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Great question Josh - always great to hear from you. Like all the voice services Twilio delivers, SIP from Twilio is metered through per-minute usage on each "

Great question Josh - always great to hear from you. Like all the voice services Twilio delivers, SIP from Twilio is metered through per-minute usage on each "leg." A leg refers to the connection of a voice call with respect to Twilio's cloud. Your inference from the pricing is accurate - SIP legs and PSTN legs are billed at different rates. These descriptions can get a little unwieldy in prose, so consider this quick example. Let's suppose you give me a ring at my Twilio number (718)989-1458 and I am at my desk with my SIP device. My per-minute Twilio usage for that call would be the sum of you calling my Twilio number over PSTN (1 cent per minute) and Twilio connecting that call to my SIP device (half cent per minute). In summary: - You to my Twilio number (PSTN): $0.01 per min - Twilio to my desk (SIP): $0.005 per min - Total: $0.015 per min Does that help?

josh2600 14y ago
Rob, as always, it's a pleasure :). So if I call you and you use a SIP handset to answer it's $.015 per minute? That accurately answers my question. I still disagree with charging for pure IP transit, but that's more of a marketing decision and I completely understand your reasons for doing so :). I'd argue that the $.005 is unnecessary and Twilio would simply benefit tremendously from the additional minutes volume from SIP apps, but you know your business better than I do :).
- RobSpectre 14y ago
  I can totally understand where you're coming from with that perspective. Like Amazon, Heroku and other folks who are delivering valuable software through utility pricing, we do often have to answer why we charge what we do on a per-unit basis. This is particularly true of consumers of SIP products who have spent their entire lives outlaying huge capital expenditures to buy gear in order to get their business telephony apps running to connect their customers and employees and then connecting using another provider with a relationship governed by a different contract. Because the minutes used shows up on a different bill than the stuff that uses the minutes, it is easy to keep the two distant mentally. For Twilio, it shows up in the same place. What you pay for is a simple (and hopefully fun!) platform for changing the way your business communicates with everything you need to do it - IVRs, conferences, queues, voicemail, international, messaging and more. The way you pay is what we feel best aligns your interests with ours - only what you use, only when you use it. Like everyone else in startup tech, we hope we're delivering software at a price that reflects the value our customers get from it. This feels right for SIP From Twilio - hope you and others will continue to share your perspective if it doesn't work for you. Edit: fixed some typos.
  - josh2600 14y ago
    Rob, I've grown to love our public chats. You articulated the crux of the issue for me and I see this as another element of the experience economy. While I still disagree, I do understand the impetice to charge here as you are certainly absorbing costs that would otherwise be born by the business. There is definitely something to be said for the ease of integration and the utilitarian nature of the Twilio tech. That value isn't free and I suppose this is a good way to monetize twilio's efforts in this direction. As always, I wish you guys the best and I really appreciate you taking the time to clarify this topic :).
    - agwa 14y ago
      As a telephony enthusiast I enjoyed your exchange immensely. Thanks guys. It's a great example of what makes HN special.
    - RobSpectre 14y ago
      Pleasure's mine Josh - always love rapping cloud communications and you always bring a great eye to the subject. More to come I'm sure!

josh2600 14y ago

Rob, as always, it's a pleasure :). So if I call you and you use a SIP handset to answer it's $.015 per minute? That accurately answers my question. I still disagree with charging for pure IP transit, but that's more of a marketing decision and I completely understand your reasons for doing so :). I'd argue that the $.005 is unnecessary and Twilio would simply benefit tremendously from the additional minutes volume from SIP apps, but you know your business better than I do :).

RobSpectre 14y ago
I can totally understand where you're coming from with that perspective. Like Amazon, Heroku and other folks who are delivering valuable software through utility pricing, we do often have to answer why we charge what we do on a per-unit basis. This is particularly true of consumers of SIP products who have spent their entire lives outlaying huge capital expenditures to buy gear in order to get their business telephony apps running to connect their customers and employees and then connecting using another provider with a relationship governed by a different contract. Because the minutes used shows up on a different bill than the stuff that uses the minutes, it is easy to keep the two distant mentally. For Twilio, it shows up in the same place. What you pay for is a simple (and hopefully fun!) platform for changing the way your business communicates with everything you need to do it - IVRs, conferences, queues, voicemail, international, messaging and more. The way you pay is what we feel best aligns your interests with ours - only what you use, only when you use it. Like everyone else in startup tech, we hope we're delivering software at a price that reflects the value our customers get from it. This feels right for SIP From Twilio - hope you and others will continue to share your perspective if it doesn't work for you. Edit: fixed some typos.
- josh2600 14y ago
  Rob, I've grown to love our public chats. You articulated the crux of the issue for me and I see this as another element of the experience economy. While I still disagree, I do understand the impetice to charge here as you are certainly absorbing costs that would otherwise be born by the business. There is definitely something to be said for the ease of integration and the utilitarian nature of the Twilio tech. That value isn't free and I suppose this is a good way to monetize twilio's efforts in this direction. As always, I wish you guys the best and I really appreciate you taking the time to clarify this topic :).
  - agwa 14y ago
    As a telephony enthusiast I enjoyed your exchange immensely. Thanks guys. It's a great example of what makes HN special.
  - RobSpectre 14y ago
    Pleasure's mine Josh - always love rapping cloud communications and you always bring a great eye to the subject. More to come I'm sure!