The domestic and international premium rate number are two completely different games all together.
The domestic premium number industry is much more stable, access is consistent, in some cases corporate and hasn’t changed much in the last few years. On the international side we find that the industry is much more informal and that great access sometimes only lasts a day and in some cases even hours. We have also found that end users only work with daily payments terms (1/1) or weekly payment terms (7/1 and 7/7) and it is the resellers like us that have to pay on shorter payment terms as well as the customers demanding high rates at shorter payment terms when the tiers 1 & 2 carriers pay us on default payment terms; i.e: 30, 45 or 60eom.
When and where did it all change?
We believe that it happened (and is happening) as more and more resellers started surfacing and competition for traffic got fierce. The usual default terms went out the window and smaller tier 2 resellers jumped a link in the chain and went directly to the carriers or started demanding short payment terms from tier 1 resellers / suppliers like us as requested by their customers. Impossible to say no as otherwise they would go with the competition. International premium numbers is an ever changing industry as now many resellers are getting into the wholesale business business too.
Where will it go next?
Open an account with us here.