I’ve been getting a lot of calls recently from an 0800 number (sometimes withheld). Sometimes 2 or 3 calls a day. The number is: 08003 896 818. If you call it back (please do – it’s free from a landline!), then it says it’s from the listening company and they are a marketing organisation.
Well, my home number is ex. directory and I don’t want to be marketed to. They do give a number to call which they say will thn remove you from their lists, but damn them, I didn’t ask to be on in the first place.
So I’ve programmed a nice little wheeze into my PBX. When they call me, and use that number as caller ID, I place an outgoing call back to them and bridge the calls together. They can then speak to themselves. My phones will never ring again when they call.
A requirement to run a telephone replacement service is the ability to manage 999 calls (or 112 if you’re in Europe, or 911 in the US!)
To implement it for a VoIP operator (or ITSP) in the UK, there are a few things we need to have in-place; database checks for the installation address, extra code in the PBX infrastructure to manage outgoing caller-ID, code in the head-end to make sure this caller is properly validated to the emergency services and so on.
But how do you test it? We’re told that we are not to make test calls through it, so the first time it will be executed will be the first time it’s tested…
Well, almost. When implementing it, I was able to fake the final 999 call placement so I could test most of the code, so was relatively happy.
There’s always a nagging “what if” in there though…
However yesterday I was able to “test” it for real when I fell off a ladder… Despite great pain and a near inability to walk, with great self-sacrifice I hobbled to my desk and watched the console as I made the call.
And I’m happy to report that everything “just worked”.
As for me – well I dislocated 2 toes, bruised my bum and bashed an elbow. That’s what I get for climbing dodgy old wooden ladders. (It decided it wanted to be firewood just as I got near the top)
It’s a funny old thing, pain and shock though. I was also on my own at the time which did make it a bit scary… I couldn’t actually get up for a few minutes either and when I did try, I nearly threw up and passed out.
Slight lack of communication between the emergency handling people and the ambulance station…. The 999 services said that because it wasn’t life threatening, the ambulance would be dispatched at a lower priority… Ambulance got here in 5 minutes in full flight top-priority emergency mode… (Ambulance station is 4 miles away in the next town)
Lessons to learn: Use sensible shoes when climbing ladders. (and not flimsy old slippers). Don’t climb old wooden ladders – burn them instead. And with a mobile to hand use it rather than hobbling to the desk to watch a console as a 999 call is being made!
My home/office broadband failed yesterday and it failed again this morning.. Did I have a backup in-place? Well, yes, although not as functional as I’d have liked. Am I now working on making it more functional? Absolutely!
Do you have a backup plan for office broadband failure?
Do you rely on broadband for your business? If you do, then do you have a backup in-place? If not, then why not?
The answer to that might well be that you simply don’t know how, and also that it’s not always as easy as it might be!
We all get very used to always-on high speed Internet access these days, so when it goes, it can be quite a shock! So what are the alternatives these days?
1. Run a 2nd broadband line to a different ISP. A good alternative, but what if the JCB digs up both cables at the same time – which is 100% likely if it’s a cabling fault of that kind… It’s very rare to get what’s called diverse routing of the cabling to an office unless you are prepared to pay a lot of money for it. Sometimes you can get it by using two different telcos – eg. BT and Virgin, but even then, there may be common points where both cables are physically close to each other, so any earthworks involving diggers is still potentially problematic…
2. Use mobile broadband. This is what I use. It’s not perfect and not always avalable, and not very fast either! Where I’m based in rural Devon with my O2 service, I can only get GPRS. In a city you may have the luxury of a 3G data connection.
3. Read a book.
While I did (3) above, I’m working on improving (2), so I may look for a separate USB “dongle” with a 3G connection to a network carrier that has 3G access where I am (Only “Three” as far as I can tell right now), rather than just using my Nokia E90, but then there’s the on-going expense, but what price do we pay? For the average home user it’s hard to justify. For a small/medium office? I think it should be standard, and more modem/router devices have USB ports these days for just such a device, so there’s little excuse!
And what of the fault itself? Well, according to my ISP, BT did a “re-map” of my line. Whatever that means. Personally, I think BT screwed up somewhere as the whole exchange went down, not just me!
Sadly an old favourite TV presenter of mine, Tony Hart died recently. Many people will remember him for his great drawings, projects and so on, but probably most importantly the music that accompanied the gallery segment of “Vision On”. Who knew the name of it until now? Well, it’s called “Left Bank Two” by “The Noveltones”.
But it got me thinking – Music on Hold. Can I use that as a music on hold track in my PBXs? How do I license it? Who do I pay? Do I have to pay anyone? (Yes!)
It appears to be a complicated matter, but an email and a phone call from the very helpful people at De Wolf set me straight. I need to buy a copy of the track, then for each installation apply for an MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society) license (at a cost of £35 for each 30 seconds!) and, if the music is ever going out to Joe random public, apply for a separate PRS (Performing Rights Society) license too. (These start at about £95 per year for a small number of incoming lines and go up from there) Some premises may already have a PRS license, so extending it to their music on hold may not be that difficult.
The MCPS and PRS have recently formed a new brand called “PRS for Music”. Their website is here.
So if you want “The Gallery Tune” on your PBX, then it’s certianly possible, it’ll just cost you (but not a lot in the grand scheme of things).
So as of this afternoon, customers, clients, users of VoIP telephony provided by Drogon Systems can now make 999 calls!
Well – Once their installation address has been verified, checked, double-checked, sent-in, sent back again and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters…
I digress, but getting the address right would appear to be crucial to the whole process.
It seems that the Emergency Handling Authority have a very precice idea of what an address is, and it’s not something like “Please Mr. Postie, give it to the Hendersons in the street with the papershop in the town with the big Abbey.” I was quite surprised at the requirements.
For a person they want a “Title”. Is this Mr, Mrs, Ms? No, it’s Sir, Lady, Lord, etc. Then they want the name, and initials must be specified with full-stops, then any honours. You know, OBE, KBE, and so on. (does this mean that titled people get a better class of 999 service? It does make you wonder!) Then the address and how do you specify an address in the UK? Just how many different ways are there? Well, only one according to the EHA and it has 4 parts: Premises, Thoroughfare, Locality and Postcode. These 4 lines of information will exactly specify any address it seems. (Thoroughfare? I ask you. What century are we living in today?)
Businesses? It’s the same in the address department (complete with thoroughfare), the name must be the company name, and there is a separate part for Ltd or plc (and llp) There is also 10 pages of mandatory abbreviations for company names too. If you’re business name is “Wholesale Watchmakers, Weaver and Travel agent”, it should then be “Whsle Wtchmkrs, Weav and Trvl Agt”. I wish I were making this up!
But there you have it, we submit the data, wait for it to be checked and validated, then enable 999 on the clients system and off they go. The validation process takes about a week or less and that’s that!
As of January 2009, Drogon Systems is now a member of the ITSPA – Internet Telephony Service Providers Association. Their website is here.
The ITSPA is the trade association for all matters regarding Internet Telephony in the UK. They liase with various governmental bodies (eg. the Home Office, Ofcom, DTI), as well as their European couterparts.
As a member, Drogon Systems will be adhering to their code of practice, and looking to sign up to their new “Quality Mark” scheme announced at the awards ceremony in December.
Anyone not paying attention recently will have seen the recent press and news coverage of the issues with 084 numbers being used in Doctors Surgeries…
The claim is that these numbers are required for call queueing.
Well, for small/medium surgeries and office, this simply isn’t true. (It may be true if you need network call queuing, but then you’re talking more than 60 lines and that then becomes a bigger problem entirely)
The surgeries have been ripped-off by the telecom equipment vendors, who are making money off every call placed to the surgery. The PBX supplied (with long, expensive leasing and maintenance terms) which implements the call queuing is only there to make sure every call gets answered – at which point the telecoms company starts to earn money on the revenue generating 084 numbers.
It’s a scandal. There is no other word for it. Doctors, etc. are brilliant people, but they can’t be expected to know everything, so they have to trust what they’re told, and IMO what they’re being told is a pack of lies designed to line the pockets of the telecom vendors who supply the equipment and the 084 numbers.
I visited a new potential client last week, along with one of my resellers to discuss their on-going telecoms needs.
It turns out that they’ve been stitched-up with a 7-year leasing deal on the hardware they currently have. What’s worse is that what they pay each quarter in leasing and maintenance costs would pay for one of my systems to be bought outright.
I was shocked.
What was worse, is that one small part of the deal they have with their current vendor is for a VoIP system to connect their 3 offices together… They are paying £797 a quarter over 7 years to lease the VoIP cards for their legacy PBX, and £125 a quarter over 5 years for the maintenance on those cards, just to make “free” calls between offices. I doubt those poor people would even make £900 in BT call costs phoning between offices. This is especially worse, as their current vendor has also taken over line rental and call charges too – so giving them a discount on ordinary charges between sites is something that’s well in their powers to do, but they don’t, preferring to blatantly rip their customer off.
This is one of the reasons I got started in telephony – there are too many companies like this being taken for a ride by unscrupulous telecom equipment vendors.
The Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (or just ITSPA) is the Trade association for Internet Telephony in the UK.
This December (2008) saw it’s 3rd anniversary and their first awards ceremony, and as I wrote earlier, I entered my DSX-10 into the ceremony under the Best VoIP Hardware category, and although it was short-listed for the award, sadly, it didn’t win. However coming in the same group as the winner, Cisco, isn’t too bad in my books!
The good thing is that we traveled up from deepest darkest Devon to London for the awards, and it was amazing to see so-many people in the room. 150 people from many different companies involved in Internet Telephony in one way or another. If anyone needed proof that there is a future in Internet telephony it was there in that room last Thursday night with representatives from many major companies (eg. Cisco and BT) as well as many of the smaller companies providing services to business and end-users.
So what now? Well, Drogon Systems has applied to join ITSPA and plans so sign up to their newly proposed “Quality Mark” (They tried to call it a kite-mark, but it seems another organisation already has that one!)