Class 5 SoftSwitch

For residential service providers in VoIP there is no time like the present. There is a spurt in the use of VoIP technologies given that work from home has become a norm. It is time to capture this promising retail residential end of VoIP with the help of class 5 softswitch in your service network. VoIP helps to save 30% on phone bills and, according to Transparency Market Research, the VoIP market will be worth over $ 136 billion and that was before the Covid-19 impact. Even individual users, whether they use VoIP for personal communication or for official purpose, find it affordable and offering more features than the standard PSTN line does. VoIP service providers can serve all types of customers at the retail end with a class 5 softswitch solution. 

Serving all retail VoIP customers

Residential customers vary in the way they use VoIP for occasional or regular communication or for work from home. 

  • The occasional user, for instance, may still use PSTN lines and would like to enjoy the low cost long distance calling facility with the existing phone. In this case, the class 5 softswitch easily permits porting of PSTN to VoIP through an analog telephone adapter. 
  • Then there are home users who may wish to call their overseas friends and relatives. This type of user will find the PIN and PINless prepaid card precisely what is required  to enjoy extended overseas calls without worrying about prohibitive landline phone bills. 
  • A home based worker who may find the prepaid or postpaid plans attractive for regular use of VoIP telephony as well as SMS, voicemail, audio-video conferencing, fax and email account support that is part of the VoIP service offering enabled through class 5 softswitch solutions. 

Getting the right C5 Softswitch

Class 5 softswitches vary in the capability and features according to the vendor from whom you source it. As a VoIP service provider serving the retail residential end of the VoIP market you will need softswitch with these features at the minimum: 

  • Capability to scale up to handle thousands of concurrent calls in addition to data and media
  • Ability to transcode media, support for virtually all codecs in use
  • Support for video conferencing, fax, chat and voicemail
  • Caller ID, call forwarding, call transfer call waiting, extensions, ring groups and emergency numbers
  • Integrated billing and payment gateway. 
  • Routing
  • Voice broadcasting

The bill and payment integration is vital for your retail end of VoIP business. 

Billing and payment 

As seen above residential users vary in their usage practices. It is less bothersome when you have billing and payment included as part of the softswitch package. Why? 

  • Billing directly links to CDR and this leads to automatic deduction from prepaid balance or addition to customer’s billing data in the CRM. 
  • Plus, your customers can dial in, find out balance, register billing or usage issues and receive automatic updates. 
  • DID billing support
  • Configurable billing patterns and call rates
  • Your customer service quality improves and the time you spend on billing reduces. 
  • Integrated billing and payment gateway provides another convenience to customers who receive bills and make on-the-spot payment. You spend less time on follow ups and reminders. 

This module goes hand in hand with analytics and reporting to let you know status of your technical operations and your financial status. 

You can take it a step further by roping in class 5 softswitch solution provider for custom solution. Why do this instead of buying a ready to go solution? 

Custom class 5 softswitch development

The term residential can cover a range of users such as: 

  • Call shops offering prepaid cards to occasional users
  • Retailers who serve their own set of customers and wish to set their terms and rates
  • Individual personal level users and individual business level users. 

Custom solutions will offer

  • Modular options to give maximum freedom of selection of specific services by retail users
  • Branding your company, and, letting downstream retailers develop their own brand
  • Currency, taxation and rate provisioning
  • Flexibility to select routes

In addition, considering that security is vital for VoIP traffic, the right developer may even incorporate into the softswitch some features usually found in session border controllers. 

One of the most important aspects is service before, during and after sales. You could choose a big name softswitch supplier or go with an equally competent but not so well known developer of custom softswitch solutions. The latter is preferable in that they are eager for your business and will offer pre-sales services such as consultancy and guidance, followed by post sales services such as setting up, configuration, trouble-shooting and maintenance support. When you have thousands of retail customers you simply cannot afford any holdups in services. It is good to know your class 5 softswitch Solution vendor has your back.

By Anurag Rathod

Anurag Rathod is an Editor of Appclonescript.com, who is passionate for app-based startup solutions and on-demand business ideas. He believes in spreading tech trends. He is an avid reader and loves thinking out of the box to promote new technologies.