September 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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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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Intermittent One way audio Bandwidth.com <--> ATT Mobile/Sprint Spectrum LP
by sean＠commandlink.com Sept. 30, 2020

Sept. 30, 2020

Anyone else having trouble with Bandwidth.com today? Las Vegas region?

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Issues calling Switzerland
by dovid＠telecurve.com Sept. 24, 2020

Sept. 24, 2020

Hi, Has anyone had any uptick in complaints calling to Switzerland? Yesterday morning (about 06:00 eastern time) we started getting a lot of complaints. Callers hear a message "The person you are calling does not want to be disturned". All of our carriers seem to be randomly having this issue (BT, Verizon, BICS etc.). TIA. Dovid

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Optimum online losing DIDs
by orenyny＠gmail.com Sept. 22, 2020

Sept. 22, 2020

Hi, Does anyone know about a major issue with Optimum losing their customers' DIDs? I heard from 2 people living in two different cities (and states) with Optimum Online service that their own DID is not working while it looks like Optimum has assigned to them DIDs belonging to someone else. Thanks! Oren

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Porting Cooling Off Period
by voiceops＠ics-il.net Sept. 22, 2020

Sept. 22, 2020

Is it normal for carriers to have a cooling off period where they don't accept further port requests for an account until x days after the last porting activity completes? ----- Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com Midwest Internet Exchange http://www.midwest-ix.com

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Got my first inbound call with a STIR/SHAKEN checkmark
by compuwizz＠gmail.com Sept. 10, 2020

Sept. 10, 2020

I got my first validated call today from a Sprint subscriber to a T-Mobile subscriber. Presents with a tiny check mark in the Missed Calls tab on my iPhone. Unfortunately the originating party misdialed my number. Tested later on T-Mobile to T-Mobile and got a checkmark in the missed calls list but not on the screen during the call notification. Maybe due to the number being in the Contacts list already. ~Jared

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More Question about routing
by David.Zilk＠cdk.com Sept. 9, 2020

Sept. 9, 2020

Having come into telephony from the data networking end, rather than from a PSTN telephony background, where would one find a good basic to detailed tutorial of how routing of VoIP calls into the PSTN and vice versa works? I have so far only been involved with routing from our SIP platform to and from wholesale service providers, and have not yet had to manage our own numbers and peering. With STIR/SHAKEN we may need to get into that, and I need to get up to speed. Thanks, David From: VoiceOps [mailto:voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org] On Behalf Of Richard Jobson Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2020 12:44 PM To: Glen Gerhard <glen at cognexus.net>; voiceops at voiceops.org Subject: Re: [VoiceOps] Question about SS7 routing Hi Ross So in your original email you were wondering about the role of MTP, the layer 3 protocol. This keeps tabs on the point codes. If you are troubleshooting down to the SS7 messages (MSU?s), SLTM?s & SLTA?s tell you what point codes those links are reaching. The Global Title Translation uses the SCCP/SS7 protocol when connecting to IXC. Local Number Portability uses AIN/TCAP to dip the database to determine the LRN. But many SS7 operations just troubleshoot this by looking at the ISUP protocol where the original calling Party number (CGN) appears in the Generic Address Part GAP and the LRN in the called party number (CDN) field. Cheers Richard From: VoiceOps <voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org<mailto:voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org>> on behalf of Glen Gerhard <glen at cognexus.net<mailto:glen at cognexus.net>> Date: Tuesday, September 8, 2020 at 11:47 AM To: <voiceops at voiceops.org<mailto:voiceops at voiceops.org>> Subject: Re: [VoiceOps] Question about SS7 routing Hi Ross, Unless you have an SS7 trunk to an ILEC you don't need to worry much about the Point Code. For SIP traffic you just dip the call and route on the LRN. The Point Code itself is a special format that is assigned to you when you set up your SS7 capable switch. Unless you have one of them you never need to worry about it. ======== ANSI Point Codes ANSI point codes are made up of three groups of digits called the network indicator (NI), network cluster (NC), and network cluster member (NCM). The values for ANSI point codes depends on the value of the pctype parameter of the chg-sid command, either ansi or other. If the pctype parameter is set to ansi, the ANSI rules for the ANSI point code are used to define the point code. The range of values for an ANSI point code with the pctype=ansi parameter are: NI ? 001-255 NC ? 001-255 (if ni = 001-005) or 000-255, * (if ni = 006-255) NCM ? 000-255, * The pctype=other parameter specifies that the ANSI point codes do not meet ANSI standards. The range of values for ANSI point codes with the pctype=other parameter are: NI ? 000-255 NC ? 000-255, * NCM ? 000-255, * The asterisk (*) point code value indicates a single cluster address for a cluster point code (for example, 20-2-*) or a network routing destination (21-*-*). for more information on cluster point codes, see the Cluster Routing and Management Diversity (CRMD) section. For more information on network routing point codes, see the Network Routing section. A double asterisk (**) and triple asterisk (***) can also be used for the NC and NCM fields of the ANSI point code, but for only the rtrv-dstn, rept-stat-dstn, rtrv-rte, and rept-stat-rte commands. A double asterisk in the NCM field of a point code (for example, 20-2-**) produces a summary report that shows all point code destinations or routes residing in the given cluster (20-2). This does not include the cluster point code, if the cluster point code (for example, 20-2-*) is provisioned. The following examples (rtrv-dstn and rtrv-rte) are reports generated using two asterisks in the NCM field of a point code. ======= ~Glen On 9/3/2020 10:55 AM, Mary Lou Carey wrote: I'll try to make this as short and sweet as possible even though it's pretty complicated. Point Codes are the 10 digit addresses for a particular switch and LRNs are the 10 digit addresses for a particular connection point that switch is associated with. In the PSTN world, all connections are dedicated and implemented by LATA / Tandem area for Local / IntraLATA traffic. When you get your first NPA-NXX for a LATA / tandem area, you enter it in the LERG (National Routing Database) and populate the tandems (Local, IntraLATA and FGD) that you are connecting to. Then you assign a 10 digit phone number from your NXX block to be your LRN. You add that to both the LERG and NPAC (National Porting Database). Once you've published all your switch information in the LERG and NPAC, then you establish your ISUP trunks with each ILEC you're interconnecting with. You can set up additional trunks with other carriers if you want a cheaper option for routing traffic, but the minimum required is the ILEC. Each carrier's switch will have a distinct point code associated with it so you'll order ISUP trunks to each switch (point code route) you need to be connected to. You'll also associate the distinct LRN for that LATA / carrier tandem area with that trunk group. Usually there's multiple trunk groups per LATA / tandem area so you'll program your routing tables with the NPA-NXXs each trunk group serves. That way when a customer originates a call, your switch can do the LNP dip to find the LRN and send it over the route that the NPA-NXX of the LRN is associated with. Routing tables can get complicated depending on how many carriers you're connected to. Companies that operate in more than one ILEC area or LATA usually purchase Least Cost Routing software so they can send their originating traffic out over the cheapest route. IXC traffic is routed a little differently because it is routed by CIC (4 digit code that identifies the IXC) rather than by NPA-NXX. They connect to all the ILEC carriers just like the CLECs do, but they populate their routing information in the SMS database instead of the NPAC database. Once the call is dipped, the traffic is delivered in pretty much the same way.....by dedicated trunk group / tandem area. MARY LOU CAREY BackUP Telecom Consulting Office: 615-791-9969 Cell: 615-796-1111 On 2020-09-02 04:46 PM, Ross Tajvar wrote: Hi all, I'm trying to understand how routing works in SS7-land. I am familiar with portability, and I know (at least in the US) the first step in routing a call is doing an LNP dip to get the LRN. However, it looks like addresses in MTP3 are "point codes" (PCs) which are assigned to switches. Calls are set up with ISDN-UP, which is transported via MTP3. So in order for a call to be set up, the destination switch's PC must be known. How is the destination PC determined from the destination LRN? Thanks, Ross _______________________________________________ VoiceOps mailing list VoiceOps at voiceops.org<mailto:VoiceOps at voiceops.org> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/voiceops<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__puck.nether.net_mailma…> _______________________________________________ VoiceOps mailing list VoiceOps at voiceops.org<mailto:VoiceOps at voiceops.org> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/voiceops<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__puck.nether.net_mailma…> -- Glen Gerhard glen at cognexus.net<mailto:glen at cognexus.net> 858.324.4536 Cognexus, LLC 7891 Avenida Kirjah San Diego, CA 92037 _______________________________________________ VoiceOps mailing list VoiceOps at voiceops.org<mailto:VoiceOps at voiceops.org> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/voiceops ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. 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Outsourcing STIR/SHAKEN Setup
by dovid＠telecurve.com Sept. 9, 2020

Sept. 9, 2020

Hi, Does anyone have a recommendation for a company that get us everything needed for STIR/SHAKEN setup? By setup I mean helping us file to get a cert etc. From the small research I have done there is a lot of fragmented information out there and it would be easier for us to pay someone else to do this then invest our own time to take care of this. TIA. Regards, Dovid

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