Solved Telephony vs Bandwidth
A wholesale carrier selling into large enterprises and platforms, next to a Tier 2 provider that publishes its rate card and will take your traffic without a committed volume conversation. The split is mostly about scale and about how much of the buying process you want.
Quick verdict
Choose a large wholesale carrier when you are buying at enterprise scale, when publicly documented depth in emergency and regulatory services is central to your product, or when your network team wants direct carrier relationships. Choose Solved Telephony when you want a published rate card instead of a negotiation, no annual commitment, and routing, PBX, recording, and a managed AI voice agent on the same account as the minutes.
Everything below about Bandwidth is drawn from their publicly published product materials and is described at the level of capability categories rather than specific plans.
Choose Bandwidth
You are an enterprise buyer with procurement, committed volume, and a network team that wants carrier relationships of its own.
Choose Solved Telephony
You want to start this month at a published rate, with route control and products above the connectivity layer included.
Capability by capability
Both sides of this table are carriers. The differences are in the buying process, the commitment floor, and what is sold above the connectivity layer.
| Capability | Solved TelephonyTier 2 networkpublished rate card | BandwidthWholesale carrierpublicly documented |
|---|---|---|
| Owns network rather than reselling | Direct carrier interconnectsOur routing tables and our carrier agreements for the traffic we carry. | Publicly documented owned network and carrier operations |
| How you get a price | Published rate card, no negotiation requiredVolume and platform pricing is quoted on top of the published card. | Publicly documented enterprise sales process; pricing is theirs to state |
| Commitment floor | No seat license, no annual commitmentBurstable virtual PRI from $0.9675 per day for short campaigns. | Publicly documented contracts oriented to enterprise and platform scale |
| Emergency services and regulatory depth | Enhanced 911 at $1.50 per DID per month, plus $1.50 one time | Publicly documented depth in emergency services and regulatory productsA genuine strength of the wholesale carrier category. |
| Enterprise scale and procurement fit | Built for platforms and mid-market, not for a nine-month procurement cycle | Publicly documented enterprise programs and large-platform relationships |
| Number inventory and porting | Local from $1.10 per month, staffed portingCustomer service record pre-check, FOC scheduling, a named contact through cutover. | Publicly documented number inventory and porting at large scale |
| Route control on your own traffic | Per customer and per campaignFailing paths withdrawn from rotation automatically. | Publicly documented routing and failover options at the account level |
| Lead routing primitives | Bidding, caps, dayparting, publishers, payoutsThe routing engine under AgentTech Dialer, sold on its own. | Not something we find in their publicly documented product set |
| Managed AI voice agent as a product | $0.10 per minute of talk timeStandard PSTN rates apply when you use connectivity without the agent. | Publicly documented voice AI connectivity and partner integrations rather than a managed per-minute agent |
| Hosted PBX on the same account | 70+ calling features, no seat licenseTeams Direct Routing voice from $4.50 per license per month. | Publicly documented wholesale voice and connectivity for UCaaS providers rather than an end-user PBX |
| Recording, transcription, and redaction | Network services at published ratesRecording $0.0025/min, transcription $0.05/min, redaction and encryption at no charge. | Publicly documented media and recording capabilities; packaging is theirs to describe |
| Messaging and registration | $0.0075 per SMS each way, registration handledBrand and campaign registration, use-case vetting, toll-free verification. | Publicly documented messaging platform with 10DLC and toll-free support |
| White-label under your brand | Normal, at any sizeEnd users never see our name; CDRs split by your tenant identifiers. | Publicly documented wholesale model; white-label terms vary by agreement |
| Support model when a route degrades | Shared channel with the route engineersSIP and media captures on request, route changes without a maintenance window. | Publicly documented support and account management structures |
| Time from first conversation to live traffic | Days, in the normal caseLonger if numbers are porting, because porting sets the clock. | Publicly documented onboarding for enterprise and platform customers |
Comparisons describe the common shape of each category rather than any one product, and are based on publicly published materials.
Which one is right for you?
This one usually sorts itself out by scale and by how much buying process you want to run.
Choose Bandwidth if
- You are buying at enterprise scale and a committed-volume agreement is normal for you
- Emergency services and regulatory depth are central to your product rather than a checkbox
- Your own network team wants direct relationships with more than one carrier
- You are a UCaaS or CCaaS provider buying pure connectivity and building everything above it
- Procurement, security review, and a multi-year contract are part of how you buy anything
Choose Solved Telephony if
- You want a published rate you can model today rather than a quote in three weeks
- No annual commitment and no seat license matters to you at your current size
- You want routing, PBX, recording, and a managed voice agent above the connectivity layer
- You need channels for a campaign next week, not a trunk order for next year
- You want white-label at your current scale rather than at a scale you have not reached
On outgrowing us
There is a scale at which a platform stops buying voice from one provider and starts holding its own carrier relationships, usually several at once. That is a real transition and it is not a failure of the provider you were using. If you get there, the things worth having on the way out are per-leg call detail records with the applied rate on them, number inventory you control, and porting that does not fight you. We build all three that way on purpose.
Until then, the argument for buying one layer down is that somebody else runs the carrier relationships, the route quality monitoring, the attestation, and the traceback responses, and you get a published rate for it. That is the trade. It stops being a good trade when your volume makes the margin larger than the cost of an internal team, and we would rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise.
FAQs
Solved Telephony vs Bandwidth: common questions
Are you competing with a wholesale carrier or buying from one?
Competing, in the segment where a platform needs US voice, numbers, and messaging with route control. We hold our own carrier interconnects and routing tables for the traffic we carry. Above a certain scale, very large platforms often go direct to several carriers at once, and that is a reasonable thing to do.
Where is a large wholesale carrier the better choice?
At enterprise scale with a procurement process to match, when you need publicly documented depth in regulatory and emergency services, when you are negotiating committed volume across several years, or when your own network team wants direct relationships with multiple carriers rather than one provider in front of them.
What does the commitment look like with you?
Usage-based from a published rate card, with no seat licenses and no annual commitment. Voice from $0.005 per minute outbound and $0.009 inbound, local DIDs from $1.10 a month, SMS at $0.0075 each way, inbound SIP trunks at $23.00 per channel per month, and a burstable virtual PRI from $0.9675 a day when a campaign needs channels for a week rather than a year.
Do you handle E911, CNAM, and number porting?
Yes. Enhanced 911 at $1.50 per DID per month plus $1.50 one time, CNAM dip at $0.008 per inbound call, directory listing at $10 one time, and caller ID name updates at no charge. Porting is staffed rather than automated: we read the customer service record before submitting, schedule the FOC around your call volume, and give you a named contact through cutover.
Can I keep my existing PBX or softswitch?
Yes. Point it at us with registration or IP authentication, whichever your system prefers, with per-trunk credentials and access control lists. Traffic that stays on our network is free in both directions.
Something else? Contact us
Start at a published rate, not a quote.
Bring your destinations and your concurrency numbers. If the answer is that you should be buying at enterprise wholesale instead, we will say so.