Call termination is a telecommunications term and generally refers to an outbound call or to the party receiving a call (the “call terminator”).
Call termination is the opposite side of call origination, and includes the activities related to the call set-up, switching and connection. It is important for a call center to understand the meaning of the term call origination as telecom carrier rate sheets often are priced based on call origination and termination. The use of these terms can get confusing in rate sheets, so let’s dig in a bit.
The “terminating party” of a call is the party dialed— the party that received the call.
Telecom rate sheets generally refer to outbound calls as “termination” services. So, when a call center is shopping for telco pricing for making outbound calls (calls going out of the call center), look for the pricing that refers to “make calls” or “place calls” or “termination services”.
For example, here’s what Twilio charges for call termination services (note – don't rely on these prices! they may have changed from the time of this post).
| ROUTE | PRICE |
|---|---|
| UNITED STATES – 48 STATES (ZONE 1) | $ 0.0050/ min |
| UNITED STATES – ALASKA (ZONE 3) | $ 0.0300/ min |
| UNITED STATES – HAWAII (ZONE 2) | $ 0.0090/ min |
| UNITED STATES – HIGH COST (ZONE 4) | $ 0.0400/ min |
| UNITED STATES – TOLL FREE | $ 0.0010/ min |
Call centers often have multiple carriers for redundancy and for different pricing for different call routes, allowing the use of least cost routing to get the best price per outbound call.