Since I haven't posted an update in more than 3 months, here's a comprehensive review of our accomplishments during the past three months. I keep so busy from day to day there's little extra time to write articles. So here goes! . . .
We opened a new website for customers who need SMS short code and long code services. We now offer a comprehensive set of SMS services and are beginning to market these services. The SMS short code system is only available in the USA. Long Code services are available worldwide. Shipping companies in Metro Manila as well as Hong Kong have requested these services for their bulk ship-to-shore and office-to-seaman communications needs. We're in the process of attracting and setting up many new commercial accounts.
Our new carrier division is preparing to open within the next couple of weeks. This is an ongoing part of our original business plan to be a vertically integrated company. The "carrier" is the company that supplies phone connectivity for smaller local phone companies, call centers, large businesses, universities and other commercial applications worldwide. We'll be changing from our original long time carrier (with server famrs in Hong Kong and Singapore) over to our own services (with servers based in the USA and several other strategic points around the world) within the next 30 days or so. It appears our first commercial customer will be a sizeable call shop from France. We've been corresponding with them and have a tentative agreement to provide wholesale calling services for their switch as soon as we open this division for business in about a week or two.
Our Voifone soft phone has continued to chug along for the past 16 months or so and has become more stable in the process. During the coming week, we'll be adding Zoiper back into our website as ANOTHER soft phone for our customers to choose.
It's important to remember that there's a difference between the Voifone service (our PBX switch) - which is your Voifone ACCOUNT - and the soft phone installed on your smart phone or computer. We operate in a similar fashion to all phone companies (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Globe, Smart, Sun, Digitel, etc.). These companies provide the telecom connectivity (your "account") and allow you to call any phone number, anywhere. We also do the same thing. We're "the phone company" in the same sense these companies are, providing your login directly to your account where you can view all your detailed call records, instantly load funds to your account, change your password and do other normal account functions.
You will notice, none of the companies I mentioned make their own phones. The VoIP (Voice -over-Internet-Protocol) industry works exactly the same way. Most ITSP's (Internet Telephone Service Providers) like us don't provide the phones, just the service. We have produced our own soft phone IN ADDITION to providing the phone service.
Please notice, when you sign up for cell phone service, you ALSO buy a phone made by companies like Samsung, Nokia, Apple iPhone, Google Nexus, HTC and many more. You're NOT buying a "Globel" phone or a "Verizon" phone.
The ITSP industry operates in the same way all other phone companies operate. We're the phone company. Other companies make the phones. Except in our case, we have actually produce our own "Voifone" branded soft phone. Most of you who use it realize it's still operating in a Beta performance stage. Because of that we've entered a new partnership with Zoiper, a soft phone we've used in call center operations since 2010, in an effort to provide better call quality for ALL our customers.
Zoiper is a FANTASTIC soft phone! There's a free version as well as a paid version. The free version is available for all the major platforms: Windows, Windows 8, Mac, iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Linux. It has basic functionality and will allow you to make toll calls and free calls with our great Voifone service and low discounted rates with 6-second billing (UNHEARD OF for consumers worldwide, except for us).
The paid version will be available online. Pricing has not yet been established as we're still negotiating with Zoiper. The paid version has many great upgrades and features not included in the free versions, like:
- Call recording
- FAX
- Encrypted calls (prevents government or private evesdropping)
- Remaining balance display
- Adjustable quality settings for audio & video
- Multi-Contacts (pull contacts from Zoiper, Windows, Outlook and other places automatically & display all in one place)
- Presence indicator
- Find other Voifone users and add them to your contacts
- Auto-detection & config of new audio/video devices
. . . and much more! We expect pricing to range from about $45 to $65. It's a one-time payment for the software license and includes upgrades. (Yes, it's commissionable for those of you who are selling Voifone products.) Zoiper will be fully available on our website within a week of this post (it's only partially available right now - only the Windows version, and haven't yet posted the configuration instructions).
The Income Tool was finally deployed, and is functional and being sold at the present time. Check the Income Tool website for a refresher on this product or updated information if you already know about it.
PRG Membership Resurgence
We've been selling memberships in the Port Referral Group for many years. Recently, we have seen a major resurgence in PRG sales as many new Members have joined during May. We're currently hosting a HALF PRICE SALE. If you aren't familiar with it, please check these 2 videos:
If you want to take advantage of the HALF PRICE DEAL, you'll have to hurry! The promo ends on May 31. There's only one way to get a new PRG Membership for half price - contact Randy Albalate to make special arrangements, as follows:
Email: randalbalate@voifone.com
New Universal Registration Page
Registering to do business with us has never been easier for new users! A short one-time registration process now does the following:
- Registers the user for a FREE Voifone account
- Registers the user for a FREE Back Office account
- Registers the user for a FREE Income Tool account
It also creates a record of this new user in our internal CRM for customer service purposes, provides login credentials and the all-important activation email. It's an awesome improvement over this past year when a separate registration was required for everything.
If you're already a registered user, don't try this form - it won't work for you! It's designed to also cut down on the fake registrations. Before using this form, about 35% of ALL Voifone registrations used fake emails, names and phone numbers. And, they were very vulnerable to hacking (we got hacked 4 TIMES between January 2014 and January 2015 - with the biggest losses sustained 5 months ago). Our servers have been buttoned down, are much more hack-proof, and the security around new registrations is dramatically improved too. Tight security is important for ALL our legitimate users because the bad actors take up bandwidth, resources and even steal our money. And that hurts all of us.
Heightened Server Security
After those 4 data breaches in a single year, we uber-secured all our servers. We haven't had a single breach and even the ATTEMPT to hack us has been nearly eliminated, thanks to a brilliant Israeli-based security engineer to locked down our servers for us. Bravo! It's great to feel secure with all our online resources again!
Recent Comments