Calling Plans Best Practices

Modified on Tue, 24 Dec, 2024 at 4:44 PM

Calling plans allow you to control where your customers are allowed to call and what, if any, the cost should be for those calls. Each of your plans can be set up with a number of included minutes or a per-minute rate, depending on how you want to charge for services.

If your calling plans were created before mid-2021, you probably need to take another look at your strategy. Here's what we recommend:

Calling Plans Stack 0

1. Update Your Strategy

Before mid-2021, we recommended building out comprehensive calling plans that specified each calling area, domestic and international, but it’s a lot harder to manage your fraud risk that way. And if the plan was built with an exclusive strategy — listing out each calling and whether it was allowed or not — you had to add a new line to your plan every time you got a new area code.

Now, we recommend building a simplified, inclusive domestic plan, splitting out international calling as an add-on, and then stacking multiple plans on top of each other to customize the user’s calling area. Like this:

Plan	Description
US 48 + Canada	Includes unlimited calls to the lower 48 United States and most of Canada. Excludes the Yukon and Northwest Territories.
North America	Includes Alaska, Hawaii, US territories (such as Guam, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, etc.), and Canada's Yukon and Northwest Territories.
International	Includes international locations not blocked for high fraud risk.

Important

When bundling calling plans, the most permissive rules will trump more restrictive rules. For example, if two calling plans are assigned to a user, one that blocks calls to Hawaii and one that allows them, the user will be allowed to call Hawaii.

International Fraud Mitigation

Two of the best ways to mitigate fraud are to separate rated calling plans from those that include minutes, and to restrict international calling by default to reduce the number of targets.

If international calling is blocked by default, it will be easier for you to be aware of your fraud exposure as you enable it for customers individually and audit those who have access to it. You will also have the opportunity to have a fraud risk and responsibility chat with your customer when you enable it. Being more hands-on with your exposure risk makes mitigation much easier.

For more information, see Fraud Best Practices.

2. Create a Domestic Base Plan

First, create a base calling plan that includes unlimited calls to the most common domestic locations, such as a US 48 Unlimited or US 48 + Canada Unlimited.

This will form the foundation of your calling plan strategy and will be assigned to every user on the account by default. All other calling plans are added on top of this one to expand the user’s calling areas.

Most calling locations in the US are inexpensive, so we recommend including them in your domestic base plan. However, calls to Alaska, Hawaii, US territories (Guam, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, etc.), and Canada's Yukon and Northwest Territories are more expensive, so most service providers split out those locations into an add-on plan.

Calling Plan Definition

Rather than identifying each individual calling area on your Calling Plan Definition spreadsheet, all with the same rate, we recommend creating a catch-all for prefixes in World Zone 1, which includes all of the US, Canada, Dominican Republic, and other locations. Then specify only the locations that start with the 1 prefix that should be excluded (areas that have different per-minute rates or aren’t allowed on the plan).

^Prefix	^Description	^{PerMinuteRate}	^{MinimumSeconds}	^{IncrementSeconds}	^OnPlan	^IsAllowed
¹	^{USA – 48 States}	^0.038	⁶⁰	⁶⁰	^True	^True

The example below allows calls to the 48 contiguous United States and most of Canada. It does not allow calls to any other location included in the world zone 1 prefix, so each of those locations is listed specifically and set to “FALSE.”

Calling Plans Base

Calling Plan

The calling plan in the Admin Portal will have "Unlimited Display" checked (meaning it will be displayed as unlimited), so the per-minute rates won't apply. See Create a Calling Plan for details.

CallingPlanSettings

3. Create Add-On Plans

Next, set up your add-on plans. These calling plans are added on top of the user's base plan to expand their calling areas. For example, if the US 48 Unlimited plan is the base, an International add-on plan can be bundled with it to allow the user to call international locations.

When building the Calling Plan Definition file for add-on plans, be strategically inclusive rather than exclusive. Specify only the locations you want to include and leave off the areas you want to exclude. If it isn’t listed on the add-on plan, it won’t be allowed.

Important

Row 2, Everything Else, is a catch-all that makes sure everything not specified on this plan is not allowed on the plan. It’s your fraud safety net, so don’t change it!

Plan Minutes vs. Per-Minute Rates

The Calling Plan Definition file specifies each calling location that is and is not included on the plan and the per-minute rate for calls to each location. The calling plan created in the Admin Portal puts your definition file into action.

There are two primary types of calling plans:

Minutes (Bundled). For plans with minutes, you will indicate the number of minutes that a caller will be allowed to dial the locations during each billing cycle. This type of plan works best for customers who call these locations more frequently and want consistency on their invoice.
Rated (Per-Minute). For plans without minutes, callers can dial the locations allowed in the calling plan but are charged for each minute. This type of plan works best for customers who rarely make calls to add-on locations, allowing them to call add-on locations when needed.

Examples

Here are a few add-on plans many service providers choose to set up and bundle for their users:

Plan	Description
North America	Includes locations in North America which aren't included on the domestic plan, such as Hawaii, Alaska, US territories (Guam, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands), Mexico, and Canada's Yukon and Northwest Territories. Can be created with or without minutes.
International	Includes all other countries not listed in the user's other calling plans, except fraudulent calling areas. It can be created with or without included minutes.
Extension-Only Dialing	This a special use case is a perfect fit for devices that are meant to dial only internal extensions or emergency services, like phones in common areas or break rooms. The default calling plan must be removed for users with an extension-only plan.

Need Help?
We have a spreadsheet with the Schedule A rates to build your new plans and a script that can assign them to users, so you don’t have to go through each user manually. Reach out to your Customer Success Manager and they'll help you get started.