Carrier Review: My Experience Dealing with DIDCentral

So, I will talk now about my experience with DidCentral. My first contact with them was a cold call; I had no idea how they got my contact information but they had my full name, phone number and email. The sales representative was really motivated, it called me like five times until I had the time to take the call.

So, I started to do a little due diligence. My first finding was DidCentral is not an incorporated business, it is a limited liability company (aka LLC). They may be small yet; nothing bad with that.

I will try to tell you what happened with my approach here.

My Approach to DIDCentral

DidCentral's sign-up process has to be done through paperwork. I haven't done it until there are some clarifications.

The Contract and Terms Highlights

Red alert! Terms are really grey. The CPNI and AUP policy looks like they were taken from a template. There is nothing special about them. However, the Terms of Service have some observations that if they do not take that off I won't sign up with them any time soon.

From their terms of service https://didcentral.io/downloads/DIDCentral%20Terms%20of%20Service.pdf

Billing Calculations and Increments DIDCentral calculates billable call duration from the time we receive the initial “INVITE” packet to the time we receive the final “BYE” packet. All usage is billed in the time increments identified in your user portal and accordance with the type of traffic at issue, with usage measurement beginning upon the initiation of the first “INVITE” packet.

In short, that is FAS here and in China. This means that if you send a call through them, and the callee doesn't answer, you will get billed for that call. You have been warned.

Honest carriers bill only when the call is answered, technically speaking is when you get a 200 OK from the upstream carrier, not when you send the first INVITE. And billing should be stopped when the first BYE or CANCEL has arrived, not when the 200 OK ACK is answered.

I have answered back to their invitation that I couldn't sign up with those terms of service. The sales agent tried to "promised" that they do not have FAS, however, his word on the phone is not enough if it is not in a legal document. He said he will look into it (whatever that means).

Rates

I was able to get a rate sheet of USA rates. They use the North-American Dialing Plan and to be fair the rates are quite cheap with an increment of 6/6. However, they do not cover all the USA zones. I have a customer who calls to reserve areas,s and I could not find those code numbers there. This tells me they don't deal with expensive routes, which is fair.

Surcharges

They claim not to have surcharges, however, they cancel the account if it is below their metric thresholds:

• 40% ASR
• 60 seconds ACD
• 10% SDP (after asking, Short Duration Percentage which length is 6 seconds or less - industry standard)

It seems they have like levels of users where the metrics can be negotiated somehow. I haven't got to that point yet.

Verdict

Don't use them for now. I will be updating this article as things go with them.