Telecom For Dummies

In a perfect world, there are no problems. All toll-free numbers are released to the new carrier on time and are seamlessly transitioned onto your new circuits. In reality, this isn’t the case. Toll-free hot cuts fall into four basic scenarios; the scenarios range in type from the highly desirable to varying degrees of undesirable.

Before you can fully understand the complexities of the hot cut, you must know two important things.

• Which carrier has RespOrg ownership of the toll-free number: This carrier has the power to manipulate the toll-free number in the national SMS database, and can change the long-distance carrier that receives the calls for the toll-free number, as well as the location into which the toll-free number rings. After your old carrier releases RespOrg owner-ship of the number, the old carrier can no longer update the national SMS database to change where calls for the number are sent.

   Remember  This means that the old carrier hands off the power over your toll-free number while all of your traffic is still running over its network.

• What carrier is actually handling the traffic and completing the calls for the toll-free number: The traffic for your toll-free number continues to run over your old carrier’s network until either your new carrier updates the SMS database to send the calls to the new network, or your old carrier blocks your toll-free numbers on its network.

  For example, if your old carrier, AT&T, released your toll-free number to your new carrier, Qwest, Qwest has RespOrg control; all calls are still processed by AT&T until Qwest updates the national database to have the calls sent to the Qwest network.

 Tip  Your new carrier should have a handful of toll-free numbers that are used for testing the inbound routing on dedicated circuits. Have your new carrier set up one of these numbers exactly as if it were your toll-free number. That way, technicians can validate the routing and configuration before they close out the order and update the national SMS database. If, for example, your main toll-free number has ANI delivery and the four-digit DNIS of 8899, ask the carrier to replicate that setting so that some calls are sent to the circuit. If your phone system doesn’t respond to the calls, or if the calls simply fail, you can use the test toll-free number to work out the kinks. Your new carrier should update the SMS database only after all the issues on the test toll-free number are resolved. You should make more test calls to your numbers after the SMS database is updated, too. When your calls complete over the network and all the test calls are good, you are done.