For a number of years, I have been using CallCentric (front-ended by the SoftPhone app) to call my family in Denmark on week-ends. For some time, I have noticed that the calls were disconnected after some time, but would reconnect immediately with no problem. A few days ago, I was annoyed enough to find out what was happening.
When I first started using CallCentric, calls to Denmark were 7 cents/minute for landlines and I think 26 cents/min for mobile phones, while the regulars AT&T rate from my mobile phone was around 1 dollar/minute. This made it affordable to talk to my family for an hour on Saturdays.
What has happened now, is that the billing rates have flipped. Calls to mobile numbers are now 1.6 cents/minute, while landlines are billed at
38.5 cents/minute. This causes the 10-20 dollar reserve I keep in my CallCenric report to get exhausted, and when it hits about 3 dollars, the call drops. The account automatically rechanges and I can call again. Until I hit the maximum number of daily recharges (which I have set to 2).
I am shocked at this change in rates. I was sure it must be a data entry error in thir rate table, but their customer service says that these are indeed the rates now.
Do other VoIP providers (SIP telcos) have similar rates? What happened to cause these changes? I would have expected that 7 cents/26 cents might turn into 10 cents/30 cents over a decade or so (although I would have thought it more likely that thay would turn into 4 cents/10 cents, given the general trends in wholesale tececom costs.
Lars Poulsen Santa Barbara, CA