U.S. Domestic Voice Approaching the infinitesimal
Remember those crazy theorems in calculus that described how to deal with the infinitesimal? The Limit F(x) as X approaches Zero? Neither do we, but we bet that many in the U.S. carrier marketplace wish they paid a little more attention to those theorems because the U.S. voice marketplace has reached the infinitesimal level. In today’s interconnect voice marketplace we have Interstate & Intrastate, we have inter & intra-lata, we have LCADs, we have local, we have LNP, ENUM,RBOC/Non-RBOC, and on and on and on. It almost feels as though that pretty soon carriers will offer termination rates to specific phone 10 digit phone numbers based on the volume of calls. “ If you want to call Jenny at 867-5309”, it's going to cost you $0.00000001 per minute or something like that.
That’s the other infinitesimal component to the U.S. voice market. The cost of termination is really, really, really small on a per minute basis. We remember that right around the inception of the 1996 Telecommunications Act it cost carriers anywhere from $0.04 to $0.14 per minute to complete a call. Fast forward 20 years later and the cost is $0.003 per minute! And that’s on the high end. So, in 20 years we have seen rates drop more than 99%! That’s been great for all parties in the industry. Admittedly, though, its been best for the end consumer as costs have decreased and value has increased.
For carriers, this fundamental change in revenue coupled with an increased level of complexity at the infinitesimal level has been overwhelming to say the least. Carriers are still struggling to catch up. Still trying to figure out how to make voice calls work with quality in this Next Gen voice world and trying to do it profitably. Carriers need to quickly acquire, deploy and leverage the next generation tools that allow them to manage the infinitesimal while not requiring dozens and dozens of people and resources. That’s why GCS exists. It's why we are one of the leaders in the industry, particularly in the North American market where complexity is high and carriers are confronting the limits of their systems. Turns out that, in the world of U.S. domestic voice the Limit f (legacy OSS & BSS) = GCS!