Techy Stuff

Techy Stuff was Originally Posted on April 13, 2012 by lavarock

I rode the stock AAPL (Apple) the past few months and made $3,000. Thanks to those who helped run the stock up. I was not as agressive as I could have been with the trade, but you know, getting a 25% or more return rate is not shabby for a couple months investment. Selling a couple days ago would have netted me another $900 but I’m happy enough.

My investments over at Prosper have also paid off pretty well, except one guy paid off his loan early so that cut into my profits. Still, none of the 4 loans I helped fund, has had a late payment. Prosper is not a major money maker for me as I carefully invested and only had $50 at risk in each of the 4 loans. Still, my return is about 8%. Not as great as Apple stock, still lots betetr than banks or credit unions.

I tried loading my PBX software on an old computer last night, but the disk is bad. I’ll try again next time I get some time.

In the meantime, I am looking to be a reseller of VOIP services. VOIP is the ability to send telephone calls over the internet and break free from the phone company.

Many people are already on VOIP if they get a package deal that includes telephone from their cable company. Others are using Vonage or Packet8.

Some people use Skype or Google Voice service which rely upon their computer being up. If configured for it, Google Voice (GV) can be accessed for outgoing calls if you telephone into your own number and make a call that way.

Another option is to run a PBX or PBX software on a computer. That hardware then connects to a VOIP provider to make and receive calls.

Then there are the standalone devices such as the new OBI100 and OBI110 systems. It combines a telephoen line, a phone, Google Voice and perhaps another VOIP provider to handle your calls. It is essentually a PBX in itself. OOMA makes a VOIP device too.

Then there are devices like the SPA-2102 that are configured and tied t oa company such as one out here, 808NetFone. They supply a box (SPA-2102) with two phone ports. They supply VOIP service for local or long distance and their particular service is an unlimited service. For their service they have various rates, local calls, state-wide, USA-wide, Asia and Europe, etc. Their service can be a lot cheaper than a telephone from the phone company. For example, afetr the $45 installation charge, the US-wide calling plan is $28 a month and includes lots of extras like voicemail and call waiting, etc. That also includes a telephone number.

Some people (including the tech guys) prefer to roll their own service. I have a neighbor who uses his cellphone for most all calls. However, often when calling customer service of a company (a toll free number), he is on the phone for hours and his cellphone runs out of juice. I came up with a solution for him. Since he did not need his current VOIP service and telephone number, I configured a box to allow him to call only toll-free numbers from the device. He plugs a phone into the box and uses that to call out. He has no inbound number for that service and his outbound calls go directly to the internet. I configured the service to show his cellphone as the calling number.

So I decided to resell the service. The easy part was setting up an account. The hard part is coming up with plans that solve needs and make me a couple of dollars.

The easiest service for people to understand is one where they port their phone number away from their provider, drop their present telephone service and get a box (or phone) that does VOIP and connects to their high-speed internet. Then the telephone number is assigned to the new service. A calling plan is added to allow them to call out. Many of these boxes can be hooked up to all phones in the house, very easily.

The problem for me has been to design calling plans that save people money. There are a number of options that all come into play and effect pricing. They include whether there is an inbound number or not. If so, is the number ported in or purchased in the persons town (perhaps they never had a home phone number or want one somewhere in the world. There are two types of call providers, one more reliable and expensive than the other. The cheap one may suffice for most people.

Then there is the isue of “pay per call” or “unlimited”. In this case,, unlimited is unlimited inbound.

As you can see, it can start to get confusing, which is why most people don’t go directly t othe source and rather buy a package from someone else.

Still, there are savings if you can gauge your calling patterns. For example, a service with a new telephone number and 600 minutes of “airtime” might cost only $8 to set up and then cost only $10 a month. Extra minutes might be charged at a penny and a half a minute. Having a plan where people call in alot and getting 3500 minutes inbound and 300 minutes out might cost $13 a month.

Of course to put another wrinkle in the mix is calling Hawaii, Alaska or internationally. It turns out that Hawaii is not much more to call but calling Alaska numbers were so high that I won’t offer them. Still, the service would work great for those living in Alaska to call out to non-Alaska numbers.

Another oddity is that calling London is cheaper for me than to call Maryland.

So for the past couple of days I have played with spreadsheets trying to design a couple packages that are cheap, make me a buck or two and are very understandable to the general public.

The reason the unlimited in and outbound services are priced high is that they hope you will pay and not use all the minutes they assigned. Those minutes are not carried over to a new month. With this service I am designing, you pre pay and use minutes, then replenish when you start getting low.

Time will tell if I really sell these plans, but I already have the domain name and part of the website set up!