Hi folks,
I'm new to the list today so please forgive me if this is the wrong
place to post this.
I've been looking at DUNDI for a while and have implemented it
internally. It is very impressive so thanks and praise to all those
involved.
The next stage for us is to implement it externally but whilst thinking
about that something comes to mind. Is there scope within the
specification to advertise rates, or has it already been discussed?
Before you set about me, let me explain:
- Yes, there is the obvious 'live LCR' type scenario where multiple
termination providers could advertise their rates and any that are
interconnected could be sent the call. That has a place but isn't the
bigger application.
- Of much more interest is the inter-exchange of traffic between
carriers. I'm in the UK so the following may not be appropriate
elsewhere but every call in or out of a carriers network results in a
payment to/from the peer. The sum of those makes up the outgoing call
cost but, more relevantly, represents an income on the incoming call.
Currently, a carrier is better off receiving the call through PSTN than
advertising a VoIP route through DUNDI but if they could publish a rate
then their peers could choose the least cost route. Implicitly this
would lead to lower costs for both parties even if the direct
cost/revenues remained unchanged - carrier a could route to carrier c
over VoIP, avoiding carrier b. Carrier b receives the call directly and
gets the same income as he would have done from carrier c without the
costs of the traditional interconnect.
The second option is possible now between any two peers but I do think
if it was built into a protocol like DUNDI it could give it significant
traction and make the benefits of peering two-way. Taking my company as
an example, it only makes sense to advertise routes to numbers on which
we receive no ingress income. The vast majority, even where they
terminate to VoIP, would not make sense as we'd lose the income.
Granted, that income subsidises an expensive interconnect and the call
would be coming over a much lower cost one, but there remains a real
cost. Further, we offer numbers where the income directly funds another
service such as overseas diverts which it would be impossible to
advertise. If we could advertise them with a rate for interconnected
peers, other participants could send traffic through on inter-carrier
terms and we'd have the same income on a lower cost base.
It strikes me that this would really give the system traction and cause
the kind of disruption to the traditional marketplace that is long
overdue and ultimately benefiting the consumer.
Looking forward to your comments.
Kind regards,
Simon
PS - We'd be happy to make UK toll-free available as well as publish our
own voip terminating numbers if a local peer could contact me off-list.
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