[VoiceOps] Troubles calling those free conference services

[Alex Balashov]

I doubt it's a trunk exhaust issue.  I'm sure at least half the time, 
they just don't want to complete the calls and blame it on trunk 
exhaust.  Not that I blame them, just saying.

Unless I'm seriously misinformed, I doubt that Level3 can't push a few 
hundred to a few thousand calls into any given LATA's access or sector 
tandem.  If anything, it could be that the end office in the particular 
wire center doesn't have enough trunks going back to the tandem to haul 
the megachurch CEO-preacher's blather.

On 01/27/2011 04:24 PM, Scott Berkman wrote:

> I *THINK* that CommPartners primarily uses Level 3, or at least they used
> to.
>
> Level 3's stance last time we checked was that they were NOT going to build
> out the level of capacity needed to support these types of services when the
> populations and non-free-conference-related traffic levels simply did not
> justify it.  I'm with them personally.
>
> I think the only way to ensure bullet-proof completion of these calls would
> be to get your own direct trunks to the LECs that host the numbers for these
> services.
>
> 	-Scott
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org [mailto:voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org]
> On Behalf Of Carlos Alvarez
> Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 3:14 PM
> To: voiceops at voiceops.org
> Subject: Re: [VoiceOps] Troubles calling those free conference services
>
> Alex Balashov wrote:
>> The right thing to do, in theory, would be to charge your customers
>> enough for LD that it doesn't really matter much. But practically
>> speaking, this is often impossible due to the marketing requirements
>> of today's competitive environment, e.g. price collapse in wholesale
>> LD, "unlimited" long-distance plans touted by ILECs to try to slow
>> down the decline of land-line subscribers, etc.
>
> I was unclear.  It's not that we block them, it's that the calls quite often
> fail to complete through all our carriers.  We call that carrier and they
> give us the usual "limited IXC capacity" line for the number.
> Most of these things are hosted in small towns where the arbitrage is
> profitable, so they built the capacity without the idea that they'd have
> thousands of conference calls coming in.
>
> I'd consider taking a hit on the cost if it stopped people calling us, but
> first I'd have to find the carrier(s) that can actually get the calls there
> to start with.
>
> We educate the customers who call, and most often simply reminding them that
> they get a free conference service with us is all they need.  We obviously
> need to do a better job letting them know that it's included.
>
> So anyway the problem isn't the calls themselves, but us having to waste
> time fielding support calls.
>
> BTW, the carrier that we most often send those calls to and fail most often
> is Commpartners, if anyone cares.
>
> --
> Carlos Alvarez
> TelEvolve
> 602-889-3003
>
>
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-- 
Alex Balashov - Principal
Evariste Systems LLC
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Suite 2200
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