Direct inward dialing, most often termed with the acronym DID, refers to phone numbers. For people connected to the traditional PSTN to call people connected to VoIP networks, DID numbers from the PSTN network are reserved by the administrators of the VoIP network, and assigned to a gateway in the VoIP network. The gateway will then route calls incoming from the PSTN across the IP network to the appropriate VoIP user. At the same time, calls originating in the VoIP network will appear to users on the PSTN as originating from one of the assigned DID numbers.

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Joel Driver of Webdream Solutions Ltd needed to complete several dozen individual master service agreements and interop with telcos for international local phone numbers with the lowest financial overhead possible but without sacrificing choice of quality. DIDX appeared to offer the solution with a network of over 10,000 wholesale IP communications company members with a selection of DID from 55 countries and choice of providers, rates, and quality.

Webdream Solutions Ltd is based in Wexford, Ireland with www.voipfree.ie, a hosted voIP reseller solution and mydivert.com, an international call forwarding solution for consumers and small businesses. Its CEO is Joel Driver. Super Technologies, Inc. is based in Pensacola, Florida since 1999 and serves wholesale customers with DIDX, CFMS, and hosted rebranded voIP solutions as well as consumer and SMB applications. They found each other via the Asterisk (News - Alert)-Biz list.

The Challenges:

Joel Driver had already solved the issues of excessive chargebacks and credit card fraud on the sales of his voIP service and also SEO (search engine optimization).

Regarding chargebacks, they built in procedures that allocate trust to clients based on their account age. In the first 31 days they allocate zero trust, then increase by increments over 120 days. But they say be aware that fraud chargebacks may not come to light for 90 - 120 days or longer after the original charges have been made. In fact, they would not recommend anyone who is not compleetly familiar with chargebacks and internet payment procedures to get involved with telephony business and especially not voIP or SIP - they could loose money real quick. Call forwarding or diversion is a virtual product - so the vendor has very little protection. In addition, they worked with global experts to improve their search engine optimization.

But still, there was one problem. Webdream Solutions Ltd., found that securing DID from any one area code in one country was time-consuming and expensive. Joel needed phone numbers from several dozen countries. His customers were ex-pats, entrepreneurs, non-profits, government, and SMB to larger who needed local phone numbers from several areas of the world. Why? Those end-users needed a local presence, a virtual office, a convenient way for those who are important to them, to start calling them with no hesitation. A local call is usually no extra charge; whereas, an international call is. Therefore, the end-users’ callers are much more likely to call a local number than to call an international number to reach the Webdream’s customers’ end-users.

The Solutions and Benefits:

Webdream Solutions Ltd chose to buy from a combination of DID resellers and CLECs at first, but this was expensive and time-consuming and sometimes impossible for a small startup like his. Several posts on the Asterisk-Biz list had referred to DIDX since its public rollout in 2005, and Joel Driver decided to sign up and complete the interoperability testing.

Once completed, his way of doing business evolved tremendously. His customers previously had access to buy phone numbers from USA and a few European countries, but after DIDX activation, they were able to buy DID from 55 countries and 1000s of cities worldwide. In addition, Joel’s Mydivert.com developed a business model that allowed them to avoid activation charges when their clients buy new DIDs (phone numbers) from them. They don't worry about incoming minute limits - this really had not been an issue for allowing them to offer unlimited minutes on all DIDs because most of its customers do not use over 5000 minutes per month. Joel's team keeps $25 talk time on DIDX just in case, but this has never been used to date.

Joel shares, "We use an asterisk server and being able to offer DIDs from so many countries via DIDX has enabled us to finally offer a fairly unique service - which is why people sign up with us, the quality and the quantity we offer. We use the DIDX API for purchases and releases and to show availability and costs on our website. We decided to run cron queries on the DIDX API and cache results locally. This reduces load on the DIDX API and also makes our website more responsive."

Mydivert.com website is on a shared box - it interacts with the DIDX API, the voipnow API, and the Asterisk MYSQL database, quite seamlessly.

The growth of revenue on just the Mydivert.com call forwarding solution grew from zero to 459 Euros (approximately $675USD) every few days in just a short period of time.

Problems Experienced:

Joel advises to have good accounting and management crons running so that one’s voIP business knows when its current end-user is not paying, is not longer with the service and to help you know release the DID immediately from your purchased DIDs on DIDX. Otherwise, the DIDX member will be paying charges on DIDX for DIDs that are not used or paid for by its end-users.

In addition, Super Technologies, Inc.’s care team (technical and customer support) is across the globe in New Jersey, Florida, Sharjah, Shanghai, Mexico City, and Karachi. At times, there seemed to be a cultural difference in ways of doing business, but Joel Driver was thankful that everyone speaks English.

What we learned:

Joel Driver, CEO of Webdream Solutions Ltd and the DIDX care team of Super Technologies, Inc. discussed how things could have been done differently and how we can apply those lessons to the future. Video recordings of how to complete any DIDX process should be updated regularly. All documentation regulations regarding DID should be made known via some type of a visible notice when attempting to buy those particular DID from those providers. Vendor rating should be assigned to DIDX sellers with majority emphasis on the technical support they provide and the quality and reliability of their DID, and not based so much on how many DID they make available for sale on DIDX.

Joel Driver of Webdream Solutions Ltd’s concluding comments, "Summary is the one year learning curve and the fact that we could not run this without DIDX supplying the DIDs."

Contact Details:

Joel Driver

Webdream Solutions, Ltd.

Wexford, Ireland

Phone: +353.539434002

Email contacts and website: http://www.mydivert.com/contact.html