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sammoats
Premium Member
join:2014-02-16
Winchester, VA

10 recommendations

sammoats

Premium Member

CircleNet is backing away from retail VOIP.

Good Morning DSL reports,
I wanted to bring some news about CircleNet LLC. We’ve noticed over the last year an increasing number of local agencies starting to apply taxes/fees to VOIP services. We’ve 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 don’t 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. We’ll 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 I’ll 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
iamhere
join:2013-01-26
canada

1 recommendation

iamhere

Member

This is very sad... very sorry to hear about this Sam.

It was great while it lasted.

Thanks for the advance notice.
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

1 recommendation

PX Eliezer1 to sammoats

Premium Member

to sammoats
Sam, thanks for being upfront, for providing several months advance notice, and for the fine service you have provided to many customers.

jstone00
join:2004-06-19
mexico

1 recommendation

jstone00 to sammoats

Member

to sammoats
Sorry to see you leave the retail market, Sam, but I fully understand.
wally_walrus
join:2009-10-07
Orleans, ON

1 recommendation

wally_walrus to sammoats

Member

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,

sammoats
Premium Member
join:2014-02-16
Winchester, VA

4 recommendations

sammoats

Premium Member

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

N9MD
Too busy to chat
Premium Member
join:2005-10-08
Boca Raton, FL

N9MD to sammoats

Premium Member

to sammoats
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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!

cb14
join:2013-02-04
Miami Beach, FL

2 recommendations

cb14 to sammoats

Member

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.

Trev
AcroVoice & DryVoIP Official Rep
Premium Member
join:2009-06-29
Victoria, BC

7 recommendations

Trev

Premium Member

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.
nitzan
Premium Member
join:2008-02-27

1 recommendation

nitzan to sammoats

Premium Member

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.
SimplyDrew
join:2008-03-05
Providence, RI

SimplyDrew

Member

$1.50/month DIDs @ $0.002/minute inbound.
nitzan
Premium Member
join:2008-02-27

nitzan

Premium Member

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?
SimplyDrew
join:2008-03-05
Providence, RI

SimplyDrew

Member

Gotcha. Yes, CNAM is/was included.
DaveN
join:2010-07-18
Santa Fe, NM

1 recommendation

DaveN to sammoats

Member

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...
fparker
join:2008-04-28
Scarborough, ON

3 recommendations

fparker to sammoats

Member

to sammoats
How about just keeping your Canadian customers? No problems with CRTC I assume...:)
iamhere
join:2013-01-26
canada

iamhere

Member

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.

sammoats
Premium Member
join:2014-02-16
Winchester, VA

3 recommendations

sammoats to fparker

Premium Member

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 .
ImpetusEra
Premium Member
join:2004-05-19
00000

ImpetusEra to sammoats

Premium Member

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.
benge42ca
join:2016-01-08
Anjou, QC

4 recommendations

benge42ca to sammoats

Member

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.
fparker
join:2008-04-28
Scarborough, ON

1 recommendation

fparker

Member

I second that. Outgoing only without e911 would be great for us Canadians
Cinti
join:2016-08-04
Boston, MA

Cinti to sammoats

Member

to sammoats
Click for full size
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

sammoats
Premium Member
join:2014-02-16
Winchester, VA

sammoats

Premium Member

Hmm one minute.
Sam
sammoats

1 recommendation

sammoats to Cinti

Premium Member

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
Cinti
join:2016-08-04
Boston, MA

Cinti

Member

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.
Cinti

Cinti

Member

Just to let everyone know that I already received Sam's refund.

Thank you Sam and Godspeed to you in your future endeavors
carlm
join:2014-09-29
united state

carlm to sammoats

Member

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.

Alittlegreen
join:2008-07-24
Montreal, QC

Alittlegreen to sammoats

Member

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.

mugurd
join:2001-05-24
Ottawa, ON

2 recommendations

mugurd to fparker

Member

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.
sheytoon
join:2013-03-21

1 recommendation

sheytoon

Member

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.

Anon99a78
@2607:fcc8.x

Anon99a78 to Trev

Anon

to Trev
H20 Billing takes care of everything for you but its NOT cheap.