Resolving Common Dedicated Toll-Free Migration Scenarios


It’s much easier to understand the possible pitfalls of dedicated toll-free numbers if you consider a real-world scenario. For this example, your fictitious company’s current long-distance carrier is AT&T, but it’s moving all of its services to Qwest.

You have

  • Completed the dedicated order forms with Qwest for the T-1s that will replace your AT&T circuits

  • Filled out the RespOrg LOAs to move all of your toll-free numbers

  • Noted that all of your toll-free numbers must be activated in conjunction with your new Qwest circuits

  • Requested a hot cut for activation

 Remember  In the following sections, feel free to replace the main characters AT&T and Qwest your actual carriers.

With this as the starting point for your RespOrg one-act play, the following sections reveal the possible issues that could arise, as well as offer the resolutions that will make things right again. (You can substitute any two carriers for this example, because the scenarios could just as easily happen between any two other carriers.)

Activation without a hot cut

In this scenario, your toll-free numbers are released from AT&T to Qwest without a problem, and Qwest now has RespOrg and activates the toll-free numbers to your circuits immediately. Now your circuits won’t be active for another two to three weeks. All calls to your toll-free numbers fail to a fast busy signal.

Now you need to fix the problem, but you don’t know who to call. Don’t panic; you can resolve this problem in short order. Your first call is into the person at Qwest handling the order for your toll-free numbers to confirm the following details:

  • Who has the RespOrg

  • Which carrier is receiving the traffic

When you confirm it’s Qwest in both cases, you now know that Qwest jumped the gun and is routing calls to your dedicated circuits that are not yet active. AT&T can’t do anything to help you because it doesn’t have RespOrg control of your toll-free numbers anymore, and you need to bring your toll-free number back to life.

You have two options to resolve the situation and get you back up and running until your circuit is activated.

Solution 1: Talk to whoever’s in charge of toll-free routing or SMS database updates

Have your order person at Qwest connect you to a manager or the most skilled person in the RespOrg or toll-free routing department. Don’t be concerned about what titles; as long as the person you talk to is responsible for updating the SMS database, you are talking to the right person. Tell this person that you need to send the traffic back to the previous route. Because you know your old carrier is AT&T, you can have Qwest update the SMS database to route all of your calls over the AT&T network. This is the preferred solution and generally the most difficult to accomplish, because only a handful of people in the toll-free department at any carrier know how to make this change to the national SMS database.

After the national database is updated, your toll-free calls for that number go back to being handled by AT&T. Calls are routed to AT&T networks until you have Qwest update the numbers to point back to Qwest when you finally complete the testing and activation of your dedicated circuit.

 Remember  Whoever holds the RespOrg control of a toll-free number can send the calls over any long distance carrier in North America, Canada, and parts of the Caribbean. If your old carrier (in this case AT&T) still has an active route built for the number, your current carrier can update the database to send calls to the old carrier, and your calls will complete just fine.

 Warning!  Be sure to tell the RespOrg person to send the traffic back to the previous route and not to release the RespOrg to the previous carrier. These are two completely different things. As long as Qwest simply updates the national SMS database so that your toll-free calls ride AT&T’s network, Qwest retains the ability to point your calls to the Qwest network when the time comes. If Qwest misunderstands you and thinks you want to give the RespOrg control back to AT&T, everyone will become very frustrated, because you need an immediate fix, and the process of switch RespOrg ownership of a toll-free number takes seven to ten days.

It seems logical that Qwest could simply give the RespOrg back to AT&T and avoid the seven-to-ten-day process. That is a bad idea, because without a RespOrg LOA telling Qwest who to give the RespOrg to, Qwest might make a mistake.

In order to make such a move work, you would have to call AT&T, have a rep fax you a RespOrg LOA form, fill it out, fax it back to AT&T, and have AT&T send the form to Qwest again. All of this takes time that you don’t have, and even if you could do it, you don’t want to. The solution I’ve offered here is a temporary fix to make sure that you get calls (through AT&T) while the dedicated circuits (with Qwest) are being prepared. Therefore, if you were to start all over again with the LOA, as soon as the number is sent back to AT&T, your dedicated circuits will probably be ready with Qwest, and you will have to start the whole process over again to pull the numbers back to Qwest.

Solution 2: Call customer service to report trouble with the toll-free number

After you get off the phone with the person at Qwest who handles your orders, call the Qwest customer service department to report trouble with the toll-free number. When you reach a Qwest customer service rep, tell him or her what happened and that you need to have an emergency alt route (telecom code for emergency alternative route) to a switched number for your dedicated toll-free number. The rep will ask you where you want the toll-free number pointed, so you need to have a phone number in mind that you can dedicate to temporarily receiving the toll-free calls. The phone number you give can be any regular switched phone line in your office, as long as it’s a working number that someone will actually answer.

 Tip  If you are in transition and you don’t have any active phone lines in your office, ask your carrier to send the calls to your cellphone until you have a better option. No, I’m not kidding. This isn’t the best solution, but it will allow you to continue receiving calls until your dedicated circuit is running. After your T-1s are active, call the Qwest customer care department to have the calls sent back to the dedicated circuit. The installation technicians might not be able to tell that your toll-free numbers are on an emergency alt route, so you need to inform them.

Cancellation before activation

In this scenario, your toll-free numbers are released by AT&T to Qwest without any problem, and Qwest remembers that you need a hot cut. In light of your request, Qwest holds the RespOrg for the numbers but doesn’t cut over the traffic, and for a while everything looks wonderful.

Then something happens. Possibly the installation of your Qwest circuits is delayed, or maybe your relationship with AT&T goes sour. Whatever the situation, AT&T blocks your toll-free numbers on their network before your circuit with Qwest is active and can receive the calls. This scenario is common when there’s an issue with the new circuits that pushes out the schedule for activation on the Qwest network.

Many carriers have an automated system to clean up unwanted toll-free numbers from their network. Basically, a computer program polls every toll-free number passing traffic on the network. If the toll-free number has a different RespOrg (one that doesn’t belong to the carrier or any of its subsidiaries — a situation that occurs if you’ve transferred the number to a new carrier), the automated system blocks the toll-free number from passing traffic over its network. All the calls will either fail to a fast busy signal or will be sent to a recording that says something like, “This number has been disconnected. Please contact our customer care department if you have any questions.”

If this happens to your toll-free numbers, your first call is to the person at Qwest who handles your toll-free orders. Ask

  • Who has the RespOrg control of your toll-free numbers?

  • Which network is receiving the traffic at this time?

When the Qwest rep tells you Qwest owns the RespOrg, but the traffic is still running over AT&T, you know why the calls are failing. Because the national database is sending all of your calls to the AT&T network and nobody else has made any changes, the problem lies with AT&T.

You have two solution options.

Solution 1: Ask for the blocks to be removed

Ask your AT&T account rep, in your nicest voice, to remove the blocks on your toll-free numbers. If the rep is in a good mood, he or she will realize that opening your toll-free numbers will get AT&T some more revenue before you leave, as well as garnering good will.

It might take AT&T anywhere from 15 minutes to a few hours, but as long as the carrier is working with you (and not against you), the numbers will be active again soon. Chat with the rep about the progress of your new circuits, especially if you have hit substantial delays. This is your preferred solution to the problem because you maintain the status quo.

 Tip  If it’s going to take 30 or 60 more days before you can activate your toll-free numbers on your new circuits, you might choose to change the RespOrg ownership of the numbers back to your old carrier in the meantime. Say AT&T has an automated system that takes down your numbers every 30 days; if you have to go through a fire drill to have them reactivated once a month, it’s better to simply send the numbers back and start the process over again after your new circuits are ready to test.

Solution 2: Call the toll-free order people at Qwest to have them activate your toll-free numbers.

If AT&T blocked your toll-free numbers because your relationship turned sour, you can’t likely rely on AT&T to bail you out of this problem. The only lines the Qwest reps can use to send your calls is your dedicated circuit (which hasn’t been installed yet), but as long as they can update the national SMS database to point all calls to the Qwest network, you are halfway home.

 Tip  You might need to escalate the issue if you feel it isn’t being handled with enough urgency, but in a pinch, every carrier will do what it takes to restore your service.

After the national SMS database is updated, you simply have to call the Qwest customer care department to perform an emergency alt route to a switched phone number. About 15 minutes after you give Qwest the number to a switched phone in your office, you should start to receive toll-free calls to the switched line. I do realize that your toll-free number might have had 24 or 48 phone lines to ring into before, but you will be able to get by until your circuit is installed and you can swing the numbers onto your new dedicated circuits. If you have four or five lines that roll over to each other, you can send your toll-free number to the first number in the group, and at least not be limited to receiving one call before people get a busy signal.

Negotiating a hot cut without RespOrg

Say you submit the RespOrg LOA documents 30 days before your circuit is ready to activate, but your toll-free numbers are still not released to your new carrier by the time the circuit is ready to activate. Qwest might have forgotten to submit the RespOrg documents to AT&T, or Qwest may have sent them but the LOA was rejected and never resolved.

This situation (essentially that your new carrier, Qwest, hasn’t got official status as the RespOrg owner of your toll-free numbers) is generally revealed as you are installing the dedicated circuits. You might have spent an hour or so testing the outbound calls on your new circuits before you decide to test the toll-free numbers. As you casually ask your installation technician for Qwest to check out the toll-free numbers, she responds, “Hmmm, I don’t see any setup for this circuit.” Ten minutes later, you find out the location of your toll-free numbers — with AT&T. Regardless of the source of the problem, the end result is that Qwest doesn’t have RespOrg of your toll-free numbers and you cannot migrate the numbers. The really painful part of the situation is that you only have seven days (or fewer) before your AT&T circuits are slated to be disconnected.

Don’t panic yet. Here are some solutions if you find yourself in this situation:

Solution 1: Push out the cancellation date

Call your contacts at AT&T and push out the cancellation date of your circuits by another week or two. If the reps are nice, you can buy yourself enough time to migrate your toll-free numbers to Qwest. If the reps are not inclined to help you, opt for Solution 2.

Solution 2: Submit the migration request — yesterday

If the migration request hasn’t been submitted to AT&T yet, have it submitted immediately. If the RespOrg has already been rejected once, you can address the reason for rejection and resubmit the migration request, or simply NASC the numbers. If you have a large quantity of toll-free numbers, you need to perform a little telecom triage to determine which numbers are the most important and cannot go down (as I explain earlier in this chapter, NASCing is rather expensive if you have many lines). Some of your numbers might have limited use, and so it might be just fine to wait for the seven to ten days, even if the lines aren’t working for three of those days. Not ideal, but it’ll work.




Telecom for Dummies
Telecom For Dummies
ISBN: 047177085X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 184

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