Ordering Dedicated Toll-Free Numbers

Dedicated toll-free numbers are inherently more complex because the toll-free number isn’t simply being pointed to a phone number and sent off to your local carrier to complete. The number is instead being designed to follow a predetermined route within your carrier, terminating at your specific dedicated trunk group. That’s what the dedicated in dedicated
toll-free service means.

Dedicated toll-free ordering timelines

There aren’t any industry standards for activating dedicated toll-free numbers, and the time frames vary greatly from carrier to carrier. One carrier might activate a new dedicated toll-free number in 24 hours, whereas another carrier takes 10 to 15 business days to do the same thing.

 Tip  You need to call your carrier to find out its standard timeline so that you can plan accordingly. Be prepared to see longer timelines for toll-free numbers that must be migrated from another carrier or for change orders.

 Tip  When you have an order for more than 100 toll-free numbers, you can usually go through a special bulk-load or bulk-ordering process that shortens the overall activation time. Instead of having to schedule time for someone to design all the toll-free numbers individually, bulk loading can cut the time in half. Your carrier might have a minimum quantity of toll-free numbers before it allows bulk-load activation; check into this option if this factor might affect your decision about how many lines to order.

Giving general information about the order

Before you can add any enhanced features to your dedicated toll-free numbers, you need to fill out a standard order form for dedicated toll-free service. If you are unfamiliar with the standard features on dedicated toll-free numbers, check out Chapter 5, where I cover them in depth. The order form for a basic dedicated toll-free number asks you for accounting information, such as your company’s name, account number, and contact information, as well as the following technical info:

• The toll-free number: You gotta know that much!

• The required coverage area: Specify whether you want to receive calls from mainland U.S. states, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or any combination of these geographic locations.

• The dedicated trunk group to receive the toll-free number: Every carrier has its own requirements and terminology for toll-free numbers. It’s more common for carriers to require you to list the trunk group that they should terminate into than to list the circuit ID. Trunk groups are configured to designate how your carrier sends calls, and a single trunk group may include multiple circuits or only a few channels on a single T-1 circuit. Check out Chapter 8 for more information about trunk groups.

Ordering DNIS digits

Most people in telecom use the last four digits of the toll-free number as their DNIS digits. If you have several vanity numbers whereby the last four digits of the toll-free are the same and you need to differentiate where the numbers are directed by your phone system, you can’t use this method. Instead, you can assign random DNIS digits to your toll-free numbers.

A matter of routing

 Tip  The reason for this huge disparity in time — from 1 to 15 days — is all because of how your carrier builds your toll-free numbers. Most carriers that take more than 24 hours to activate a dedicated toll-free number build individual route paths for them. This is a manual process whereby every toll-free number is keyed in by a technician.

If your carrier builds a single routing pattern for all toll-free numbers on your circuit, it can probably turn up new numbers in 24 hours. In this case, all the technicians have to do is link the new toll-free number to that generic route. Check with your carrier to determine which procedure it uses, because each option has limitations.

Waiting 10 to 15 days is certainly not desirable. However, if your carrier builds a boiler-plate route for your company, there might be DNIS limitations that prevent you from using the last four digits of your toll-free number as the DNIS on your phone system. This problem is common when the last four digits of the toll-free number start with a 0, because some phone systems can’t process a DNIS with a leading 0. Because you now have a toll-free number that doesn’t adhere to the profile used for the rest of your toll-free numbers, you need to speak to your long-distance carrier to find a workaround. If you have questions about DNIS, check out Chapter 5.

 Tip  If you go for a unique DNIS setup, keep a log that explains which DNIS digits correspond to which toll-free numbers. It’s easy to become confused if you have to troubleshoot your phone system, and a simple spreadsheet can be a lifesaver.

 Tip  Configurations for DNIS can vary within your phone system, so you might end up searching for the correct DNIS option. If you have a long-distance T-1 with DNIS, and are having a difficult time finding the correct configuration in your phone system, try the option for Local DID; these settings are generally compatible.

Setting up ANI delivery

If you need to display the phone number of the person originating calls to your toll-free number, you need to order ANI delivery. Some phone systems can be configured to capture this information and list where your calls are coming from on a specific toll-free number. If you launch a marketing campaign in Chicago, you can get an idea of how effective it is by determining how many people in Chicago called in on your toll-free numbers.

 Remember  Your carrier might not be able to provide ANI delivery if you also need a ten-digit DNIS. Many carrier switches have limitations on the number of digits they can input in the DNIS stream. If the switch is restricted to 20 digits and you need ANI delivery, your DNIS can’t be longer than 7 digits, because the rest of the available slots are taken up with asterisks (*). The information is sent in the DNIS stream in this scenario as:

*(10 Digit) ANI*(7 Digit)DNIS* 

The only time you need all ten digits for DNIS is if you literally have thousands of toll-free numbers — say you own 1-800-FLOWERS, 1-888-FLOWERS, and
1-877-FLOWERS. Because the last seven digits of the toll-free number are all the same, the easiest thing is to simply use a ten-digit DNIS. A ten-digit DNIS prevents you from maintaining a spreadsheet of all your toll-free numbers and the unique DNIS digits for each of them.

Setting up ANI Infodigits

If your business plan requires you to identify the type of phone originating calls to your toll-free number, you must use ANI Infodigits (ANI II). ANI II is generally used for companies that provide calling-card service and must account for surcharges applied to calls made from pay phones (infodigits 27, 70, and sometimes 07).

What DNIS actually looks like

 Technical Stuff  Dialed Number Identification Service, or DNIS, involves a challenge and a password between your long-distance carrier and your PBX. The whole process is accomplished by the use of dial tone and DTMF digits (the standard tones you hear when you press the button on a touch-tone phone). Your phone system is alerted to the fact that a toll-free call is coming in and connects the call. Your phone system then sends a signal back to your carrier, which, for all intents and purposes, sounds just like a dial tone. Your long-distance carrier receives the dial tone and understands that you want the carrier to send the DNIS information, at which time the carrier sends you this:

**DNIS* 

Each asterisk is actually the same touch-tone sound that you hear when you press the * key on your phone. The DNIS is made up of the two to ten digits you ordered to be associated with that specific toll-free number. This configuration isn’t an absolute in telecom, because all carriers are different, but it’s the most common you will encounter.

ANI Infodigits aren’t available on all circuit protocols. Unless you are using ISDN or Feature Group D, you cannot use ANI Infodigits. Please review the sections in Chapter 8 that cover protocols.

Overflow routing to another dedicated circuit

Dedicated toll-free order forms allow you to list the primary trunk group that receives the traffic for the toll-free number, as well as a secondary trunk group. If you want the calls to roll over to more than one more trunk group, you can squeeze all the trunk groups in sequence onto the form, or simply list the overflow routing sequence in the notes section at the bottom of the form.

Overflow routing to a switched phone line

It’s very common to set up overflow routing to a switched phone line, and this configuration is always the final route (the end of the line, so to speak) for a dedicated toll-free number. After a dedicated toll-free number overflows to a switched phone line, the network doesn’t route the call any farther. The only way to give the toll-free number more life when it hits a switched phone line is to point it to the first number in a multiple-line hunt group. See the section “Ordering Switched Toll-Free Numbers,” earlier in this chapter, for more on hunt groups.

Understanding trunk group level features

DNIS, ANI, and ANI Infodigits are generally built at a trunk group level. If you set up your trunk group to use the last four digits of your toll-free numbers for DNIS, you can’t request to have a toll-free number pointed there that uses a seven-digit DNIS. This rule is the same if your trunk group is set up to deliver ANI or ANI Infodigits, but for a select group of the toll-free numbers, you don’t need the additional information you get from ANI or ANI Infodigits. You must either change the toll-free numbers so that they match the trunk group or build a new trunk group for these special cases.

Identifying new or migrated numbers

Carriers have different requirements for orders that are new toll-free numbers that are reserved, as opposed to toll-free numbers that are being migrated from another carrier. Carriers can process new toll-free numbers at any time without any concern. If the new toll-free numbers are activated and begin ringing into your phone system at 2:00 a.m., there is no real downside.

On the other hand, if you’re moving all your toll-free numbers from another carrier to a dedicated circuit that isn’t yet installed, pointing the numbers to the new (inactive) trunk group will effectively bring down your phone numbers and have them ring to busy signals until you fix the problem.