One more thought on pricing

[usa2k]

But people running home-based businesses, have been at times, in conflict with residential calling patterns. It does not affect me, and there is less out-cry on DSLR( or I am not paying attention to it. ) Yet my real point is, a capped alternative could be exempt from such scrutiny.

On consideration, a plan priced the same as Unlimited with some cap actually needs to sound less like Residential. As I think about this further, and 5000 is likely too high a cap. Maybe SOHo-2500 or some similar name?

BroadvoxDirect for example, liked selling to companies, because there were less individuals calling to support the service. The had IT people. Same thing when brought on resellers it formed a buffer. They likely dropped Residential because they didn't want to support zillions of users directly.

VOIPo seems to want to be a residential marketplace leveraging on a reseller demographic. I think Tim intended some call record monitoring to prevent fraud, and taking action will sometimes create some squeaky wheels.

An extreme example of residential mis-use would be someone running a long distance phone KIOSK. Something that always uses high minutes needs to be capped.

I know Vonage used to have a Telemarketer plan for $149 (years ago!)
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,7818000

(EDIT) BTW, I agree with your clear minute bundle concept.
I am sure Tim will say it flies in the face of what people want to hear.

[christcorp]

Why does it have to be complicated? Using my example; if the SOHO doesn't use that many minutes, then get the 500 minute plan. In the middle, get the 5000 minute plan. If you use it a lot, get the 10,000 minute plan. And, if there was no additional state/local/federal taxes associated with a business vs residential, then I wouldn't even differentiate between the two. Not unless you are offering something different. E.g PBX hosting, Multiline SIP phones, etc... I am personally for simplicity and NOT making a customer feel that they are in a take it or leave it scenario.

If there is no reason to, then I don't believe in marketing a residential and a business plan. Not unless something different is going to be offered. Just offer minute plans. 500, 5000, 10,000, domestic, overseas, however voipo decides. There are no conflicts between residential and business plans. The IP packets have no idea whether you are using the phone to call grandma or to buy 1000 pounds of yak hair from the Himalayas. Keep it SIMPLE. And by all means NEVER USE THE WORD UNLIMITED. There is absolutely no reason to do that. There are more than 1500 voip providers in the world. (Last time I researched it). VoipO needs to make themselves DIFFERENT. Being 100% on the up and up; totally honest; no complicated plans or fine print; etc... Now THAT would totally be different than the other providers. later... Mike...

[fisamo]

As I understand the argument, one of the typical comments favoring the 'Unlimited' plan is that many customers see a difference between "5000 minutes" and "Unlimited*" (because the * that indicates a 5000 minute cap is in mouse print, three pages away). I agree that it's best when a provider wants to be above-board in this regard and disclose the cap in their marketing materials. IMO, one of the best strategies here is to have on their webpage language such as the following: "Compare to xxx service's 'Unlimited' plan!". Links to competitors' TOS documents might help 'out' the practice, but may not be as 'safe' as posting language along the lines of 'Many other providers advertise 'Unlimited' but start billing overage or cancel accounts when usage exceeds 5000 min/month.'

There are many ways to spin this, and the argument won't go away any time soon. Kinda makes me glad I'm not in marketing...