Why we keep Tier A DIDs at $5/month
The market charges $10–25 for the same DID. We chose $5 because we scale differently. This is how we built the math to make it work without cutting corners on quality or reliability.
How DIDs are typically priced
A breakdown of wholesale reseller economics, our model, and what enterprise carriers charge.
Typical Wholesale Reseller 10–50 customers | VICICarrier Our approach | Typical Enterprise Carrier 1000+ customers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DID cost per unit/mo | $3–6 from vendor | $0.80–1.50 from wholesale pool | $0.50–1.00 (at scale) |
| Retail DID price | $10–15 | $5 | $15–25 |
| Margin per DID | $4–9 | $3.50–4.20 | $14–24 |
| Infrastructure cost | Shared hosting (unreliable) | Dedicated multi-tenant SaaS + HA DB | Proprietary switch + full staff |
| Support model | Email only, slow | Portal + API + email + Slack | Dedicated account managers |
| Uptime SLA | Best effort | 99.5% | 99.9% |
| Inbound routing | Basic (forward, IVR if lucky) | Advanced (skill-based, AI) | Full PBX |
| Outbound rates included | 70+ countries | ||
| API quality | Legacy REST, poor docs | Modern REST + OpenAPI | Proprietary binaries + support |
| Spare margin for growth | $4–9 (low reinvestment ability) | $3.50–4.20 (healthy reinvestment) | $14–24 (reinvest minimally) |
Where your $5 goes (simplified)
We're transparent about the economics. Here's the unit math on a Tier A DID.
Monthly Costs
Your Price vs Our Margin
Honest caveat
These numbers assume volume. A single DID in the database actually costs more due to fixed infrastructure. We hit this math around 1,000 DIDs. Below that, we lose money per unit. That's why we don't sell single DIDs to random people—we're built for committed users.
How we avoid the $15+ spiral
Shared multi-tenant architecture
One codebase, one database, 1000+ customers. No proprietary switch per customer. Your marginal cost is near-zero.
Pooled DID inventory
We don't pre-buy a DID per customer. We negotiate bulk wholesale pools and allocate on-demand. Turns per-unit CapEx into OpEx.
Self-service first
Onboarding, porting, configuration—all in the portal. Your support ticket becomes an API call. No headcount explosion.
High-touch for power users
We spend time on customers who use the API and scale. Not everyone, not equally. That's where margin goes.
No middleman reseller markup
You buy from us, not from a reseller. No wholesale–to–retail stacking. Direct relationship, direct pricing.
Healthy, not maximum, margin
We reinvest aggressively in reliability, new features, and uptime. We're not extracting maximum margin today—we're building for tomorrow.
Why this price won't explode
We've built our business model around staying at $5. Here's what protects that.
1Public rate card
We publish our wholesale DID costs quarterly. You can see the actual rates we negotiate from carriers. If wholesale goes up 20%, you'll see it—and we'll be transparent about whether retail needs to move.
290-day price increase notice
If we ever raise prices on existing DIDs (not new tiers, existing ones), you get 90 days' notice. No surprise bills. No bait-and-switch.
3No margin squeezing
We don't cut costs by degrading uptime, support, or infrastructure. If we need to raise prices to maintain quality, we say so and give notice. We won't silently downgrade reliability to protect a margin.
4Exit any time
No lock-in contract. No early termination fee. If you need to port a DID out, you can do it immediately, and we'll help. This keeps us honest about delivery.
Ready to see it in action?
Get a quote for your DIDs. We'll show you tier availability, routing options, and the real price with no surprises.