Bandwidth.com and Verizon sign VoIP termination agreement; deal might drive down prices

VoIP termination fees on landline phones is often a variable business expense for VoIP providers, but that might be changing soon. Business VoIP provider Bandwidth.com announced that it has signed a commercial deal with Verizon to agree to terminate each other's VoIP traffic at a rate of $0.0007 per minute.

The deal puts on display what two VoIP players are willing to pay for VoIP termination on landlines and might put pressure on the rest of the industry to drop prices on termination fees. The deal for an agreed upon rate for traffic that originates from or terminates to a VoIP end user provides the companies with cost certainty for the traffic they exchange.

The deal allows Bandwidth.com to make business decisions based on the cost they now know will be incurred when their users make VoIP calls and put money towards investing in innovations. 

"For too long, uncertainty over what charges apply to VoIP traffic has served as a wall to the innovations customers want and the lower prices they need," said John Murdock, President of Bandwidth.com in a release. "We are delighted to be working with Verizon in reaching a commercial deal that hopefully will serve as a path for the industry and service providers to move forward and better serve customers."

For more:
- read the release
- read the GigaOm/Fortune/CNN article

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