Being a service provider is simple, as long as you have allied with the right partners! Early in the day, you access a call monitor to view call records and check the flow of calls. Billing platforms show the number of calls in the system, duration, profit so you have a quick overview of what the voice traffic is like today. As in every business, VoIP service providers allocate time for marketing. Every month there are special holidays for various ethnics groups that most service providers serve, so it’s important to be aware of these important dates and leverage promotional packages. Service providers usually email or text clients to communicate daily promotions or special holidays and encourage end users to make calls and take advantage of such promotions. Social Media is an efficient and inexpensive way to disseminate these promotional messages.

When it comes to calling cards you may think the only places to distribute your cards is in convenient stores but if you want to create new revenue opportunities you will need to think outside the box and consider selling your cards through Companies on a per contract basis. There are niche markets that are worth exploring and here are some examples of them that you can target. Any of the following can provide their clientele or staff members the cards as an option for their international calling or just to promote/enhance their services.

How Consumers Use Smartphone Apps and What it Means to the Calling Industry

The one thing more popular than smartphones are the apps that make them useful. It’s estimated about one million (and growing) apps are available through Apple’s iTunes App Store and Google’s Android Market. Apple has a slight lead over Google, for now. This sheer number shows a healthy and persistent market that is not going away anytime soon. In fact, the opposite may be true.

I recently came across a really interesting article written by Tom Nolle on unified communications and the future of communication. Here are some highlights on where communication is going Unified communications has been the talk of the town in VoIP, communications and telecommunications. Here at IPsmarx we have a channel of solutions that fall under the unified communications category and increase productivity and collaboration. In the year 2020 the way we communicate with one another will change on a whole new level. Communications and collaboration will be taking a huge step up. Unified communications is going to be delivering true unified communications integration (UC integration) Here are some predictions based on market research and consumer behavior that is going to take UC Integration to maximum adoption.

Last week Fiercewireless.com published the following big telecom news. The US’s largest cable companies have officially come together to create a nationwide Wi-Fi roaming network for all of their customers which gives them free access to the WiFi spots that the companies run. ­­The total amount of WiFi hubspots that the cable companies have together is totaled to 50,000.00 The new roaming network even has a new name “CableWiFi”. The completion of this project will take a few months for all the cable companies to implement the change. What does this mean for the VoIP industry and its users?

Atlantic – ACM released a study on prepaid wireless revenue with the title “Perspectives on Prepaid Wireless 2011-2015”. Here are the following stats from Atlantic – ACM: Prepaid wireless revenues are likely to grow from 2010’s $19.3 billion to $25.3 billion by 2015. With a prediction of 6% annual growth each year that totals to a $31% increase over the next four years. That equals to over a billion dollars of sales opportunity in the prepaid world every year. Another big statistic to mention is prepaid wireless subscriber base is rapidly expanding at a rate ten times the rate of postpaid wireless subscribers.

INC 500 Magazine Says That VoIP Is The Industry of the Decade In 2010 INC 500 Magazine published an article about steady industries to start up a business in the decade of 2010- 2019. Allot of businesses shut their doors the previous recent years due to change in the technology and internet realm. Many more small businesses are popping up and big corporations are down sizing. Time's change and we have to learn to adapt to new communication methods and industry demands. Not only does this make the VoIP industry number one industry safe to start a business but it also means job security is at its highest.

Viber, a mobile application that offers users free phone calls and text messaging to other Viber users over 3G and Wi-Fi, announced the official launch of the Android version of the app, bringing Viber to millions of additional users. Viber also announced that it has acquired over 12 million active users (last 30 days) and has an impressive call traffic volume of over one billion minutes of calls per quarter.

View a video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIIWEYhPdbs! Carrie Fedders, Sales Manager, IPsmarx USA, talks about how to capitalize on the award winning Class 5 Softswitch Solution to offer Residentail VoIP Service. As a leader in VoIP innovation, IPsmarx has successfully supported our clients in building their business through our comprehensive solutions and products installed in over 65 countries. Our Residential IP Phone Service Provider Solution will enable you to offer full-featured IP phone service to your residential clients. Every day, more and more people are replacing their phone services with VoIP. The IPsmarx Class 5 Softswitch has been specifically designed for clients entering the VoIP market by offering IP phones and adapters to their customers. This solution integrates billing, call routing, e-commerce, auto-provisioning, DID assignment, and invoicing in one user-friendly solution.

In a recent report from In-stat.com, titled: Business and Consumer IP Phone Shipments to Exceed 40 Million in 2015, by Rick Vogelei shows that the trends in the market are changing. This report shows that more companies are turning to VoIP for their business needs allowing them be more efficient and cost effective, clearly understanding the value that VoIP offers. As a service provider you can take advantage of this growth by offering IPsmarx’ Multi-Tenant IP-PBX Platform delivering robust VoIP services to SMB and enterprise clients.

“International Data Corp is showing that in the final quarter of 2010, smartphones passed global PC shipments for the first time in history”, according to an article on CNNMoney.com, titled: Industry first: Smartphones pass PCs in sales, by Seth Weintraub. Of course this is huge news for the industry with people turning to smart phones over PC’s. It shows that people are looking for the fastest, easiest, and now more convenient way to access the internet. Gone are the days of being chained to the work computer as well as lugging a laptop around to find a “wireless” hot spot. You can now have a smartphone that can easily fit in your pocket and can access the internet anytime you want, of course using a data plan from your provider. You can have this smartphone as an extension to your office or business, making you accessible to your customers and job 24/7.

“This study demonstrates there is ample opportunity for service providers to offer value-added services to SMBs”, according to an article on the Hosting News.com, titled: $21B Market Opportunity for Service Providers Revealed in Parallels Study of Cloud Adoption. Some of the findings from this recent study by Parallels Summit, focusing on growth expectations and market opportunities for small and medium sized businesses, include: Hosted Services for U.S. SMBs with 1-1000 employees is a $9B market with $4.9B of this spending on Hosted infrastructure. The U.S. SMB opportunity is at an additional $13B. The Hosted PBX opportunity could be worth up to $3.9B as hosted PBX becomes more accessible to the smallest SMB segments. With the adoption of VoIP and the expected opportunity of 3.9 billion in this area, service providers can capture this market by offering IPsmarx’ Multi-Tenant IP-PBX Platform. This award winning solution enables the delivery of telephony services specifically designed for small and medium sized businesses. Our IP-PBX delivers advanced features, cost savings, streamlined customer management, and e-commerce in one unified solution. To learn more about this solution and how you can begin servicing the SMB market watch this video: http://ipsmarx.com/english/solutions/pbx.html

"A small-business site needs to include something that reflects the creativity and personality of its owner,” according to an article posted on SmallBiz.com, titled: 10 Things Customers Want on a Website, by Monte Enbysk. This article talks about how small businesses have the opportunity to really appeal to the customer because they can talk about their company and the team that supports them. Take this chance to tell your business story to create loyal customers. By implementing these four easy suggestions, you can make your VoIP service stand out online and earn new customers! 1. How is your business unique? IPsmarx creates solutions and modules that allow you to customize your business so you can be unique in your service offerings. This will be a main factor in how successful you can be, finding a way to be unique, will be very important. Let them know why they should choose your products.

“This is the future, this is the next big thing: save money on international calls and merging online social places with voice on your cell phone. You will never use your cell phone the same way!,” says Micha Benoliel, CEO of Digitrad, when asked by Smartphone.Biz-News.com about CallbyName, the company’s flagship product.

Truphone has announced that its VoIP and call-through services now support an additional 11 Nokia handsets.
The mobile VoIP operator first offered its VoIP-only services on Nokia devices but went on to include the iPhone and Android platforms.

INTERVIEW: Mark Newman, Chief Research Officer at analyst house Informa, talks about some of the latest trends affecting the mobile voice and data markets.
Speaking in advance of his address to the Insights'09 conference next month in Lisbon, he discusses the impact of the iPhone, the rush to open app stores and carriers' attitude to mobile VoIP.

Telefónica today conducted its first tests on a real 4th Generation network with LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology, installed at its Demonstrations Centre in Madrid.
The initial tests consisted of a VoIP call and a videocall using an LTE mini-network installed by Ericsson, Video conference, and data and images downloads at speeds in excess of 140 Mbps.

Skype is now available for the iPhone - and will be coming to BlackBerry in May.
The VoIP app on the iPhone will only work over Wi-Fi and not 3G.
It will allow iPhone subscribers to use phone numbers in their existing iPhone address book - without the need for duplicate lists.
UPDATE: Since being released on Tuesday it has emerged that Skype on iPhone does works over 3G, despite being intended only for use with WiFi.

A true visionary, a trend spotter, truly innovative and the driving force behind OnRelay.
Just some of the plaudits from those that voted OnRelay's CEO and co-founder Ivar Plahte as smartphone-biz.news' Person of the Year 2008.

Truphone has unveiled its plans for a single-SIM, multi-country mobile service that will enable users to make calls in supported countries at local rates.
The mobile communications company says a key aim of the Local Anywhere service is to eliminate the hassle of switching SIM cards or the expense of often-exorbitant roaming charges when callers use their handsets on foreign trips, according to voip.biz-news.

Devoteam is to release a Blackberry version of its VoIP client OnePhone that runs on mobile platforms enabling voice calls over an IP network.
smartphone.biz-news spoke to Christoph Wernli, business development manager at Devoteam, about the convergence market and the opportunities offered by open-source operating systems.

DeFi Mobile is to make its Global Access VoIP service available to  iPhone owners - possibly by the new year.
Users will have access to unlimited global calling, roaming, and long distance for a monthly subscription fee.
While calls will require a WiFi connection, DeFi says it has struck global partnerships that ensure an extensive network of private and commercial connections.

Vyke Communications has announced a beta version of its mobile VoIP software and service for all Windows Mobile 6.0 and higher based smartphones.
The solution is based on Vyke's stand-alone proprietary mobile VoIP technology, which the company claims allows it to provide high quality voice service while circumventing any operator handset tampering issues.