A Guide to Call Shop and Internet Café Solutions for Resellers

Over the last decade, there’s been something of a quiet revolution taking place with regards to telephony. Mobile of course has not come about quietly. The smartphone has taken off and is now a mainstay of many people’s lives in some areas of the world. Mobile has undoubtedly had an impact on emerging economies too, and has in some parts of the world transformed how people send and receive payments.

This isn’t the revolution we’re referring to here though, the quieter movement has been seen in VoIP services. These have allowed consumers the ability to save costs on long distance and overseas calls, and transformed the way that businesses access telephony.

For the reseller, this has presented lots of opportunity to further grow their telecoms business by offering reduced rate calls to consumers and businesses whilst earning ongoing, recurring monthly revenues. A further opportunity exists in reselling call shop and internet café solutions — perhaps even in parts of the world that you may have previously not considered.

What is a Callshop?

A callshop is a business which will generally be placed in a geographical area in which no long distance telephone infrastructure is in place, such as in emerging economies. They are also fairly commonly found in cities where a lot of tourists might need access to low cost international or long distance telephone calls.

In a callshop, there are phone booths which allow customers to make calls. The customer comes into the shop and either pays a fee upfront or pays upon leaving. A booth is then activated and the customer makes their call. The callshop owner can monitor the destination and length of calls using software, in order to calculate the call costs. It’s similar to an internet café and in fact many call shops have internet café facilities too.

Why Supply Callshops?

VoIP technology has made it simple to provide callshops with low cost, high quality calls to most parts of the world. For existing internet café providers, it can add further value to the services that they provide. Whilst mobile technology is rife, the high cost of roaming means that many international travelers prefer to not to use smartphones when in certain countries.

Shop owners can easily manage all aspects of calling using booth and rate management tools, as well as invoicing and reports generation. For the reseller, it offers the chance to further cement their place in the market whilst boosting revenues and building a loyal customer base.