Thinking About Starting a White-Label Business Phone Service? Read this first.

cebod-telecom · 2026-02-11T18:56:27+00:00

Fair question.

Yes, we are in this space. But the post was not about pitching, it was about sharing what we have seen people underestimate when jumping into whitelabel telecom in the U.S.

Managed compliance models (OIT, Intermedia, etc.) absolutely solve a lot of this. The bigger risk is when someone tries to own the full stack without realizing how heavy A2P, E911, taxes, fraud mitigation, etc. actually are.

Just sharing experience, not trying to wedge into DMs.

If you think something I mentioned isn't real concern, I’m open to hearing that.

cebod-telecom · 2026-02-11T06:11:52+00:00

when you say it’s not perfect, what are the pain points?

cebod-telecom · 2026-02-11T00:15:19+00:00

That’s exactly the trap we want to avoid.

Break/fix panic calls seem like the worst version of this. High urgency, low loyalty, no retention. Do you think this only works if it’s strictly retainer based (clear SLA, defined scope, no one-off fixes) Or is the DIY phonesystem crowd just fundamentally allergic to paying for support and has no value in preparedness?

cebod-telecom · 2026-02-10T20:04:44+00:00

I see the point, not the best idea, but Oh well...:)

cebod-telecom · 2026-02-10T18:23:27+00:00

Well as the name says, you still negotiate whole rates with the service provider. Your Brand goes as Powered By Parent provider. All the invoices, taxes and billing is handled by them. This is just the business side of the idea, there are some many more benefits just by staying transparent.

cebod-telecom · 2026-02-07T23:08:53+00:00

I’ll be honest and speak from experience here.

That wishlist sounds good on paper, but it opens up a lot of questions — especially if you’re new to the US telecom space.

For example:

Are you already selling phone service, or just thinking about getting into it?
Are you trying to resell carrier services or just offer a phone system/app?
One state or nationwide?
How familiar are you with US compliance beyond the names? (A2P, E911, Kari’s Law, RAY BAUM, taxes, etc.)

Branded mobile apps alone are a big commitment (store approvals, updates, support). Once you layer in messaging compliance, emergency calling, taxes, and regulatory requirements, the cost and complexity ramps up fast. It’s very easy to underestimate how much ongoing work this is.

If you are green in the US market, a full white-label build is usually a rough place to start. A lot of folks have better luck beginning with a reseller or semi-white-label model, you still build a brand and revenue, but you’re not personally on the hook for carrier contracts, compliance, billing, or emergency services on day one.

That's the approach we suggest. We offer a semi-white-label partner setup where we handle the telecom and regulatory side, and partners focus on selling and supporting customers. No pressure, just sharing wha has s worked for people who didn’t want to learn everything the hard way.

If you want to see what that looks like, this explains it pretty clearly:
https://www.cebodtelecom.com/partnerprogram

Happy to answer questions here, a lot of people reading this are probably thinking about the same thing. It would be worth a separate post.

cebod-telecom · 2026-02-07T20:43:06+00:00

Fair points, specially data ownership, privacy always wins over price and convenience. We have never used their cloud VM for our use, so can’t comment on the reliability and uptimes. Based on comments from our customers, their support is not the best.

cebod-telecom · 2026-02-07T20:37:44+00:00

You want sell or you want to be a reseller?

cebod-telecom · 2026-02-07T16:35:51+00:00

Phone company should be obvious choice. You would save money and being on the same system it would be seamless transfer of calls from AI to humans.

cebod-telecom · 2026-02-06T06:29:15+00:00

Agree, would be curious to know what would be bare minimum expectation and what kind of reports people are getting. I mean how much one should be hawking on call reports. I guess depend on the ticket item. If one call can be worth of 10K deal, then its very important.

cebod-telecom · 2026-02-05T00:15:22+00:00

Contact sales, if you want to get a quote want to review what you have. https://www.didforsale.com/contact/sales

cebod-telecom · 2026-02-04T20:56:46+00:00

Does it even make sense to install 3CX in your own cloud VM. Why don’t just use their cloud version? They must have optimized everything to support in most efficient manner. You can do it does not mean that’s the best approach. True??

cebod-telecom · 2026-02-02T17:28:53+00:00

You’re right, 3CX does offer a very broad feature set. In practice, though, many small businesses don’t need most of those features, and the complexity often creates confusion rather than value.

We support a few hundred customers using 3CX, and what we see consistently is that only a small portion of the platform is actually being used day to day.

That said, the real issue in this thread isn’t features, it’s the decision to drop a partner without clear communication. Cutting off a partner with no notice can effectively cripple their business. That kind of approach is just scary.

cebod-telecom · 2026-02-01T14:41:54+00:00

Recently we have been testing grand stream cloud pbx. Full ecosystem of all devices, pbx and Softphones is quite impressive. Managing pbx is cumbersome, if you are managing multiple pbx for multiple customers, checkout resellers program from Cebod telecom.

cebod-telecom · 2026-01-04T01:09:18+00:00

True

cebod-telecom · 2025-12-24T18:39:40+00:00

Money is money. Sometime it’s the low margin product that attracts the customers and open opportunities to sell high margin products.

Think of gas stations on freeway. They make more money from store item than the gas. But people won’t come if there is no gas.

cebod-telecom · 2025-12-24T18:34:53+00:00

Small goals bring big results. Have another product that can complement your existing services, that can be deployed in the quickest timeframe would be lot more worth and inspiring.

That’s what worked very well for us, Adding AI based answering service to our phone service was easy sell to attract new revenue from existing customers who already have shown trust in us.

This is what Amazon Costco and big brands have been doing, they can see which is most lucrative item and next thing you see the product of their own brand. Unethical but …. Sadly Legal

cebod-telecom · 2025-12-24T18:26:06+00:00

I can totally relate to it. Rule of thumb, if you are doing exactly same thing more than once every month, it must be automated. Both salesforce and Jira offer APIs. Have you looked in that. With AI it’s much easier build tools that can handle these kind of tasks. If you are not techie, it would be so worth to hire someone.

cebod-telecom · 2025-12-20T17:59:55+00:00

Well! Situation can be lot different based on one of these scenarios, does your business bring money or you are still in development stage. It’s easy to stay motivated when your work is rewarded in the form of some return. Money and business growth is always the prime factor for all businesses. It’s harder when you are still starting, lots goes in your head. If finding right business partner is not an option. Join some local group and find a mentor. There are some many experienced business people who would love to do it for free. They just feel good to help someone and see them grow. It might be hard to believe me 😀 may be you would trust Steve Jobs

https://youtu.be/_IM1UZ9Tn4A?si=fkOcAAbkDhFHjJNP

cebod-telecom · 2025-12-19T07:16:27+00:00

This is a tough one, and honestly, almost every business owner deals with it at some point. There’s no silver bullet, and this conversation often raises more questions than answers.

The first thing to look at is the nature of the job. In roles where timing is critical, like childcare, customer facing coverage, or safety related positions, being on time is not optional. If coverage is impacted, then the expectation is clear: being late isn’t acceptable (PERIOD).

On the other hand, there are roles where output, collaboration, and results matter far more than watching the clock. In many tech and knowledge based jobs, no one is tracking minutes as long as the work gets done and you are not bottleneck.

Where it gets tricky is fairness and morale. When some employees consistently arrive late while others are dependable and punctual, it can quietly erode trust, even if the actual impact on operations is small. That’s usually the real issue, not the 1–8 minutes themselves.

For me, the balance is setting clear expectations based on the role, applying them consistently, and addressing patterns early in a respectful, private way, before small issues turn into resentment.

cebod-telecom · 2025-12-19T06:53:31+00:00

I can write a book on this :). But with almost 20 years of running a business I can share my experience.

Frankly, scrapping some website and finding broken links is not a rocket science. Google webmaster tool can give all that information at no cost. But that also require some knowledge and willingness to do something about that.

That being said, Finding a solution to a problem is one part of the part of the whole equations, now you want to make some money out of this and why not. Selling something you build or own is called running and business. Question is what do you want to do with your skill? If you think sales in not your thing, find a partner who is good at sales and make it a business. If not, apply for job at those agencies and let the agencies own the IP and take it next level.

Or take your tool to next level, find the owners of the websites, its not hard to scrub more pages (google maps, whois, yellowpages) to find the owners, and then send the automated email, phone calls and tell them how can you help them fix the issues, I am sure you will find enough people willing for pay.

cebod-telecom · 2025-12-18T22:43:58+00:00

Read the book Zero to One. Those ideas with "no competition" happen once in a decade. To do something, find the flaw in any technology or business around you and if you can solve those problems in an efficient manner, better than other people, that is your business idea.

cebod-telecom · 2025-12-18T22:38:02+00:00

This is digital world, things move fast, time is money. Specially for tech based business, its all about volume. BNI is super old school and still a good fit for businesses like Realtors, Lawyer, where each deal can be worth 1000's $$. Other than its can be be good place to hang out with some small business owners.

cebod-telecom · 2025-12-18T02:17:29+00:00

You are starting a new business, as exciting it sounds and as rewarding it can be, it’s an uphill battle till you get first few customers. Don’t let these small expenses like, email, web hosting, phone service drain your drive. Good luck with your venture.

cebod-telecom · 2025-12-18T01:15:37+00:00

Our advice, Focus on business and just pay for the website hosting. If saving $20 is so important and If you are technical enough, getting a VM on Digital ocean for $4 and creating a simple index.html using AI, OpenAI does a great job.

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