A couple of the local IT firms in my hood have been pushing into the VOIP services areas for smaller and smaller businesses.
I have done a little googling and its kinda overwhelming.
Basically I am looking for some kind of master provider that I can purchase services from for $x to resell to customers at $x+markup.
Not looking for anything huge, just the ability to plunk in 1-5 lines, something a little outfit like me can manage, install appropriate VOIP hardware, plug into router, configure phones and a web interface to deal with assigning numbers and managing customer accounts.
No need for servers and heavy duty hardware, just something I could for example pay $x/mo to sell to a small business customer for like $20-50/mo per line.
I am looking for something with ongoing revenues, not a sell system for a commission and walk away.
Anyone know of someplace like that preferably one who has had some experience with this type of service.
My suspicion is that the provider would be unhappy with you also being a provider… Who likes competition? It would probably violate their Terms of Service.
My suggestion would be to check out asterisk.org - a friend of mine runs an asterisk server for several people. He’s got it on a dedicated machine, but for the cost of an average desktop box, you can have full-service comms on the cheap.
I think you may be misunderstanding VOIP. IP should stop at the company’s exchange. That is, internally, the company uses VOIP, but externally is PSTN, ISDN, or whatever. You have a box - a digital exchange - on site, which you can manage remotely. Grossly simplifying, it’s just like another internal network.
Top tip: use differently coloured cables on the patch panel!
After looking at that site it is half of the solution, an asterisk server still connects to some kind of service for providing phone calls to standard phone lines.
I am a computer guy but I am painfully ignorant on phone systems. One of my customers has a small new box attached by the phone system guys that plugs into the router and has three jacks for phone lines. He pays the company that installed the phones like $30/mo per line. It is a small local company with 5-10 employees, I know of them, they are not even primarily a phone provider. So they are getting dial tone from somewhere… His customers call in just fine.
Where do they subscribe to a cheap wholesale service for the interface for normal folks to connect to their system.
VOIP interfaces with the telephone network in the normal way, just like an analogue exchange. Probably ISDN for multiple lines. VOIP is internal only. You use special digital handsets too. You need to differentiate the company providing the digital exchange and the company providing the telephone line service; the former may be a reseller for the latter, of course. And there will always be at least one analogue line connected directly for emergency purposes
And with that, you’ve reached about the limit of my knowledge.
Yup. You’re providing service by providing access to a service provider. Adding a middleman. Not the greatest business model, IMHO. My point was just to mention an that would satisfy the OP’s needs. It can be done, and it is done quite often.
Hell, telcos use each others’ backbone infrastructure all the time (otherwise global comms wouldn’t work).
There are ways, at low cost to the end user, to make it fairly efficient; but that involves economies of scale that probably won’t work out for the OP’s 5ish lines.
I get the idea from your wording that you are speaking hypothetically.
I have found several companies that do what I am asking about, I am having a hard time filtering terminology to determine what I should be asking for. They offer a wide range of communication infrastructure services, I was hoping to be pointed in a realistc direction without being faced with a high pressure sales nightmare or being oversold. Everyone wants me to fill out contact forms so they can get back to me.
I know it can be done
I know what I am asking about it is being done by companies not much bigger than I that are not primarily phone guys, they are computer support guys.
I have 3 customers that these people are servicing now.
Those customers pay their phone bill to the local computer company XXX consulting.