On 1/4/09, Alex Balashov <abalas...@evaristesys.com> wrote: > I think if this gets traction you will see a lot of providers doing > ultra-low bait-and-switch rates. Most cannot afford to be in a price > race to the bottom. >
Agreed. This current race to the bottom, while somewhat inevitable, is not necessarily a good thing for customers. I'm about as capitalistic as they come and I welcome any form of competition. Basing that competition solely on initial price, however, is foolish. What about quality, support, business viability, etc? I don't think I would ever use *the cheapest* possible provider. Unless they have some special magic no one else does (highly unlikely) one of three things will happen: - Quality will suffer. Everything from cheap equipment and connectivity to inexperienced and under qualified staff, all to keep costs down. - Customer support will be non existent (or worthless). How are you paying for it when your markup is %10 or less (whatever it may be)? - They will go out of business. If they are somehow able to offer all of the above while still providing rock bottom prices, how long can they afford to stay in business? Hopefully by now people realize that "business" does not mean burning through cash while having ridiculously high rates of customer churn (Vonage, et al). They'll end up being yet another VoIP provider to go under while taking all of your customer's DIDs with you. This hurts the entire industry. I suppose that for termination only there is much less risk. If any of these things start to happen, send your traffic somewhere else. But still, it very well might not be worth the hassle. I don't mean to be such a pessimist but I can't help but speak my mind, especially in the current economic climate. Getting back on topic, will there be any sort of ranking for quality? -- Kristian Kielhofner http://blog.krisk.org http://www.submityoursip.com http://www.astlinux.org http://www.star2star.com _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- asterisk-biz mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz