Reselling Broadband/Hosting/Telecoms

[MrFrost1982]

HI all,
Was wondering if anyone has tried reselling any of the above, and your experiences in doing so.

Cheers.

 

[cmcp]

A lot of people resell hosting (some do it properly the majority are terrible). Broadband or telecoms I'd avoid as your support costs will go through the roof.

 

[My Owl 1]

A lot of people resell hosting (some do it properly the majority are terrible). Broadband or telecoms I'd avoid as your support costs will go through the roof.

Depends on how and what you are reselling. If it is assisting customers to have a good broadband provider with landline rental then you as the seller should get your outlay back completely but still get continuous commision from the sale.

Best wishes

Avril

 

[MrFrost1982]

We already re-sell hosting which has produced a modest income, in addition to our other services.

We know that we could also re-sell broadband and telephone's under our own company name, and were just interested to hear from anyone else who has done this or considered it.

 

[british steve]

HI all,
Was wondering if anyone has tried reselling any of the above, and your experiences in doing so.

Cheers.

Avoid using any Daisy or Gamma Telecom companies. If you need it I can give you some contacts for other companies.

 

[Businesswise Solutions]

Avoid using any Daisy or Gamma Telecom companies. If you need it I can give you some contacts for other companies.

Why would you avoid re-selling for a company that pays the very best on the market with award winning customer service to boot?

Mr Frost, drop me a PM if you would like more info.

Dean

 

[british steve]

Why would you avoid re-selling for a company that pays the very best on the market with award winning customer service to boot?

Mr Frost, drop me a PM if you would like more info.

Dean

And the Micky Mouse award for

"A telecom company that cant be assed to pick up the phone and call you back and general all round piss poor service"

Is awarded too ?

I still recomend that you avoid both of these companies.

 

[MrFrost1982]

We had looked at using a company called ICUK.

Are there any kind f legal/lisencing issue's required to run a virtual telecoms and broadband company?

 

[british steve]

We had looked at using a company called ICUK.

Are there any kind f legal/lisencing issue's required to run a virtual telecoms and broadband company?

For telecoms you need a RID licence (free from ofcom) takes about 10 working days. For broadband you must be a member of either "Cisas" or Otelo alternative dispute resolution scheme. These are required by Law.

www.otelo.org.uk
www.cisas.org.uk

 

[ServWise]

I think by far hosting has got to be the easiest of the three to break into. Typically support is fairly minimal and as a reseller it's normally just a case of forwarding on support queries to your host and it can provide a good supplemental income which is great of you're a web developer like I was/am and have clients you can bring along.

It is also great as it allows you to stay in the loop with your WebDev Clients and so gives you more opportunities for up-selling your services after a project has finished etc.

I started off as a hosting reseller about 10 years ago and slowly moved onto owning my own servers and now I run a fairly small but quite profitable hosting business with a number of staff to boot..

We pride ourselves on our customer service, quality systems and the honesty of our offerings. We don't try to necessarily compete on price (although we are not terribly expensive) and rely mainly on word of mouth for our business which has worked well so far. We have very good customer retention (even in the current climate) and well over our guaranteed 99.98% up-time for our servers.

For us we feel it is more important to have happy customers who recommend us and grow with us organically then to oversell and pack our servers by offering ultra low prices and unbelievable (and untrue) plan limits just to make a quick buck.

 

[MrFrost1982]

For telecoms you need a RID licence (free from ofcom) takes about 10 working days. For broadband you must be a member of either "Cisas" or Otelo alternative dispute resolution scheme. These are required by Law.

www.otelo.org.uk
www.cisas.org.uk

ICUK have advised me that I am covered under their reseller license with Ofcom and do not need to do anything else. :|

 

[telephoneman]

If you want to be a Telecom reseller you need to think about what it is you want to do - Fixed line, mobile or both. Are you going to be an agent, i.e. you sell Company A's services and the customer gets a bill with Company A on it (you get a small commission). Are you going "white label" - You sign up the customer and maybe do first line customer service (Company A does everything else but the bill has your name on it and you hopefully get a bigger margin). Do you want to be a "Virtual Telco" - you do sales, CS and billing using call records from Company A (CDRs). If you want to go down the last route you've got to decide between using the packages and prices set by the Telco with maybe a few tweeks (rated data) or a true wholesale arrangement where you buy at X and sell at Y and your billing system prices each call (or a mixture of both). There's a lot to think about! The more work you do and the more you invest the more margin you can make (and vice versa).

Liam

 

[MrFrost1982]

We will be going white label, billing customers directly ourselves under our brand.
We will buy from the reseller at wholesale prices, determine our own tariff's and bill the customer's accordingly.

We have put the feelers out with some of our current customers and had a good response.

I am assured from ICUK that we do not need a license as we are covered by them as per ofcom's reseller licesne.

 

[british steve]

We will be going white label, billing customers directly ourselves under our brand.
We will buy from the reseller at wholesale prices, determine our own tariff's and bill the customer's accordingly.

We have put the feelers out with some of our current customers and had a good response.

I am assured from ICUK that we do not need a license as we are covered by them as per ofcom's reseller licesne.

If you are selling telecoms you need a RID licence, by law, plain and simple. It is you as the reseller that needs the licence. The bloody thing is free.

 

[telephoneman]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrFrost1982
We will be going white label, billing customers directly ourselves under our brand. We will buy from the reseller at wholesale prices, determine our own tariff's and bill the customer's accordingly.

So, do you have a billing system that can price calls based on time of day/tariff/dialled number? How are you going to keep the number database up to date? Are you geared up to deal with potential arbitrage/fraud?

Liam

 

[MrFrost1982]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrFrost1982
We will be going white label, billing customers directly ourselves under our brand. We will buy from the reseller at wholesale prices, determine our own tariff's and bill the customer's accordingly.

So, do you have a billing system that can price calls based on time of day/tariff/dialled number? How are you going to keep the number database up to date? Are you geared up to deal with potential arbitrage/fraud?

Liam

ICUK have advised me that a billing platform is provided in their control panel and automatically generates bills based on the customers usage, all we have to do is invoice the client.

They have again advised me we do not have to obtain a license as I am I would be reselling. However, if this is free, maybe we should do this.anyway.

 

[TanAli]

Hi Steve,

I would love to hear from you on the contacts you mentioned in your message for other telco companies.

Regards

Tan

Avoid using any Daisy or Gamma Telecom companies. If you need it I can give you some contacts for other companies.

 

[british steve]

Hi Steve,

I would love to hear from you on the contacts you mentioned in your message for other telco companies.

Regards

Tan

If you can PM me an idea of what you are looking to do/sell I can point you in the right direction.

 

[smartisan]

I have been researching companies in order to provide virtual isp/telecoms (white label), do you guys know of any good companies that do not want £400 or so to set up a portal etc.

Any recommendations

I am aware of icuk, visp123, daisy, and a few others which I cannot remember.

 

[chrishankinson]

Hi Smartisan

my company can provide white label comms, however we dont currently operate portal based services; we prefer to keep a team in house that deals with our partners. if you would like some more info, drop me a pm.

Chris