) 954-0670 >> Direct : (+1) (678) 954-0671 >> >> _______________________________________________ >> --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- >> >> AstriCon 2009 - October 13 - 15 Phoenix, Arizona >> Register Now: http://www.astricon.net >> >> asterisk-biz mailing list >> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: >> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz >> > > > _______________________________________________ > --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- > > AstriCon 2009 - October 13 - 15 Phoenix, Arizona > Register Now: http://www.astricon.net > > asterisk-biz mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz >
_______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- AstriCon 2009 - October 13 - 15 Phoenix, Arizona Register Now: http://www.astricon.net asterisk-biz mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
