What each vendor actually bans, in their own words
Every quote below is lifted verbatim from the provider's own published policy, with a link to the source. Nothing here is our interpretation. The pattern is the point: the ban attaches to the unlimited or bundled plan, and the same vendor sells a metered product for the traffic.
The pattern at a glance
| Provider | Unlimited / bundled plan | Metered plan | Sells a compliant alternative? |
|---|---|---|---|
| VoIPline (us today) | Banned | Telemarketing clause still applies | Yes - Timed X and Timed MAX |
| Crazytel / CrazyPBX | Banned | Expressly permitted | Yes - P.A.Y.G and call-centre trunks |
| Dialpad | Banned, 3,000 min cap | n/a | Yes - Dialpad Sell / contact centre |
| RingCentral | Banned on RingEX | n/a | Yes - RingCX |
| 8x8 | Banned, immediate termination | n/a | Contact centre SKU |
| MaxoTel | Fair use applies | No ban published | Yes - but priced at ~$70/user |
| SIPcity | Banned outright, including calls to businesses | No | |
| Vonex | Banned outright, plus offshore use banned | No | |
| Zoom Phone | Discretionary termination, no thresholds | Contact centre SKU | |
| Zadarma | Personal use only, 30 numbers/day | Metered only | No |
The quotes, with sources
VoIPline Telecom Our current provider
Note the plan qualifier on the first line. That is the clause we close by moving to a metered plan. The telemarketing line has no qualifier and survives the move. The 80% clause is a comparison against other customers, not a quality test, so we cannot self-assess it.
8x8 Ruled out
Put this next to VoIPline's list. Same items, nearly the same order. This is standard industry boilerplate, not a VoIPline invention, which is why changing provider does not on its own solve anything.
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Dialpad Ruled out
Read the phrase "not provided by Dialpad" carefully. A sales call centre is permitted if you buy their contact-centre product. This is the clearest published example of the pattern: the ban attaches to the unlimited plan, and the vendor sells you a compliant, more expensive alternative. Also note 3,000 minutes is what their "unlimited" actually means.
RingCentral Ruled out
Same shape as Dialpad. RingCentral will sell us an outbound platform, just not the cheap one.
Zoom Phone Ruled out
No numbers anywhere. Unbounded discretion is worse for us than VoIPline's published thresholds, because there is no line to stay behind.
SIPcity Ruled out
Most policies leave a B2B argument open by saying "individuals". This one says "or businesses" and closes it. It names our business model directly.
Vonex Ruled out
The only provider we found that also bans offshore origination. Our agents are in Manila, Colombo and Cairo, so we would breach on day one on two separate grounds.
Zadarma Ruled out
Richie alone dials roughly 150 unique numbers a day and we need seven simultaneous calls. This is five times over the cap on one measure and seven times over on the other.
VoIP.ms Ruled out
This is the one provider whose published numbers we actually fail. Our average call is about 42 seconds against their 90 second floor. Worth showing your manager because it proves VoIPline's thresholds are lenient by industry standard, not harsh.
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Twilio Ruled out
No threshold given. Same unbounded-discretion problem as Zoom.
Telnyx Possible, if declared
A wholesale platform rather than a phone system. They expect you to declare the traffic type up front, which is the right pattern, but there is no seat product and we would need our own dialler.
Sinch Ruled out
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Aircall Ruled out
Another one that is waivable in the contract rather than banned outright. Same lesson: declare the use case and get it written into the order.
Crazytel Best policy position in Australia
Read the second quote twice. It is close to the opposite of VoIPline's 80% volume test, and it is the single most useful sentence in this whole comparison. The ban attaches to the unlimited retail plans, and they sell a call-centre trunk for exactly our traffic. They publish no ASR, ALOC or short-call thresholds at all, which cuts both ways: no threshold means no safe harbour either, so we should get a traffic-quality clause in writing naming our actual figures.
CrazyPBX (Crazytel's hosted phone system) The one written permission
This is the sentence to show your manager. It is the only written permission we found from any Australian provider, and it sits on the $1 per extension metered plan. It also proves the rule: the three plans with included calls (Everyday $5, Business $15, Insane $20) are all banned for our use, and only the metered one is allowed.
MaxoTel Clean policy, wrong price
Their full usage policy contains no mention of telemarketing, call centres, diallers, ASR, ALOC or short calls. Fair use attaches only to bundled-minute plans, exactly as at Crazytel. They also market to call centres directly. The blocker here is price, not policy: at retail rates they land around $70 a user. Worth one phone call to their wholesale desk.
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What this means for the decision
- VoIPline is not being unusually harsh with us. Their clause list and 8x8's run in nearly the same order. It is the standard clause. Arguing that they are unfair will not get us anywhere.
- VoIPline is actually more generous than most, because they publish numbers. They give us ASR above 40%, ALOC above 15 seconds and short calls below 15%. Over six months we pass all three, though our ten cold-calling lines sit at 14.8% short calls against the 15% ceiling and we did breach it in May and June. Most competitors publish no threshold at all and simply reserve the right to terminate, which is worse for an operator who needs to know where the line is. See the Summary for the month-by-month figures.
- Only one provider fails us on a published number. VoIP.ms requires an average call of 90 seconds. Ours is about 42. That is useful context: our call profile is normal for cold calling and would be rejected by a stricter carrier, so we should not assume the grass is greener.
- The fix is the product, not the vendor. In every case above, the ban sits on the unlimited plan and the vendor sells a metered alternative. Moving our ten cold callers onto a metered plan is the move, whether we stay with VoIPline or go to Crazytel.