In basic terms, a high-cost surcharge is a charge found on the account when an excessive number of calls are going to a destination that costs more that the standard rate.
In an effort to continue offering blended rate, we automate the surcharges which are outlined in the Flowroute service agreement. Flowroute's costs to terminate calls to high-cost regions significantly exceeds our blended per-minute rate, in some instances in excess of 900%. As a courtesy, these surcharges are applied only to the higher cost traffic, which exceeds 20% of your total calls.
For example, if your traffic profile was 70/30, the surcharges would be applied to the excess of 10% of the high-cost calls rather than the full 30%.
For additional information as to how these surcharges are computed, the following section from the Service Agreement presented and agreed to during the sign-up process defines high-cost regions:
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1.6 U.S. “High-cost” Region means all NPA-NXX’s that belong to OCNs less than the number nine-thousand (9000) and OCNs listed in Exhibit A (http://manage.flowroute.com/legal/us-hc-ocns/), but excluding Low-Cost Wireless OCNs listed in Exhibit B (http://manage.flowroute.com/legal/us-lcw-ocns/), as determined by the Location Routing Number (“LRN”). For the purpose of this definition, the Local Exchange Routing Guide (“LERG”) database, as updated, will be the official source of NPA-NXX numbers, LRNs, OCNs, and Low-Cost Wireless OCNs for the United States.
The following section from the Service Agreement defines how these surcharges are computed:
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4.5 If more than twenty percent (20%) of your total U.S. domestic termination traffic in any twenty-four (24) hour period is terminated in U.S. “High-Cost” Regions, an additional US$ 0.09 per minute charge shall be added to your traffic in excess of such twenty percent (20%) threshold. Any such additional charges as described in the previous sentence shall be billed as an adjustment to your account. This 80/20 rule excludes calls terminating to Alaska and Hawaii.
If you are not able to maintain the 80/20 ratio, we can review your CDRs and offer you an alternate rate, which would account for your current high-cost dialing, such that your account is not repeatedly surcharged for your existing traffic profile.
By adjusting your traffic profile you should be able to avoid the surcharge; or, let us know if you would prefer an alternate higher rate.