History
In the United States, net2Phone began offering consumer VoIP service in 1995. Other notable ITSPs in US/Canada are PingTone Communications, xconnect and Alliance Callback.
Usually ITSP source for route terminations to different parts of the globe from multiple VOIP providers. ITSP customers can then indirectly choose which VOIP providers they would like to use for their VOIP calls. The ITSP customer do this by specifing the maximum price they are willing to pay per minute for the call and the lowest quality they are willing to tolerate. The ITSP routing software will then search for the wholesale VOIP providers who meet the customers specification and attempt to route the customer call over the VOIP providers starting with the one with the lowest price. Prices to different part of the world depends on several factors. For example, if the call is going over a white route or a black route, wholesalers margin, the countries regulation to name a few.
Before 2003, many VoIP services required customers to make and receive phone calls through a personal computer. This is not the case any more though as smartphone has provided a more natural platform.
Read more about this topic: Internet Telephony Service Provider
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