Call termination, also known as voice termination, refers to the routing of telephone calls from one telephone company, also known as a carrier or provider, to another.
The terminating point is the called party or end point. The originating point is the calling party who initiates the call.
This term often applies to calls while using voice over Internet protocol (VoIP): a call initiated as a VoIP call is terminated using the public switched telephone network (PSTN). In such cases, termination services may be sold as a separate commodity. The opposite of call termination is call origination, in which a call initiated from the PSTN is terminated using VoIP. Thus, in "origination" a call originates from PSTN and goes to VoIP, while in "termination" a call originates in VoIP and terminates to the PSTN.
VoIP call termination is a word that is fast spreading across the globe among all age groups—from individuals to small businesses to corporations and enterprises. It simply means providing a path or route through which voice can be transmitted or sent over Internet.
There are many providers which offer VoIP call termination services. For instance, a tier-1 operator registered and having a physical international network in the country has the right to originate and terminate a call using Internet telephony services.
In order to provide voice over IP call termination services, a tier 2 operator can initiate call termination over the Internet by leasing a portion of network from a tier 1 operator.
Similarly there are tier 3 operators who can lease network services from both tier 1 and tier 2 service providers. It saves tier 2 and tier 3 operators much of the cost of infrastructure and registration. infrastructure like routers which need a substantial investment to be incurred are taken care of by tier 1 operators. Besides them, there are wholesale call termination providers and resellers of voice over IP telephony which also offer similar termination facilities.
Due to the virtual, networked and real-time nature of the work, i.e. call termination activity, the entire sector of call termination is subject to a number of business risks. Unmet commitments, parameter information skipping, parameter changing post agreement, payment and credit frauds and quality inconsistencies are rampant in the sector specially in the lower domain. Accordingly, branding and image building is typically tough and is prized. When a company achieves a certain positive brand image, it becomes extremely important to protect the same which is not always financially and administratively easy due to fast fluctuation in the market.
In most of the Middle East and Asian countries, voice terminations are generally subject to strict and long drawn regulations by the governments and telecommunication regulators. One of the reason of this strictness is the desire of these overseeing bodies to keep the termination rates in their respective country at a certain high level. Generally, this is due to the diaspora effect - a situation where a sizable population of a country moves abroad to other countries on work visas. This population is mostly financially strong than their family connections back in the home countries. Close and well-knit family structure of these regions and the financial strength of the diaspora results in an asymmetric flow of more calls coming to that home country than the number of calls being originated from that country to other parts of the world. In such a situation, governments and their regulatory agencies spot a financial opportunity to maintain a termination rate much higher than the actual cost of termination thereby generating extra money from the advantageous grounds.