Pricing for IO Phone is on a calendar month to month basis and will be different for customers with the workers module.
Monthly Pricing
Without Workers Module: $65/mo
If you do not have the workers module on your account the pricing is a flat $65/mo for the phone service with unlimited minutes/texts. You can direct calls to 3 possible phone numbers that the system can ring when accepting incoming calls or calling out from.
With Workers Module: $65/mo plus per user pricing
If you have the workers module on the account you will be billed the $65/mo for the phone system and unlimited automated text messages. Then, for each user active on the system, they are billed at $50 just for that month.
Free Phone User: When using the workers module, each IO Phone plan comes with one free phone user every month. Now, the first worker phone is included in the plan cost if you are paying the full retail rate.
What is a user?: An IO Phone user is any worker profile that exceeds 100 minutes/text segments in a calendar month.
Example: John is on the phone for 51 minutes, and sends out 50 manual text segments. His combined usage is over 100 minutes/texts, he is now a phone user for the month and will be billed to the account.
How are users billed?: After they exceed that usage (100 minutes or manual text segments), they will be billed as $50 and are given unlimited usage for that calendar month. Each new calendar month the user count resets to 0, so your bill will vary depending on the number of users.
Minutes and Text Segments
If you are not using the workers module, this section will not be important to you.
How are minutes calculated?: IO Phone does not round up on minutes, usage is calculated down to the 10th of a minute.
Example: If a call lasted 12 seconds, it will be billed at .02 minutes, 12 seconds / 60 seconds = .02 minutes
When are minutes being used?: Our billing is based on how we are billed from the parent phone company our system utilizes. When someone is on the ring schedule and we are attempting to ring them, that is usage.
Example: Your customer calls in and John is scheduled to take the call at that time. IO Phone attempts to connect the call to John and start's ringing his phone, the attempted connection lasts 12 seconds before it is sent to the company voicemail. Despite John not having answered the call, there is 12 seconds of usage assigned to his user.
Rarely will this actually rack up enough minutes to result in a user being erroneously charged. However a best practice is to remove employees from the ring schedules on days they are not working, or simply have them mark themselves into do not disturb mode for whenever they are taking a day or multiple days off.
Outside of the phone system trying to connect a call to a user, anytime they spend on outgoing or incoming calls through IO phone will count towards usage.
What are Text segments?: IO Phone does not charge for any text messages that are automated. Manual texts are counted and billed by segments. In a standard SMS message, each segment contains up to 160 characters. Depending on how many characters are in the message, it could extend into multiple segments. When using an emoji in a text message, it is encoded differently and then the segments are shortened to 70 characters per segment.
One-time Fee
Explanation: As of January 31, 2023, the wireless industry’s primary Direct Connect Aggregator (DCA) for 10DLC began implementing a vetting process on 10DLC campaigns, this process involves a registration fee.
Simple Explanation: if you want to send out text messages with IO Phone there is a one time registration process and fee, that we handle for your number. This will allow you to send out manual and automated text messages from your company's number.
The one-time fee to register your campaign (to send texts) is $20.
Should the account lapse in payment and the number be temporarily disabled, if it can be recovered, the text registration campaign fee will be paid again.
When Are You Billed?
Upon adding a number to IO Phone the billing will begin immediately in the following month. Your IO Phone billing happens on your account's expiration date, but it works differently from your regular plan.
The Key Difference
- Regular Plan Billing: Charges you on a specific day each month for service up to the next month's same date.
- IO Phone Billing: Also billed on your account's usual date, but it covers the phone service you used in the previous calendar month.
Example
If your bill is on September 28th, you're paying for IO Phone use in August, not September. This makes it easy to know exactly what you're paying for - last month's phone service, clear and simple.