UK National Wholesale SIP Interconnect (Voice Termination)
Our UK national access is for UK communication providers who require a reliable, consistent high quality access to the UK numbering plan at competitive pricing. Our accounts are prepaid, have low minimum topup requirements and are typically live in a few days.
Our related company, Voxyonder (through common ownership, which the Aloha network sits upon) is a voice access network. A voice access voice network is typically a voice network which controls its own interconnectivity with other CPs to get calling access directly to ranges hosted on that respective access voice network, manages its own porting agreements and can host regulatory allocated ranges on behalf of another CP. There are only a handful of Voice Access Networks in the UK. Unless regulated access is required (i.e SMP), customer interconnections are delivered by Aloha.
This is a premium product designed for communication providers who care about the quality of their product while remaining competitive. Our standard rates for UK landline are between 0.19-0.22p/min and standard UK Mobile between 0.67-0.7p/min.
Network Access
Network Access (Interconnection) is normally via Public IP (SIP RFC 3261). All of our network can be reached via LINX (London Internet Exchange) and would prefer traffic to us routed via LINX if not on a direct interconnect where our network has a presence. Given Ofcom's recent resilience guidance around interconnection we will need to verify your network path to our network (especially if we provide 999 access).
Customer General Requirements
Due to the regulatory boundaries we work within, we are not able to provide wholesale accounts to the general public. If you do not meet the requirements below, please still contact us as we maybe able to provide an account from within a different arm of Aloha.
To have an account with Aloha Carrier Services you must be:
- A Communications Provider as per the Communication Act 2003 (or equivalent in your respective country). i.e you provide telecom services to other organisations
- If you require UK National calling (i.e calls are originated from the UK), then your company and equipment MUST be located within the United Kingdom (in strict circumstance this may be waived if it meets certain regulatory requirements).
- Can spend £250+VAT quarter (we will accept startups)
- Have your own SIP/VoIP Switch (and have the appropriate skill set)
- Payment terms are prepayment only via Bank Transfers
Customer Technical Requirements
To have an account with Aloha Carrier Services you must be:
- Be on a public facing static IP (we are unable to provide SIP registration)
- Must have 2mbit of connectivity per E1 (32 concurrent calls) provided
- Must support SIP to ITU standards (Asterisk, Freeswitch, Cisco, Dialogic etc and most switches do)
- You can insert a prefix infront of each call
- Send calls (along with CLI) in E164 Format (international format. i.e 4412345678)
- Support G711 A/U law and G729
- Have the ability or plan to have the ability to support Encryption (i.e working towards meeting requirements set out under the The Electronic Communications (Security Measures) Regulations 2022).
Initial Channel/Balance Limits
Accounts are given an E1 (32 concurrent calls) limit on initial topup. This can be increased pending the business case surrounding this.
On the second and subsequent topup this can be increase for free within reason to a limit in blocks of 32 concurrent calls of your choice.
To prevent loss to Aloha, new calls will be rejected once your balance falls below the channel limit in GBP (i.e £1 is reserved for each channel). This is a minimum of £50.
For Example: if you have 32 channels. You can not establish new calls at/below £50. If you have 128 channels. You can not establish new calls at/below £128.
Current Calls will not be effected.
The maximum call duration for a call on the Aloha Network is 3 hours.
Interconnection Locations
Our network is geographic resilient and located in different data centres (Tier 3 or 4) and eco systems around the UK. Interconnection locations:
- London Docklands
- Cardiff
- Maidenhead
Discount on Volumes
Over the years, Aloha has wasted many a man hours customising rates for potential customers where reality, the minutes promised have not materialised. Therefore Aloha has changed it's approach.
Aloha offers a scheme that if a customer tops up £1000 GBP or more and spends this within a calendar month, then 5% extra credit is provided at each subsequent top up pending this original condition has been met.
If a customers spend is substantially more than this, then custom destination rates maybe applied.
Prohibited Traffic
Aloha operates purely in the premium, quality end of the market and primarily do not want 1 or select handful of clients degrading our network for our other clients. We take complete pride in providing a high quality service/network . Secondly we have regulatory commitments to adhere to. If your traffic meets one of the following conditions below we will be unable to assist you:
- High Volume, Automated/Predictive Diallers
- Low ASR/ACD (i.e a minimum of 50%/50 seconds respectively is required) - including data cleansing and short call durations
- AIT (Artificially Inflated Traffic)
- Nuisance Calls
- High risk of law enforcement information requests.
- Sending calls with invalid/fake/fraudulent CLI.
Support
Support is a primary differentiator between us and our competition. We pride ourselves on quick resolution with the average ticket response time being 10 minutes. Support provided is pending on status in terms of spend.
- Under £2500 GBP month spend
- NOC Phone Support (Office hours - Monday - Friday 8am > 6pm)
- 24/7/365 Email Support
- £2500 GBP and over per month spend
- NOC Phone Support (24/7/365)
- 24/7/365 Email Support
Fraud Prevention
The sad fact is Telecom Fraud is on the increase and some estimate it to cost the industry > $30 Billion Dollars annually.
Unfortunately we see some form of fraudulent activity almost daily. Most being in the form of hacked systems (our client or our clients subscriber)
After special consideration and in the interest of our customers. There are certain numbers that we block on our network that we believe have been linked to fraud. We only block numbers that have proven to have links with fraud. Rarely area codes. This restriction can be lifted if requested. Typically this is more related to International calls than national as there are industry mechanisms to potentially reclaim money.
To help customers identify higher than normal spending patterns we also provide a warning system as standard.
If a customer spends 'x' in a 30 minute period, then an email is sent to both the client and the account manager. This simple feature has helped many a clients identify abnormal activity and minimise loss. We also offer the ability to limit your daily spend and block your interconnects if a high spend per minute is reached. |
