October 2020 - VoiceOps - lists.voiceops.org

ANIs flagged as telemarketer/spammer/scammer
by abalashov＠evaristesys.com Nov. 14, 2021

Nov. 14, 2021

Hi, So, of course, it is a known problem in the legitimate side of the lead engagement call centre, survey, etc. business that ANIs get flagged as "telemarketer" pretty quickly and start showing up that way on people's phones. Your normative viewpoint on that may vary depending on what you think of lead gen calls, but regardless, a reasonable person would differentiate between: (1) Legitimate outbound dialing operations that are following up with leads who provided their phone number and agreed to be called (at least, as a matter of clicking "accept" on _something_), or for some other legitimate mass-dialing purpose, and who actually own the DID inventory from which they present local-market ANIs and can in fact be reached on those numbers; (2) Illegal spammers who use fake ANIs and call people who did not in any way consent to being called by them. I am trying to learn a bit more about how this is done and what a legitimate, above-board business can do about it. Ignoring the factor of third-party call-screening apps (which most people with a mobile don't use), where is this generally implemented? As I understand it, T-Mobile do it on the network level. I have T-Mobile myself, and probably 2/3rds of unfamiliar numbers, including quite legitimate ones, show up as "Scam Likely" ? I know that's come up on the list before. AT&T displays "Telemarketer"; do they do it that way too, or do they use a Google Android feature for that which they enable as part of their carrier defaults for carrier-issued phones? What about other carriers and Android? As far as I know, Apple don't do anything like this. Do people with iPhones just not receive this "service"? How does that work? Asking where the central, or the most influential authority lies and who provides it goes to the heart of the real question, which is: what can a legitimate business do if their number has been blacklisted this way? As I understand it, the maintainers of these lists, along with the criteria for getting on them, are elusive and inscrutable, and there's really no recourse and no appeals process. I furthermore understand that this has led to the widespread approach of rotating ANIs, but that's a losing battle; they get flagged too. I imagine it won't be long before the criteria for "Scam Likely" are just "number appears to call lots of numbers in this rate centre and otherwise hasn't been around very long". But this is all just conjecture on my part; I really don't know much about how my carrier, anyone's carrier, or some BigCo that's behind my mobile OS decides that a call is a "telemarketer" or "scam" call. If anyone can shed some light on how this really works and what, if anything can be done about it, I would be most appreciative. -- Alex Balashov | Principal | Evariste Systems LLC Tel: +1-706-510-6800 / +1-800-250-5920 (toll-free) Web: http://www.evaristesys.com/, http://www.csrpswitch.com/

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Connecting to Remote Tandems
by voiceops＠ics-il.net July 9, 2021

July 9, 2021

I'm evaluating methods of extending our footprint. I purposely left out company names. One of the companies we talked to was really only interested in getting us the inbound long distance calls, not the local ones. Well, they would, but the terms were vastly different. Given that I still need to build out to connect to the local tandem, what's the point in using a third party to connect to long distance? Are the terms for connecting to the local tandems different because the access tandem is simpler, whereas the local tandem could potentially involve connections to a bunch of other switches, once volume dictated I needed direct connections... and they don't want to deal with that? Are there third parties that don't have vastly different terms for local tandem services? Also, is it likely that I just don't understand what's going on? I went circles with the sales rep to make sure I understood what he was saying, but I could be wrong. ----- Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com Midwest Internet Exchange http://www.midwest-ix.com

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Intl toll free
by dovid＠telecurve.com Oct. 12, 2020

Oct. 12, 2020

Hi, Does anyone know of a route to global international toll free numbers ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toll-free_telephone_number) ? We have clients trying to call them and we have never been issued a rate by any carrier that we have ever worked with. TIA. Dovid

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Help Tracing International Call Termination
by jorge.guntanis＠ring.cr Oct. 9, 2020

Oct. 9, 2020

Hi everyone, We are a new VoIP CLEC in Costa Rica and we are having issues reaching our network from pretty much any provider in the U.S. I'm trying to get some evidence on where the communication is dying to show the ILEC here. Does someone here have access to a Tier 1 provider and could help me get an SS7 or IP trace from your network to +50646009999 ? I would greatly appreciate any help you can provide. Best, Jorge Guntanis jorge at ring.cr +506 83052920

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Update on STIR/SHAKEN guidelines
by marylou＠backuptelecom.com Oct. 9, 2020

Oct. 9, 2020

Just wanted to give everyone an update on the STIR/SHAKEN certification process because I know everyone has been confused about it......including me which is pretty sad because I've spent the last 20 years helping carriers turn up their networks and get access to direct numbering resources! I spoke with the FCC, STI-GA Director and NECA to figure out where the breakdown is for those telecom companies that currently don't have direct access to numbering resources (NPA-NXXs). Since some carriers have come to me with an IPES OCN and some have been denied, my first question was "Why are some Interconnected VOIP providers that don't have an FCC Numbering Authorization being assigned IPES OCNs when others are turned down?" I found out you can get an IPES OCN without the FCC Numbering Authorization if you submit an Interconnect Agreement with your current wholesale DID provider. However, the STI-GA won't approve you for a STIR/SHAKEN certificate if you don't have the FCC Numbering Authorization. Getting an FCC Numbering Authorization is where the breakdown occurs because even though IPES providers aren't required to order their own NPA-NXXs, the FCC requires the applicant to submit an Interconnection Agreement with a PSTN connection provider to get approved. After discussing this problem with both the FCC and STI-GA, I was told they are aware of the problem this requirement poses for carriers who don't have/want their own NXXs and are working to provide an alternative method for these companies to acquire their own STIR/SHAKEN certificate. Their goal is for every company to have their own STIR/SHAKEN certificate. At this point I'm not sure if the FCC will give an exemption to these carriers or assign a different type of certification, but either way it seems every company will have to submit paperwork to the FCC to qualify for their STIR/SHAKEN certificate. In the meantime, I found out that those companies who ONLY order DIDs from a wholesale DID provider CAN use their DID provider's token IF their wholesale DID provider agrees to let them. However, know that Wholesale DID providers can just as easily get their STIR/SHAKEN token revoked. Maybe even more easily because if any of their customers get caught certifying bad traffic they are held responsible for passing that traffic. Since moving your DIDs / traffic to a new wholesale provider is not a simple or inexpensive process and getting certified yourself if not a quick process, I would recommend that this be an interim solution and not a long term fix. My suggestion for those who don't need direct access to numbering resources is to go ahead and apply for the FCC numbering authorization with your existing wholesale DID provider agreement and just explain that you only need authorization to get a STIR/SHAKEN certificate. That way the FCC has all the information they need and can determine what to assign your company. At this time, the cut off date for getting your traffic certified is still June 2021. It takes anywhere from 2-6 months to get through the certification process (depending on what you already have in place), so it's not something that you should wait until the last minute to start. Hope this helps! MARY LOU CAREY BackUP Telecom Consulting Office: 615-791-9969 Cell: 615-796-1111

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Vitelity Inbound SMS Outage 1700 UTC, ongoing
by beckman＠angryox.com Oct. 8, 2020

Oct. 8, 2020

On 2020-10-08 at 1700 UTC an automated system detected that inbound SMS messages to Vitelity DIDs were failing. At 1721 UTC after a 3rd consecutive failure, the automated system opened a ticket with Vitelity regarding the outage. As of 1920 UTC, automated testing continues to show 100% failure rate for inbound SMS on Vitelity DIDs. Last incoming SMS on Vitelity was at 1655 UTC. I'll update as I know more. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Beckman Internet Guy beckman at angryox.com http://www.angryox.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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