[VoiceOps] Preventing calls to cell phones with guaranteed accuracy

Tue Aug 18 18:04:31 EDT 2015

I'm going to answer a number of messages at once, because there were quite
a few replies (thanks to all of you).

NPA-NXX filtering is already being done, and is useless.  So they also
employ list scrubbing based on what appears to be old/cached LNP info or
dips, and that is also insufficient both legally and practically.  The data
sources being used in the industry now do not appear to comply with the law.

For anyone who is saying that you can't determine a cell phone due to LNP,
you are wrong.  Please look up these terms and you will see it's very
possible:  LERG, LRN, OCN  As far as cell phones that are turned into
"home" service, that's fine, we don't care about false positives.  We just
need to make sure that a cell number is never dialed by mistake.  And the
law allows a 15 day grace period from porting.

On the "guarantee" that isn't something we'd provide, what I mean was
simply a data source that is always accurate.  Such as LRN-LERG testing for
every call.  The customer will accept ultimate responsibility.

Some people recommended third-party services both on and off the list.  The
one concern there is again, accuracy.  If the list scrubbers can't get it
right...then any third party is suspect.  Are they using cached data?  Or
acquiring data from dubious sources?  I don't know.

On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 2:31 PM Glen Gerhard <ggerhard at sansay.com> wrote:

> Carlos,
>
> you can get a list of all NPA-NXXs that are used by cell carrier and use
> that as a starting point.  Then add to that the list of LRNs used by call
> carriers which may or may not be included in the first list.
>
> Then you need to dip your traffic and compare the DNIS/LRN to the combined
> list.  If the number is ported the LRN will match the list.  If the number
> is not ported and is cellular it will be in the list of NPA-NXX.  If not
> cellular it won't match the list.
>
> Either way if there is a match to the list then you can reject the call
> for that customer.  (I believe you are a Sansay customer so you can set up
> a route table with the combined list and then use it as the primary route
> table for those customers and then link to normal tables.  I can have our
> support team put together the list of current NPA-NXX but you'll need a
> LERG6 subscription to keep it current).
>
> Good luck,
>
> ~Glen
>
> PS this message is not copyrighted nor confidential ;-)
>
>
>
>
>
> On 8/18/2015 2:14 PM, Erik Flournoy wrote:
>
> Derek,
>
> Is actually right. Legislation that blocks a company from auto dialing a
> number based on it being a cell phone or landline is extremely difficult to
> prosecute. Straight talk has a home service that essentially uses a
> wireless carrier backbone. I can pickup the base plug it in at my neighbors
> house or better yet put it in my car on a power inverter and wah lah my
> home phone is what it truly is a cell phone with a 110-220v power supply.
> Number Portability would make wireline and wireless number location nearly
> impossible. Manual dialing would be the only way to prevent an auto dialer
> issue.
>
> Erik Flournoy
> 808-426-4527
> 301-218-7325
>
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> On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 11:00 AM, Derek Andrew <Derek.Andrew at usask.ca>
> wrote:
>
>> Isn't it impossible to decide if a number is a cell phone or a land line
>> because of local number portability?
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 2:34 PM, Matthew Crocker <
>> matthew at corp.crocker.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Depending on your switch you should be able to build a profile for the
>>> customer and reject calls going to cell phone LRN providers.
>>>
>>> Personally, I wouldn’t take on the liability of guaranteeing their
>>> auto-dialer only calls landlines.   You would end up being sued if you make
>>> a mistake.  IMHO, let them manually dial or find a list scrubbing company
>>> that actually works.
>>>
>>> —
>>>
>>> Matthew Crocker
>>> President - Crocker Communications, Inc.
>>> Managing Partner - Crocker Telecommunications, LLC
>>> E: matthew at corp.crocker.com
>>> E: matthew at crocker.com
>>>
>>>
>>> On Aug 18, 2015, at 4:30 PM, Carlos Alvarez <caalvarez at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I have a customer in market research who is legally required to manually
>>> dial calls to cell phones.  Right now they are considering abandoning all
>>> of their auto/predictive dialer software and going to manual dial for
>>> everything, because the list-scrubbing services have been shown to be
>>> inaccurate.  There are extreme penalties for auto-dialing a cell phone, and
>>> "best effort" is NOT a defense to this, at all.  For example, Gallup just
>>> settle a claim for $12M.
>>>
>>> So they need a totally accurate way to prevent a cell phone call from
>>> originating from their dialer.  The only thing I can think of is some sort
>>> of LRN dip + LRN-to-carrier-type response.  One of their people talked to
>>> Neustar, but didn't get great answers because he doesn't really understand
>>> telephony.  Before I get in touch with Neustar, I thought I'd see if people
>>> here have some ideas.
>>>
>>> If you provide a commercial product for this, please feel free to tell
>>> me so on or off list, the customer is willing to pay for the service and
>>> we're open to all options.  I don't have a budget number yet but manual
>>> dialing is going to cost them quite a bit for some types of studies.
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> VoiceOps mailing list
>>> VoiceOps at voiceops.org
>>> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/voiceops
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Copyright 2015 Derek Andrew (excluding quotations)
>>
>> University of Saskatchewan
>>
>> Typed but not read.
>>
>>
>>
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