Wholesale VoIP Termination Rates
Everyone compares the headline rate. The headline rate is frequently not what you end up paying per connected minute.
How a rate deck is structured
A rate deck is a file — usually CSV — with a row per destination. Each row carries a destination name, a dial prefix, a per-minute rate and an effective date.
Mobile and fixed are separate rows because they price very differently in most countries, sometimes by an order of magnitude. Rates change: decks are reissued regularly and increases normally carry notice while decreases can take effect immediately. Check what notice period your supplier commits to, because that clause is where unpleasant surprises live.
Billing increments change the real price
The increment is the unit you are actually billed in, and on short traffic it moves your effective cost more than the rate does.
1/1 billing charges actual seconds. 6/6 rounds to six-second blocks. 60/60 rounds every call up to a full minute — so a 15-second call bills as 60 seconds, four times what it should. If your average duration is short, a lower headline rate on 60/60 can easily cost more per connected second than a higher rate on 1/1. Compare effective cost on your own traffic profile, not the number at the top of the deck.
What actually drives the rate
Destination first — termination into some countries is simply expensive, and no supplier relationship changes that much.
Then mobile versus fixed, which is usually the largest single split. Then route quality: CLI costs more than NCLI, direct costs more than transit. Then your volume and commitment, which is where negotiation actually happens. And payment terms — prepay usually prices better than postpay because it removes the supplier's credit risk.
Comparing two suppliers honestly
Take your own last month of traffic. Apply both rate decks to it, at their actual increments, per destination. That number is the comparison. Anything else is comparing marketing.
Then weight it by quality, because a route with a materially worse ASR costs you revenue that does not appear anywhere on the invoice. A supplier five percent cheaper with visibly worse answer rates is more expensive, and the difference lands in your margin rather than your bill.
[HUMAN: add VestaCall's actual competitive positioning here once rate deck exists — which destinations are genuinely strong, and against whom.]
Frequently asked
Frequently Asked Questions
There is no single figure, because the rate is per destination and the range across countries is enormous. What determines your cost is the destination mix in your traffic, the mobile-versus-fixed split, the route quality you buy, your volume commitment and your billing increment. The only meaningful answer is a rate deck priced against the destinations you actually send traffic to, which is why suppliers ask for your destination list before quoting.
A rate deck is the file listing every destination a supplier terminates to, with the dial prefix, the per-minute rate and an effective date for each. Mobile and fixed-line destinations appear as separate rows because they price very differently. Decks are reissued as rates move — typically with notice for increases and immediate effect for decreases. It is the core commercial document in a wholesale VoIP relationship.
1/1 — billed by the actual second — is the most favourable and the most transparent. 60/60 rounds every call up to a full minute, so a 15-second call is billed as a full 60 seconds. If your traffic has a short average duration, that rounding can raise your effective cost above a competitor with a higher headline rate and a finer increment. Always confirm the increment before comparing two decks.
Mobile networks charge higher mobile termination rates for delivering calls onto their networks, and those charges are passed through the wholesale chain. In many countries the gap between mobile and fixed termination is the single largest variable in a rate deck, sometimes an order of magnitude. This is why decks always break the two out separately and why your mobile-versus-fixed traffic mix matters as much as your destination mix when comparing suppliers.
Yes, wholesale rates move continuously as underlying carrier costs and interconnect agreements change. Standard practice is that rate increases carry a notice period while decreases can apply immediately. The notice period is a negotiable contract term and worth checking carefully — a supplier who can raise rates without meaningful notice can erase your margin on a destination overnight.
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