Calling-Card

Calling Cards

Calling card services is still one of the best ways to allow people to make low cost international calls, and very profitable calling card businesses have been built around calling card products, including many who have built calling card businesses around the A2Billing Softswitch. Read more about how to start your own calling card business with A2Billing.

How Calling Cards Work:

Typically, a calling card customer calls a DID or access number which is directed to the A2Billing Softswitch. The calling card customer is then prompted for some identification. The A2Billing Softswitch supports both identification by PIN or on the basis of the caller ID, otherwise known as Pinless Dialling.

Optionally, the balance is read out, and the calling card customer is presented with secondary dial-tone, or prompted to dial the number they require.

The rate the customer pays for the call is usually far lower than the cost of the same call using a payphone, the incumbent telephone company or a cellphone operator. This is particularly true of international calls.

A2Billing can be used to provide phone cards for business travellers and tourists alike, as well as traditional calling cards giving low cost international calls to ex-pats, and to anyone who wants to make cheap phone calls from payphones, landline, cellphones or mobiles.

Voice over IP Supported

As the A2Billing Softswitch supports Voice Over IP, local calling card access numbers can be obtained and provisioned on the A2Billing Softswitch in a short space of time at a relatively low cost. Many DID providers only charge a monthly rental irrespective of the number of calls and minutes that are used by the customer through their calling card.

Calling Card businesses using the A2Billing Softswitch can take advantage of ITSP’s Voice over IP services in different countries around the world in order to get the most competitive termination rates for their calling card customers.

PSTN Compatible

Needless to say, the A2Billing Softswitch can also be configured to originate and terminate calls from traditional PSTN lines, such as PRI (E1 / T1) BRI (ISDN / RDSI ) Analogue and GSM cell phones, also a combination of all these technologies.

SIM Dialers

Calling Card services are now entering the corporate and residential world to reduce the cost of calling internationally via a cell-phone or mobile phone. In order to simplify the dialling process, software has been developed, generically known as “SIM Dialers” which make the process of dialling the access number, authenticating, then making the outbound call completely invisible to the user.

SIM dialers are distributed by a large number of companies, and the A2Billing Softswitch has been deployed with many brands of SIM dialer with great success.

Using a SIM dialer calling card service maintains the full functionality of the phone, with the cellphone address book working as normal, except that normally high cost international calls are routed via the calling card provider’s A2Billing Softswitch at far lower rates than would normally be incurred using the mobile provider’s termination. Star2Billing can make introductions for its customers to companies selling SIM dialers.

Smartphone Dialers

A2Billing is compatible with smartphone dialer applications which can be installed on Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows smartphones and integrate into the address book. Smartphone dialers can increase the profitability of your calling card business by capturing more calls from the customer as it makes using the calling card very much easier.

Agents & Resellers

A2Billing supports the concept of agents or distributors. These are people who have mini calling card businesses who sell your calling cards and phone cards on on your behalf for which they receive commission.

Calling Card businesses that make their money through web based affiliate marketing can also benefit from A2Billing, as online signup links can be created to assign commissions and revenues to individual agents.

A2Billing can also bulk generate calling calling cards to give to calling card distributors who then sell them on to retail outlets.

Star2Billing has a solution for calling card businesses to provide for resellers who want to start their own calling card businesses, but do not have the capital or expertise to set up their own A2Billing platform.

Features and Benefits

• Flexible charging options – The rate table allows for many charging options, including connection and disconnection charges and stepped billing.
• Flexible recurring maintenance charge system.
• Package minutes, with free calls or minutes to selected destinations.
• Automatic provisioning of new calling card customers via an inbound call.
• Automatic provisioning of the calling card customer’s caller ID to the A2Billing account for future Pinless authentication.
• Least cost routing via the cheapest carrier.
• Calling Card top-up via Voucher.
• Calling card expiry options, such as date, days since creation, and days since first use.
• Online web based customer portal.
• Flexible Calling Card IVR system in multiple languages.
• Reading out of rate per minute and number of minutes allowed on the calling card to the destination.
• 10 speed dials.
• Follow on calls, and last number redial.
• Anti-fraud with customer card locking feature.
• Email low balance notifications.
• Read out of balance in multiple currencies, updated automatically, daily.
• Local Dialling options.
• Caller ID manipulation.
• Customer grouping, and card series for calling card control and batch authorisation
• Support for commission agents and affiliate marketing.
• Import cards from legacy calling card systems.
• Detailed reporting and statistics.

Conclusion

The A2Billling Softswitch is a well designed, mature and flexible system for any calling card service business, and with its vast array of configuration options, the A2Billing Softswitch can be used to create imaginative and profitable calling card and phone card services.

Products to Consider

• Managed Install (Single Server) – Installation of the single server complete with comprehensive training and support.
• Single Server – Suitable for Approximately 200 concurrent calls depending on the hardware and call Patterns.
• Enterprise System – Scalable to almost any size and capacity. Ideal for connection to the PSTN using E1 or T1 lines.
• Enterprise System with Load Balancing – Scalable to almost any size and capacity, and will load balance across multiple switches.