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For interstate rates: 5% (same commission for either the 3.5 cent/minute for RBOC area customers or the 3.9 cent/minute for non-RBOC customers)
For intrastate calls: 4% (see tables below for customer's intrastate rates)
For international calls: 4%
For calling card calls: 7%
Global Fibernet is a company providing long distance telephone service and is part of the parent company AireSpring that provides multiple classes of communication services. Global Fibernet provides services to both business and residential customers.
Agents, please note that there are other plans that you can choose to market to your customer (interstate, intrastate, international) with a significant increase in the percent commission rates, so if you think you can market these higher phone rates to your customers, let us know and we'll be glad to custom design a rate mixture for you. For example, you can keep the same 3.5 (RBOC)/3.9 (non-RBOC) interstate rates (with the corresponding 5% commission rate), but increase the calling rate for the intrastate calls and get 6%-12% commissions instead of 4%, the commissions depending on how high you want to raise the intrastate rate. There are about 4 different rates for each state that you can offer, and there is actually 1 rate lower than the below table. The lower rate has only a 1/2% commission rate, though, so we don't recommend going lower. There are 6 different international rate tables.
AIR A: For RBOC area customers AIR B: For non-RBOC area customers
State |
AIR |
AIR |
(INTERSTATE) |
||
Alabama |
6.4 |
10.0 |
Arizona |
22.8 |
36.3 |
Arkansas |
8.1 |
|
California |
6.9 |
|
Colorado |
13.5 |
17.9 |
Connecticut |
9.4 |
7.4 |
Delaware |
6.1 |
12.2 |
Florida |
10.7 |
16.4 |
Georgia |
9.3 |
29.0 |
Idaho |
20.4 |
33.3 |
Illinois |
6.2 |
|
Indiana |
8.9 |
|
State |
AIR |
AIR |
(INTERSTATE) |
||
Iowa |
9.8 |
15.8 |
Kansas |
11.1 |
14.4 |
Kentucky |
||
Louisiana |
11.7 |
|
Maine |
15.2 |
26.7 |
Maryland |
10.7 |
|
Massachusetts |
8.8 |
14.8 |
Michigan |
5.3 |
|
Minnesota |
11.4 |
16.8 |
Mississippi |
12.3 |
|
Missouri |
17.3 |
28.8 |
Montana |
22.4 |
|
Nebraska |
18.0 |
|
Nevada |
7.8 |
6.9 |
State |
AIR |
AIR |
(INTERSTATE) |
||
New Hampshire |
16.2 |
26.3 |
New Jersey |
7.5 |
12.2 |
New Mexico |
25.3 |
30.9 |
New York |
10.6 |
8.2 |
North Carolina |
13.2 |
17.4 |
North Dakota |
||
Ohio |
5.6 |
|
Oklahoma |
9.3 |
13.3 |
Oregon |
12.7 |
|
Pennsylvania |
9.8 |
15.6 |
Rhode Island |
12.8 |
14.6 |
South Carolina |
12.5 |
12.3 |
South Dakota |
23.4 |
27.5 |
State |
AIR |
AIR |
(INTERSTATE) |
||
Tennessee |
8.1 |
|
Texas |
11.5 |
11.2 |
Utah |
12.4 |
|
Vermont |
13.7 |
28.0 |
Virginia |
18.0 |
17.3 |
Washington (state) |
10.5 |
11.8 |
West Virginia |
21.4 |
24.0 |
Wisconsin |
6.1 |
|
Wyoming |
11.5 |
If your customer selects Global Fibernet (AIR A, AIR B) as their long distance service by going to your web page (that we set up for you), they will receive their bill from Airespring/Global FiberNet Communications. The web site that you direct your customer to sign up on is called Global FiberNet Communications, and this is the title of this web site that will allow your customer to sign up on-line for Airespring's service. For the Airespring (AIR) plans, there are two "groups", and the group the customer is in is determined by the name (and location) of their local telephone company. Here are the two AireSpring RBOC areas, however, the customer will be automatically placed in the correct group depending on their local telephone company, and they will be told the interstate rate (3.5 or 3.9) as soon as they put in their telephone number on your web page (we provide this web page to you at no charge).
| AireSpring Group | Local telephone company |
| AIR A | Bell South, SBC (including former Pacific Bell, Nevada Bell, and Ameritech),
Qwest (the local company, not the long distance company, formerly US West), Verizon (formerly Bell Atlantic and Nynex) |
| AIR B | Broadwing (formerly Cincinnati Bell), Verizon (formerly GTE in California),
Frontier, SBC (formerly SNET), Sprint/United (the local company, not the long distance company) |
If they are not in either of these groups, then they are not eligible for Airespring service. They might be ineligible for Airespring service particularly if they are with a small rural telephone company, e.g., "Calvert County Rural Telephone Cooperative".
The disadvantage for using the Global Fibernet plans is that your customers are required to pay for their monthly phone bill automatically via either credit card or a debit to their checking account. There is no option to pay by sending in a check each month. This is advantageous to you as an Agent because it allows Airespring to collect money for services provided and generally the customers will stay with the company longer than those companies that send out a bill to a customer and try to get that bill collected.
Your customer doesn't have to remember what group (A or B) they are in because when they sign up on-line via the internet, they will automatically be classified in the proper group. AIR A and AIR B have no monthly service charge, i.e., there is no monthly fee and there is no monthly minimum for the phone customer, however the customer must elect to pay either by credit card or by bank draft (automatic withdrawal from checking account).
The customer will get a bill 2 weeks before the credit card (or bank draft) transaction to allow the customer to review the details of the bill and correct any discrepancies.
A nice feature of Airespring is that they have free toll-free numbers that your customer can request. The calling card is also free. The customer is only charged for their usage per month on them.
Domestic calls have a 6-second billing increment with a 6 second minimum per connected call. International calls for all plans have a 6 second billing increment with a 30 second minimum per connected call. Calling cards have a 60 second minimum with a 60 second billing increment.
Why sell the higher rates? Your commissions will be higher, but you will get less persons signing up for service. In reality, most of our Agents just sell the 4.9 cent plan to make things easy and give the customer the best rate from the start.
The customer's intrastate calling rate is determined from the Intrastate Rates table. There are two intrastate rate columns.
General Strategies for Selling
Try suggesting to every customer (residential or business) the advantages of having a toll-free number. If you recommend a custom toll-free number, recommend an 877 or 866 area code (vs. 800 or 888), as 877/866 area codes are more readily available. Suggest that they try a number the same as their main number, e.g., if their main number is 703-256-8780, suggest they also get a toll-free number as 877-256-8780. There is no additional charge for requesting a custom number vs. a random number. In case the custom number is not available, its recommended that you also request the customer to request a random number if the custom number is not available. If your customer is signing up on-line, then custom toll-free numbers are not available to them -- just have them ignore the toll-free number request and send you their request either directly to you or directly to us and when we receive the request (and when their account is set up), we will process the custom request. Toll-free numbers are not available without having the customer sign up for regular service.
We ran some statistics on 7-digit phone numbers and found that only about 1 out of 19 persons have a chance to get a specific toll-free number identical to their specific 7-digit phone number. On the average, 19 other area codes throughout the US have an identical 7-digit phone number within their area code. So, inform the customer that now might be the time to get one even though they might not use or need one at the present time. No cost to get one, no monthly service charges to keep one. They only pay for the calls made. In our own sales efforts to new customers, we get about 80% of our new customers to get a toll-free number, so "push" it if you can -- it usually generates more billing revenue which means more commissions for you, the Agent.
If you have a customer that has an existing toll-free number and they wish to transfer that toll-free number to Global Fibernet, you need to have the "800 TRANSFER…" form filled out. Call us for this form. On this transfer form, make absolutely sure that the name on the "ACCOUNT NAME" line is IDENTICAL to that on the customer's long distance bill that bills for their current toll-free number. Any difference will get a rejection when submitted to the national database directory. Leave the PRIOR RESPORG column blank. The PRIOR CARRIER column is used to identify the long distance company (not the local telephone company) that is currently carrying the toll-free number that they want changed.
Toll-free numbers:
All toll-free numbers issued are not published in the National Toll-Free Directory or made available when dialing 1-800-555-1212. Most people do not want their toll-free number published or made available. If the customer absolutely needs inclusion in the toll-free directory, there is a $25/month fee for Global Fibernet to have that number listed in the directory and a one-time $25 set-up fee. Few customers want or need to have a toll-free number published.
If a customer currently has a toll-free number BUT has to use an additional "pin" number to complete the call, e.g., 1-800-123-4567 then when requested, has to enter "5325" to complete the call, this toll-free number cannot be transferred. That number belongs to the long distance company and there might be several thousand (10,000?, 100,000?) people that use that same toll-free number (different "pin" numbers, of course) to place the call.
A customer who gets a toll-free number from Global Fibernet can normally "take" that number with them if they choose to go to another long distance carrier sometime in the future. We sometimes tell customers about this -- gives a customer a feeling that you are looking out for them in their future. Global Fibernet will not release this toll-free number to another phone company until all the customer's overdue (if any) balances are paid.
Note: some university systems (and occasionally some businesses) do not have the newer 877 or 866 toll-free area code programmed in their phone systems yet, so if that is the case, just recommend a random 888 (or 800) number to those college students in dorms. A point to note: most university telephone systems (in the dormitory) do not allow the student to change their long distance company. Suggest that the student's parents get a toll-free number at the parent's home so that the student can call home -- saves the cost to the student, and in almost all cases even if the student's parents are paying the student's long distance bill, it will be less expensive for the parents to get a toll-free number than to have the student call using the university's long distance system. The parents can also get a toll-free number which rings-to the student's room (if the student has a regular 10 digit phone number (no extension)) so that the parents can call the student's room even if they are away from the (parent's) home. Requesting a toll-free number starting with the actual area code "800" number is strongly NOT recommended. Why?
1. All 800 numbers have already been issued.
2. Any "new" 800 number issued would have previously been used by either another company or an individual
3. A request for a true "800" toll free number might take 1-4 weeks or longer to obtain
4. If you get the 800 number for the customer, the customer might have some amount of "wrong number" toll-free calls. Its expected that the customer pay for all calls including "wrong number" calls made by persons trying to get a hold of the previous owner of the toll-free number.
When we started CTS 23 years ago, we got a toll-free 800 number that had belonged to an automobile insurance company in Toronto, Canada and we would get between 5-10 calls a month during the first 6 months, and then it dropped off to about zero after the first two years.
If not specified, inbound calls, i.e., toll-free 800/888/877/866 numbers, are set up to include all allowed calling areas, which include:
If requested, a customer can restrict (include or exclude) calls made from a specific area code. For example, a customer might want to receive calls only from area code 703 and exclude calls from all other area codes in the 48 states, all calls from PR/AK/HI/USVI, and all calls from Canada. Another customer might want to receive all calls from the 48 states and Canada but exclude only PR/AK/HI/USVI.
Calling Cards:
Customers can use a toll-free number to make a calling card connection from any phone in the US. If a call is made from a pay phone, there is a 29-cent per call surcharge; note: this is a per call surcharge, not a per minute cost. Most persons don't need a calling card -- it's recommended that you do not actively try to sell this product unless the customer requests a calling card.
Table C: Calling card information
| CALLING CARDS | |
| Cost to obtain a card | $0.00 (free) |
| Interstate rate | 15 cents/minute |
| Intrastate rate | see table |
| Security code to make a call | The customer's main phone number + 4 digit |
| Billing increments | 60 seconds |
| Billing minimum | 60 seconds |
| Commission | 10% |
| Payphone surcharge | 29 cents per call |
General Information:
It normally takes 3-5 days for approval of a new account, and then it might take 1-10 business days for the customer's local telephone company to effect the switch of long distance carriers. Sometimes provisioning might take longer. Global Fibernet uses the wholesale services of two long distance companies for transmitting calls: Qwest and Global Crossing. The customer can call 1-700-555-4141 and they will hear that "QWEST" or "Global Crossing" is their carrier after they have been switched to Global Fibernet, although billing and customer service will come directly from Global Fibernet. The 700 area code is a "maintenance" area code and is toll-free to the user and is available from about 85% of the country. If the customer does not get that message, we can do this check on-line to see the status of the customer's account. The customer should not call their local telephone company to transfer their long distance service, as all transfers should be done by Global Fibernet's internal provisioning process. If the customer tries to change service by contacting their local telephone company and giving them the PIC code, doing so might cause that customer to be on "open network" billing at extremely high rates, e.g., $0.25/minute, and they will not get reimbursed for the difference. Yes, this is really the charge incurred by an actual customer who tried to get on to long distance service on another long distance company after being informed that he was rejected for bad credit -- he tried to "get in the back door" without credit approval.
PICC codes:
There are four "PICC" codes sometimes used depending on what the local telephone company requests. We will provide the customer with this PICC code if they are required to need it to get their service up and running.
In what circumstance would the customer use this PICC code? The customer could have previously put a PICC freeze on his/her long distance service with the local telephone company to prevent "slamming" by other long distance carriers. So, you might want to ask the customer "Do you know if you've called your local telephone company requesting a freeze on your lines"? A PICC freeze is done by the customer's call to the local telephone company requesting that no long distance company be allowed to switch long distance service without the customer's permission. There is one of two actions that can be done to get service on Global Fibernet:
Action #1:
1. Have the customer call their local telephone company to request that the local company remove the PICC freeze
2. Submit the order for long distance service to Global Fibernet (generally, you don't have to wait for the PICC freeze to be lifted as it usually takes less than 24 hours unless that local phone company requires a written request)
3. Let the line be switched to Global Fibernet
4. Customer can call the 700-555-4141 until they hear "QWEST" is their carrier (Note: if they already on Qwest, you don't need to have them lift the freeze -- just have the customer submit the request for service (on-line or form))
5. When on Qwest, have the customer call the local telephone company put the PICC freeze back on.
Action #2:
1. Have the customer submit their request for Global Fibernet's service
2. You (the Agent) needs to inform us (the Master Agent) to monitor this customer to see when the customer's account is approved for service
3. We (the Master Agent) calls you, the Agent (or the customer, whatever mechanism you wish). The customer is then requested to call their local telephone company and request that the customer's phones be PICCed (pronounced "picked")
Action #1 requires more customer work, less Agent work BUT getting the account up might "slip" through the cracks and never get switched if left up to the customer.
Action #2 requires more Agent and Master Agent work, BUT assures that the customer gets switched to Global Fibernet; also provides the customer that we're giving them more "customized" help in the provisioning process.
Credit Checks + low volume customers + 10-10-629 service:
General rule of thumb: about 1 in 100 new applications are rejected because of bad credit. As an Agent, if you know a person (or business) has bad credit, don't waste your time or effort on this customer -- there are plenty of other customers out there. Also, don't waste your time on a customer that bills a low amount per month (like $1) UNLESS you think that they might have referral contacts that can get you additional business. Suggest that they cancel their long distance service and use something like 1010629 where they can get their bill on their local phone bill. You might want to provide the below information to those low volume long distance customers as a "free" service so that they don't tie up your valuable time used in setting up a separate Global Fibernet long distance account.
Features of 10-10-629 and how to use 10-10-629:
===============================================================
This is called the Penny Plan from WorldxChange. These are the advantages of this plan to the customer:
1. NO forms or Letter of Authorization forms to fill out
2. NO third party confirmation
3. NO sign-up fees
4. NO monthly fees
5. NO minimum usage fee
6. NO switching long distance companies
7. NO signing up needed
8. NO separate monthly bill (bill is sent as part of the persons LOCAL phone
bill
9. Domestic rate: 7.9 cents/minute billed in 1 minute increments
To place a domestic call, dial the following:
1010629 + 1 + (the area code) + (the phone number)
Listen for the tone, then dial:
76543
You should now hear the ringing to the number.
The first time you call on your phone to the Penny Plan, you will be introduced to the Penny Plan. The time it takes is approximately 1 minute and you will not be charged for this introduction time. Your second and all future calls made from your phone will not have the introductory message.
International calls can also be used as follows:
1010629 + 011 + (country code) + (the phone number)
Listen for the tone, then dial 76543
===============================================================
Agent ID, Web Site Promotion, Commission Payments:
We will provide to you via email upon your submission of the On-Line Signup Form:. a RESPORG form for allowing the customer to transfer their existing toll-free number to Global Fibernet's service.
In addition, the email that will be returned will have the name of the web page that is custom built with the Agent's ID embedded onto that page. You can direct the user to go to that page, e.g., www.costar.net/phone1099.htm, or you can embed this URL address into your web site to allow the customer to go to this site and then sign up for long distance service.
If you wish, we can also provide you with your own web site -- just tell us the web name that you wish and we will register that web name (URL). This is optional, and the cost is a one time fee of $25 + the first annual registration fee of $15.
We provide you with a custom-designed on-line order web page that has your Agent ID code embedded into the link. This makes it very easy for you to add on-line signup, especially if you have a current web site. You are welcome to copy this on-line web page into your own web page presentation or you can link to this web page on CTS's web server; we prefer the former. We will keep your web page active on our server as long as you are an Agent. You may copy and modify sections of our active web site that promotes Global Fibernet for use on our Global Fibernet-designed web page (130K in size) for your own site as long as you request via email those sections that you wish to copy and we approve of this copy. You might be most interested in using the intrastate rate table, the international rate table, and perhaps the Global Fibernet features overview found at the beginning of this web page.
If you want to have Sales Representatives, just let us know and we will issue a unique Agent ID code for that person. It normally takes about 24 hours for us to get a new Agent (Sales Representative) set up. There is no charge for this service.
We are interested in promoting Global Fibernet and you in your endeavor as
our Agent. Before you actively publish your web page, please email us at:
phone@costar.net
and inform us as to the URL address of the page to be reviewed
so that we may check this web page for accuracy, content, and presentation
prior to publication on the web. This is some of the "legal stuff" that we
need to do. We will try to review this within 24 hours and provide any
comments/suggestions regarding this page.
Commissions are normally paid approximately 45-60 days after the close of the billing month, so for those Agents that are new to the long distance phone business, please be patient. This is a long distance industry "standard" for payment. For example, if you submit 3 customers on November 20th, it might take 5 days to get these customers on-line. They would then have Nov. 25 to Nov. 30 to generate phone call charges. If they average $25/month each ($75 total for the 3 customers), they would have a total billable amount of $15 ($75 x 1/5th of a month = $15).You would then be paid on Jan 15 (45 days after Global Fibernet's November 30th billing cycle. Not much of a check!!! But the next month (Feb.) would be for the full monthly commission amount.
Any questions? Please feel free to give me a call. I'm available at the toll-free number from 9am-11pm Mon-Sat and 1pm-11pm Sun (Eastern Standard Time); the fax number is available 24 hours/day. From 9am-5pm, the toll-fee number rings to my office; from 5pm-11pm it rings to my home.
| Gordon C.J. Storr, Vice President | ....................... | 1-800-267-8276 (1-800-COSTAR6) (phone) |
| CTS, Incorporated of Virginia | 1-888-810-3200 (fax) | |
| 4216 Evergreen Lane, Suite 112 | ||
| Annandale, VA 22003 |