Comparing VoIP Provider Fair Use Policies

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Unlimited calling plans are a popular service offered by many VoIP providers. With an unlimited subscription, you can provide your agents with plenty of talk time at a great value without having to worry about unpredictable monthly usage bills.

Unfortunately, these types of VoIP calling plans leave providers vulnerable to having their services abused by fraudsters. To protect themselves, VoIP providers that offer unlimited subscriptions include a “fair use” or "acceptable use" policy with their services, which places a cap on the maximum amount of call time each account can use.

For example, AVOXI provides customers with 3,600 minutes a month of talk time for each unlimited extension; this is one of the highest fair use caps of any hosted VoIP provider.

As a potential customer, it is important to understand that not all fair use policies are created equal. This article features 3 competitors in the VoIP phone service industry and compares the limits imposed by their unlimited plan service agreements.

Please note: all fair use policies cited in this article are current as of October 2016. 

Vonage Business

Vonage, like most VoIP providers, also cap their enterprise-level unlimited plans at 3,000 minutes per month. (As noted in Vonage Business Acceptable Use Policy, effective date January 7, 2016.) Though Vonage has offered unlimited plans for countries outside of the US and Canada in the past, at the time of this writing they do not offer unlimited subscription plans for most international calls.

8x8

8x8 caters their product towards enterprise-level call center users, and offers unlimited calling plans for a variety of regions. Most providers only include US and Canada in their unlimited call plans, while some also have plans for the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico. 8x8 offers plans that include all of those countries, as well as Israel, Asia, Latin America, and an impressive European package.

The price of 8x8’s unlimited international subscriptions may be difficult for small or mid-level customers to include in their telecom budget, but if you have a great deal of international calls to a specific region 8x8 is one of your only options for global unlimited plans. That said, 8x8’s fair use policy is fairly vague about your call limits. There are no official limits mentioned in their terms of service, but 8x8 states they reserve the right to deem your call usage as abusive at their sole discretion.

Fonality

Fonality’s acceptable use policy is similar to most of the others described in list. It excludes using Fonality’s service in conjunction with an auto dialer or for telemarketing purposes, junk calls, fax blasting, etc. However, as noted in the Fonality Terms and Conditions, they place a cap of 1,500 minutes per month on their unlimited service, which is only half the ceiling most VoIP providers place on their unlimited plans.

If your agents need more than 90 minutes of talk time per day, you will most likely need a less restrictive unlimited plan. However, if that level of usage meets your business needs and you are just looking for a plan that gives you a predictable monthly invoice, then Fonality’s unlimited service may be a good solution for you.

Comparing Unlimited Calling Plans & Reasonable Use Policies

Unlimited calling plans continue to be a hot commodity in the VoIP services industry. They give customers with high call volume per agent a great deal on usage and make monthly budgets easy to predict. VoIP providers like AVOXI offer unlimited calling plans for customers, but fair use policies are necessary to protect such providers from fraud and abuse. However, some companies have much more restrictive fair use policies than others.

If you are considering unlimited business calling plans from AVOXI or any of its competitors, it is important for you to put in some time to examine each provider's fair use policy and see who is really giving you the most for your money.