Wholesale VoIP Providers

What is Wholesale VoIP?

Wholesale VoIP is targeted at anyone who already has a VoIP system and acts as a service provider or anyone who is interested in building their own phone system.

Wholesale VoIP Features

VoIP service providers can design their wholesale VoIP packages with a variety of features. Some wholesale VoIP features are pretty standard, and some are optional, and may cost you a bit extra.

• Origination and termination
• Colocation and PBX hosting
• International A-Z
• Toll free numbers
• FCC E911 compliant and 411 access
• Application Programming Interface (API)
• Metro Ethernet
• Portal
• Calling Card
• Faxing
• Short Message Service (SMS)/ text messaging

Origination and termination are closely related features of a wholesale VoIP system. Origination means that a VoIP service is able to accept (originate) a call that originated in the PSTN, while termination means that a VoIP service is able to send (terminate) a call to a PSTN location.

With colocation, you have access to your VoIP service provider’s hardware and equipment through Internet access. This means that you have access to all of the capabilities of a fully stocked system of VoIP hardware, without having to maintain any of the hardware yourself.

PBX hosting is similar to colocation. A hosted PBX is a fully functional PBX that your VoIP provider owns and maintains for you. As with colocation, you operate your hosted PBX from a remote location.

International A-Z refers to your VoIP provider’s ability to call any international phone number. International origination and termination refer to the provider’s ability to transfer international calls from VoIP over the PSTN, and to VoIP over the PSTN.

Most wholesale VoIP services are able to process toll free numbers, but some can’t, so it is worth checking into if your company needs to process many toll free calls.

Many wholesale VoIP options include a toll free number, also called a vanity number. Many companies like to use a vanity number because they are easy for customers to remember. Sometimes you have to pay a one-time extra fee for a vanity number with a VoIP provider.

All VoIP service providers that do business in the US are required to be FCC E911 compliant, meaning you can easily reach 911 with your VoIP service. Even so, you may want to double check with your VoIP provider just to be sure that you will have easy access to 911, and to find out if there is anything additional that you should know about your wholesale 911 service.

Some wholesale VoIP providers also include access to a 411 directory, but this is not a necessary or required feature.

An API allows you to see the coding behind your VoIP system. This means that if you are a programmer, you can modify your VoIP system’s coding to perform certain functions differently. Not all wholesale VoIP providers have an API feature, so if you feel strongly about being able to customize your wholesale VoIP system, you should choose one with API.

A Metro Ethernet feature allows you to access a network of connected devices over the Internet. This might be useful for connecting all of the wireless devices in an office, or connecting two offices in remote locations.

A portal is your access point to the settings of your VoIP system. The portal is a kind of dashboard with all of the functions, features, and settings of your VoIP system. It is very important that you find a wholesale VoIP system with a portal that you find easy to use. With some wholesale VoIP services, you can sell calling cards to your customers. Calling cards allow customers to buy a prepaid card for international and long distance calling.

With VoIP faxing technology, many people are throwing away their old fax machines in favor of the easy, cheap VoIP method of sending faxes over the Internet. If your wholesale VoIP system has faxing capabilities, you can offer your customers faxing services.

Texting and SMS features are very important nowadays, and many people wouldn’t even consider a phone service that didn’t include texting and messaging. With certain VoIP providers, you can offer wholesale texting services, usually for an additional fee. For example, at Vitelity, texting is $0.01/message after the first 100 free messages every month.