Prepaid VoIP is a lucrative business model particularly in the backdrop of growing demand for VoIP services. According to Transparency Market Research, the global VoIP services market is expected to grow at 9.7% CAGR during the forecast period - 2014 to 2020. In 2013, the market was recorded at US $70.90 billion and is projected to be worth US$136.76 billion by 2020. Such is the potential of global VoIP services market that many VoIP players would like to grab the market share. Under these circumstances, it is high time that new VoIP players get started with prepaid VoIP business which is one of the dominant VoIP business models.
Getting started with prepaid VoIP business
Prepaid VoIP includes, but not limited to mobile VoIP, calling cards and call back. To support all these prepaid VoIP business operations, a prepaid VoIP business owner needs a softswitch that facilitates routing, billing, reporting and monitoring activities. With routing feature, a business owner can configure different routing types such as LCR, prefix based routing, percentage based routing, dial plan routing, etc., to accrue high profit margins. The billing feature performs all complex calculations while constantly tracking the customer usage and generating the bills accurately. The more robust the billing feature is, the better would be the outcome of the prepaid VoIP business. Finally, monitoring and reporting provides the required intelligence to run the business efficiently. Reports based on time, region, revenue, user type, etc., can be pulled at any point of time for quick analysis by the owner.
However, for mobile VoIP, in addition to softswitch, business owners need to leverage mobile VoIP applications being offered by many solution vendors. These mobile VoIP applications are available across all platforms benefitting the business owners to reach a larger audience. Depending upon the type of VoIP service, business owners can go from simple VoIP calling app to sophisticated VoIP app with combination of value added features such as SMS, IM & Presence, Balance Transfer, Voucher Recharge, etc., besides VoIP calling.
With this knowledge, business owners have to make a choice between on-premise softswitch and hosted softswitch to get started. If it’s an on-premise softswitch, business owners have to maintain softswitch and hardware servers all by themselves. Whereas in the hosted softswitch, everything will be taken care by solution vendors only. Business owners should only pay the subscription fee to simply get started.
Getting started with prepaid VoIP business
Prepaid VoIP includes, but not limited to mobile VoIP, calling cards and call back. To support all these prepaid VoIP business operations, a prepaid VoIP business owner needs a softswitch that facilitates routing, billing, reporting and monitoring activities. With routing feature, a business owner can configure different routing types such as LCR, prefix based routing, percentage based routing, dial plan routing, etc., to accrue high profit margins. The billing feature performs all complex calculations while constantly tracking the customer usage and generating the bills accurately. The more robust the billing feature is, the better would be the outcome of the prepaid VoIP business. Finally, monitoring and reporting provides the required intelligence to run the business efficiently. Reports based on time, region, revenue, user type, etc., can be pulled at any point of time for quick analysis by the owner.
However, for mobile VoIP, in addition to softswitch, business owners need to leverage mobile VoIP applications being offered by many solution vendors. These mobile VoIP applications are available across all platforms benefitting the business owners to reach a larger audience. Depending upon the type of VoIP service, business owners can go from simple VoIP calling app to sophisticated VoIP app with combination of value added features such as SMS, IM & Presence, Balance Transfer, Voucher Recharge, etc., besides VoIP calling.
With this knowledge, business owners have to make a choice between on-premise softswitch and hosted softswitch to get started. If it’s an on-premise softswitch, business owners have to maintain softswitch and hardware servers all by themselves. Whereas in the hosted softswitch, everything will be taken care by solution vendors only. Business owners should only pay the subscription fee to simply get started.