sammoats Premium Member join:2014-02-16 Winchester, VA
10 recommendations |
sammoats
Premium Member
2016-Aug-27 7:55 am
CircleNet is backing away from retail VOIP.Good Morning DSL reports, I wanted to bring some news about CircleNet LLC. Weve noticed over the last year an increasing number of local agencies starting to apply taxes/fees to VOIP services. Weve been trying to work with each as they do this to make sure that we stay compliant but the varied nature and complexity of this is really mind boggling. This process has been very difficult for us because of the prepaid nature of our service.
We came to a realization about 2 weeks ago that we were spending much more time and money completing paperwork to stay compliant than we were actually working with technology. We dont see this trend of increased regulation at the local level or federal changing anytime soon.
This combined with some personal issues has led us to make a decision.
We will not be taking new customers for the VOIP business also we will take no further payments after 12/24/2016. Well continue operating the infrastructure until 12/30/2017 if there are customers still using it.
This only affects retail customers we will continue to provide wholesale VOIP services as is to companies with FCC499s in place, virtual servers, ISP services in our area and other tech services. In the future and Ill keep lurking here and please feel free to PM me with questions.
A notice similar to this will go up on our website soon.
Guys, thank you for what was a pretty cool time.
Sam |
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1 recommendation |
This is very sad... very sorry to hear about this Sam.
It was great while it lasted.
Thanks for the advance notice. |
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1 recommendation |
to sammoats
Sam, thanks for being upfront, for providing several months advance notice, and for the fine service you have provided to many customers. |
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1 recommendation |
to sammoats
Sorry to see you leave the retail market, Sam, but I fully understand. |
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1 recommendation |
to sammoats
Sam, thanks for always being upfront and very honest. Sad to see this happen, but do what's best for you and family. I wanted to ask for folks having an account balance and don't anticipate spending it - will you be offering refunds if requested? Or it must be spent going forward?
Thanks again, |
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sammoats Premium Member join:2014-02-16 Winchester, VA
4 recommendations |
sammoats
Premium Member
2016-Aug-27 11:33 am
Wally, I would prefer it be spent going forward, that said I would (and always have offered to) refund any amounts prepaid upon request. Not doing so would be theft in my opinion.
I'll setup an email address tomorrow for all things wind down related that you can use to request your balance be returned. Sam |
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N9MDToo busy to chat Premium Member join:2005-10-08 Boca Raton, FL |
to sammoats
The Circle of Life |
I'm do not intend to be irreverant ... just reflecting the realities of [VoIP] life. Best of luck with your new Business Plan, Sam. And a sincere wish for good health to you and your family! |
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cb14 join:2013-02-04 Miami Beach, FL
2 recommendations |
to sammoats
Sorry to see you go. I never used your service, but I was impressed by the service you provided for others, your unparalleled openness and honesty and ease of communication. You will be missed on the retail market. PS. I hope that this is not a prelude of more VoIP providers either withdrawing from the retail market or imposing junk fees. |
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TrevAcroVoice & DryVoIP Official Rep Premium Member join:2009-06-29 Victoria, BC
7 recommendations |
Trev
Premium Member
2016-Aug-27 2:04 pm
said by cb14:PS. I hope that this is not a prelude of more VoIP providers either withdrawing from the retail market or imposing junk fees. Having briefly looked into US regulation... the insane taxing policies is a market barrier in and of itself. |
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nitzan Premium Member join:2008-02-27
1 recommendation |
to sammoats
Sorry to hear, Sam. Hope your personal situation gets better!
To hopefully ease the transition pain for some folks - if anyone needs a new home to their CircleNet DID - we can waive the porting fee AND honor the CircleNet rate - so your price point doesn't change. I think this was $3/mo? but not sure - if different please ask me via IM.
Alternatively, you can sign up to any of our plans and get your porting fee waived. |
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$1.50/month DIDs @ $0.002/minute inbound. |
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nitzan Premium Member join:2008-02-27 |
nitzan
Premium Member
2016-Aug-27 2:54 pm
said by SimplyDrew:$1.50/month DIDs @ $0.002/minute inbound. Thanks. We cannot bill per minute incoming, but if you (anyone) give me your estimated usage I'll match it. (for example if you average 500 minutes a month, your fixed rate will be $2.5/mo) P.S. Does that rate include CNAM? or not? |
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Gotcha. Yes, CNAM is/was included. |
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DaveN join:2010-07-18 Santa Fe, NM
1 recommendation |
to sammoats
Sam - Thank you for your contribution to the VOIP community. I will miss being able to use CircleNet - bummer!
On your website, it would be interesting to see examples of local agencies who are imposing costs and compliance. To me this stuff is always concealed and can use some exposure.
Wishing both of you the best of luck... |
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fparker join:2008-04-28 Scarborough, ON
3 recommendations |
to sammoats
How about just keeping your Canadian customers? No problems with CRTC I assume...:) |
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This is a fantastic idea but I would be surprised if the infrastructure costs / maintenance costs / potential profits justified doing this just for us canucks. |
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sammoats Premium Member join:2014-02-16 Winchester, VA
3 recommendations |
to fparker
CRTC is really awesome compared to the FCC, the problem is that most of our customer base is in the states. let me think about that one . |
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to sammoats
Nuts, stupid government always got to ruin anything good. CircleNet has been great too. Suppose I'll be migrating over to voip.ms in the near future though Nitzans offer sounds interesting. |
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4 recommendations |
to sammoats
Well, if you're serious about letting us Canucks keep the service, I'd be thrilled for one. Heck, I'd be thrilled with outgoing only, no e-911--that would be just fine. If not, I have other fallback providers, but I'd rather send _you_ my money Of course I'm a very low traffic customer (I think I just managed to eat through the welcome credit two months ago, but it's your fault your prices are so low and your welcome credit so generous!), but regardless, you have my vote. If you can't do it because you can't justify infrastructure, well, best of luck with the rest of your business, and hopefully someday your operation will grow big enough that you'll be in a position to reconsider. PS: and please do take care of yourself and your family. It goes without saying that that comes first. |
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fparker join:2008-04-28 Scarborough, ON
1 recommendation |
fparker
Member
2016-Aug-29 10:04 am
I second that. Outgoing only without e911 would be great for us Canadians |
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Cinti join:2016-08-04 Boston, MA |
to sammoats
Good day, Sam. Your web site is popping-up the above error message. Can't get past it. Was looking for the refund URL you mentioned. Thanks |
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sammoats Premium Member join:2014-02-16 Winchester, VA |
sammoats
Premium Member
2016-Aug-29 12:04 pm
Hmm one minute. Sam |
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sammoats
1 recommendation |
to Cinti
Hmm something funny with the DNS, I've temporarily pointed it to another database node. If you PM me your account # I'll get you a paypal refund for your balance today. Sam |
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Cinti join:2016-08-04 Boston, MA |
Cinti
Member
2016-Aug-29 2:17 pm
said by sammoats:Hmm something funny with the DNS, I've temporarily pointed it to another database node. If you PM me your account # I'll get you a paypal refund for your balance today. Sam Done, thank you, Sam. By the way, I was able to log-in to my CN account, but Firefox complained about an expired SSL certificate and I had to add an exception before it would let me log-in. |
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Cinti |
Cinti
Member
2016-Aug-29 2:53 pm
Just to let everyone know that I already received Sam's refund.
Thank you Sam and Godspeed to you in your future endeavors |
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carlm join:2014-09-29 united state |
to sammoats
Sam,
Just wondering if your free toll-free termination involves much of a regulatory burden. If not, perhaps that and your Canadian retail business would be enough to make it worthwhile to keep the service running. |
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to sammoats
I might not be a high volume customer, but for what it's worth, I couldn't agree more with the consensus/comments on this thread.
You've always been open, honest and upfront about all things CircleNet. Have always gone over & above. And this is very much appreciated.
I too would be thrilled if you decided to retain the outbound calling for your northern neighbors, but at the end of the day, health & the fam always come first. |
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mugurd join:2001-05-24 Ottawa, ON
2 recommendations |
to fparker
Same here...I'm definitely NOT looking to spend my money elsewhere if Circlenet decides to continue servicing Canadians. Awww...why all the good things have to end. |
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1 recommendation |
I would also be happy with support for Canadian customers, even if it's outgoing only and no 911.
Sam: best wishes to you and your family. |
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Anon99a78 to Trev
Anon
2016-Aug-30 5:15 pm
to Trev
H20 Billing takes care of everything for you but its NOT cheap. |
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