INTRODUCTION:

Few companies have the deep pockets required to burn through $50,000 per hour. Yet, a USA Today survey of 200 data center managers found that over 80% of these managers reported that their phone system downtime costs exceeded $50,000 per hour. For over 25% of these 200 data center managers, downtime costs exceeded $500,000 per hour. For professionals using a call cen- ter or enterprise communications system, you understand the importance of keeping the phones ringing. However, few people understand that a carrier disaster recovery plan is the critical foun- dation to ensuring telecommunications continuity. A down system can indeed be catastrophic because calls go unanswered, employees sit idle, customers go unsupported, and revenue is lost. Preparing your business for a toll-free carrier disaster is paramount to being ahead of an outage, and most call centers don’t even know this is possible.

So, the question to ask is not just whether it’s imperative to have a strong and continuous disaster recovery strategy in place for your phone system. It is highly recommended to also ask the ques- tion: How important are your toll-free lines to your business?

Commonly taken for granted, toll-free inbound traffic is worth protecting for any business – large or small. With looming carrier outages, which can happen at any time, your business needs to plan for a disaster appropriately and create the sought-after redundancy that will ensure toll-free inbound traffic reliability when faced with adverse, and otherwise unforeseen circumstances.

WHAT IS TOLL-FREE DISASTER RECOVERY?

What would happen to your business if your toll-free service simply stopped working one day? Network outages, degradation in customer support and even having your service turned off com- pletely are all realities that must be confronted. Carrier diversity can help protect against loss of business and loss of customer confidence should one of your service providers experience diffi- culties. That’s the concept behind Toll-Free Disaster Recovery.

If you don’t think a carrier outage will affect you, think again. Outages are more frequent than you might think, as experienced by many on September 3rd, 2015 when a nationwide CenturyLink outage left many without service for hours.

Your toll-free numbers are an essential asset to your company, but when a carrier has an outage, their resources are focused on reducing their losses. This puts you out of service until they resolve the issue. Every moment you remain out of service, you lose money.

Disaster Recovery enables users to quickly transfer service of their toll-free numbers from one carrier to another in the event of a catastrophic failure.

While large businesses and telecommunication companies may have sufficient resources to -en sure toll-free service continuity in the event of unplanned or extended network outages, few small to medium enterprises have disaster recovery plans in place.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 To remain competitive, these businesses need to take action to ensure their toll-free services re- main fully operational during a crisis, with minimal interruption to business as usual.

As we all well know, disaster could strike at any time. Disasters are sudden, unpredictable and, at times, debilitating or even devastating to businesses. The way in which your organization handles and responds to these events reflects your commitment to serving your customers, clients, and vendors. In today’s always-connected world, a disaster recovery plan is a necessity and an expec- tation of the people whom you serve.

TOLL-FREE DISASTER RECOVERY INTRODUCED (MAY 1, 1993):

The ability to port toll-free numbers was first discussed in 1985 when the FCC order, Docket 89-10, mandated the creation of a national toll-free database. It took years to design and implement the national toll-free database along with toll-free number portability and Responsible Organizations (RespOrgs). With considerable work to do, Aelea Christofferson and her fellow SMS/800 Commit- tee members set out to change Telecommunications history.

The idea behind Disaster Recovery for toll-free, was spurred by their Working Group discussion re- volving around ‘Shared-Use’. In toll-free telephony, a shared-use number is a vanity number (usu- ally a profitable and easily identifiable phone word), which is provided to a large organization, like Domino’s Pizza, or to multiple local businesses in the same competing industry in different cities.

The vanity number that sparked the discussion was 1-800-DOMINOS. Domino’s Pizza was interest- ed in a way to allow callers to dial 1-800-DOMINOS and have the call routed to the store nearest the caller. The SMS/800 group had already designed 800 numbers to work this way through the implementation of SS7 and had set in motion the functionality and regulatory changes needed to facilitate this advancement. While undergoing the recommendation phase to the FCC, Aelea began thinking bigger. If shared use was possible for vanity numbers using a single carrier, why couldn’t the calls be routed to multiple carriers for disaster recovery?

The notion had never been explored. The idea that a toll-free number’s traffic could be split -be tween multiple carriers was established in the design, but carrier acceptance was a hurdle as they would lose a portion of their revenue. The newly established Bell companies felt they were guaranteed intra-LATA (local traffic) in perpetuity so they didn’t care about splitting the traffic. The long-distance carriers didn’t want to split traffic with other long-distance companies believing that revenue would inevitably be affected.

To add further complications, companies simply did not want to work together. The only way to split traffic between multiple carriers was to influence these carriers to allow another RespOrg to put their Carrier Identification Codes (CICs) on their records which seemed unlikely between competing carriers.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 After struggling to align these carriers to best serve the industry and promote innovation-inspiring competition, Aelea took it upon herself to service the industry. She formed ATL Communications and became one of the five original RespOrgs and the only RespOrg that offered the service in an outsourced capacity to carriers.

She had one solitary RespOrg customer when she launched ATL’s RespOrg service. Her custom- er had no intention of becoming a RespOrg, preferring to outsource it, and so became the first ATL RespOrg customer. After becoming a customer, the company desired assistance negotiating better rates with their carrier. She obliged, and her client told their carrier, “Let’s see how taking 25% of our traffic and routing it away from you, to another carrier, works with our negotiations.” The carrier didn’t believe this could be done immediately because number portability was new and the idea of an independent RespOrg was almost unknown. The customer decided to raise the bar and asked ATL to move 50% of their traffic. With the threat proven, Aelea not only helped her client negotiate a better rate, but she altered how one enormous carrier viewed independent, carrier-neutral RespOrgs. When the carrier watched the traffic leaving their switch by the minute, they reluctantly agreed to renegotiate.

ATL Communication’s sole customer was unique. They now had two carriers, which not only pro- vided carrier redundancy in the event of a carrier outage (Disaster Recovery), but allowed for least cost routing. She had the ability to offer prospective clients a way they could save money by splitting traffic between multiple carriers based on time of day, geographic location, and date in addition to gaining protection from carrier outages. All that was left was to increase the number of carriers that she could offer to these prospective clients to better serve their needs, and their wallets. As the carriers began to recognize that their customers wanted the advantages of an independent RespOrg, almost all decided to cooperate with ATL as the first independent, carri- er-neutral RespOrg.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 HOW TO SET UP TOLL-FREE DISASTER RECOVERY:

RECEIVE A UNIQUE RESPORG ID:

In order to utilize multiple carriers, you must have an ID that isn’t tied to a carrier. This gives you the power to use any carrier you want, after obtaining the carrier’s permission, and in any com- bination you want. You can either acquire your own unique RespOrg ID or, like the vast majority, contact an existing RespOrg to fall under their umbrella.

SET UP ADDITIONAL CARRIER / NETWORKS:

During carrier outages, the only option to get your numbers working again is to use an alternate carrier. It’s not in a carrier’s best interest to help you move your numbers away, as this is a revenue source for carriers, especially when most of their resources are focused on repairing the outage. In a disaster situation, your own business is your greatest advocate for a speedy recovery and without a real disaster recovery solution, this process can be difficult and time consuming.

Creating relationships with additional carriers is paramount to an effective Disaster Recovery plan. Carriers are eager to work with new businesses as they incur financial gain through new customer acquisition and billing for services rendered. A business seeking an effective toll-free disaster re- covery solution needs to establish contracts and set up networks with at least two unique carriers while getting complimentary carrier agreements in place. In the telecommunications industry, this agreement is known by different names and it depends on which carrier you are talking to. At its core, the agreement informs the carrier that you’ll be using their network with your own unique RespOrg ID. The reason this is so important is that when you port numbers in and out, carriers will see these new numbers in their network. If there is no existing agreement in place, these car- riers will scrub your numbers. This agreement establishes that your number belongs there, but under your own unique ID. It’s largely a preemptive measure, but it’s in a business’s best interest to comply.

In addition to having a secondary carrier to route your traffic to in the event of a carrier outage, you also gain the ability to split your traffic by percentage, region, and date/time. Splitting your traffic between multiple carriers brings businesses closer to the ideal least cost routing structure which will save the business money as that traffic is routed in the most cost-efficient manner based on several key, modifiable identifiers.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 PORT YOUR TOLL-FREE NUMBERS TO YOUR NEW RESPORG ID:

This is a pretty straightforward process that RespOrgs can perform. Simply stated, this is when all numbers under a business’s control are transferred from their previous ID to their new unique RespOrg ID. A business cannot add multiple carriers unless they perform this step.

CREATE DEFAULT AND FAIL-OVER ROUTING TEMPLATES:

In this phase, a business should work closely with their RespOrg to create disaster recovery sce- narios and a routing map should an outage occur. Generally, a RespOrg will ask their clients how they want their numbers to route and how they want to utilize their carriers in any given situation.

A RespOrg should also identify any alternate routing scenarios the business may want to have. By creating these templates, the business can move their numbers quickly from one carrier to another. With template-based routing, the routing is passed to the toll-free numbers via the tem- plate, which can be accessed by any quantity of toll-free numbers. Think of a template as a line in a database. This database line contains all routing information, so when you route a toll-free number using a template you are essentially programming that number to only receive its routing information from that database line. If that database line updates, the toll-free number’s routing is updated. Whether you have 1,000 or 100,000 numbers pointed to the template, all numbers are updated simultaneously.

As a RespOrg, or with the assistance of your RespOrg, you can utilize several routing variables which can determine exactly when, how, and who is receiving your inbound toll-free traffic. These routing options include:

Percent based routing: The ability to assign a certain percentage of your overall inbound traffic to a specific carrier. This is a powerful tool for managing load balancing on the fly. Time of day: The ability to send traffic to a specific carrier only during specified times. This is another easy to use load balancing tool that can be implemented based on historic call volumes. Date: The ability to preset the exact date and time that a routing set goes active. This is valuable for when you have advanced notice of a service disruption, like scheduled carrier maintenance for example. Blocking: The ability to block inbound traffic based on desired parameters. This can also be viewed as the ability to only accept traffic from specific areas by blocking all unwanted areas. Geographic based routing: The ability to assign a carrier based on the geographic data of the originating inbound call. Geographic categories include: Local Access and Transport Area (LATA), State, NPA, NPA/NXX, and ANI. This functionality becomes helpful when you use two or more car- riers based on their rates in geographic territories. For example, Carrier A charges $0.06/minute for all calls in Oregon and Carrier B charges $0.02/minute for all calls in Oregon. Geographic based routing allows you to take advantage of Carrier B’s lower rate and assign all Oregon inbound traffic to Carrier B. This is also known as least cost routing and can save businesses thousands of dollars, monthly, depending on their inbound call volume.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 To simplify, the numbers are divided into groups with the understanding that every group of num- bers will route in the same way. Businesses can change the routing of these numbers with a click of a button. Without the templates, businesses wouldn’t be able to move numbers as quickly and efficiently so prior setup of these templates is quite valuable and recommended.

TEST ALL NETWORKS:

Once the RespOrg has identified the carriers that the business wants to use, and the RespOrg has the numbers porting to the business’s unique ID, the RespOrg should route 100 percent of the numbers down the carriers individually to test each network and make sure there are no challeng- es with the porting process. In test dialing all the numbers, a RespOrg should not only make sure the calls are hitting the correct carrier, but also that the calls are set up on each network correctly and each call is being terminated properly.

APPLY NUMBERS TO THE TEMPLATE:

Once this is done and any challenges are identified and resolved, your RespOrg will apply the toll- free numbers to your desired template. This is where we apply the numbers to routing records that use multiple carriers.

TEST AGAIN ON BOTH NETWORKS:

Finally, if your RespOrg is your carrier, they should test the numbers again because now they’ve put your numbers on the new routing networks. If your RespOrg is not your carrier, and you are operating under an independent RespOrg, contact your RespOrg to test your numbers to ensure that your numbers are working correctly. Testing a second time is a critical step in the process and imperative to making sure the template you’ve created have been built correctly and the calls are being delivered as intended.

In the event of a carrier outage, you should know exactly what actions to take to complete the routing change to move your inbound traffic to the backup carrier. It is recommended that you create a plan for each scenario, whether it be an outage by Carrier A or an outage by Carrier B, and you should be prepared to act. Being prepared will save you time, inevitably saving your business money and preventing a very stressful event.

If you are working with a RespOrg who manages your toll-free numbers as an outsourced service, keep their customer support number handy and available should you need to immediately con- tact them to perform the fail-over. If you are your own RespOrg and are using a RespOrg-supplied portal or platform to manage your own numbers internally, be sure multiple members of your team know how to move numbers between one template and another. Like the theory behind toll-free disaster recovery, it’s all about redundancy.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 DISASTER RECOVERY STEPS SUMMARY:

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 WHAT TO DO IN THE EVENT OF A CARRIER OUTAGE?

Don’t panic! You’ve prepared for this. It’s time to put your predetermined plan into action.

A good disaster recovery plan is only as strong as its design. When that design is well thought out and methodically tested, mitigating disasters becomes the easiest part of an outage.

Implementing your disaster recovery plan is as easy as identifying the offending carrier and choos- ing the pre-determined routing plan appropriate for the situation. The more carriers you have, the more disaster recovery routing plans you will want to develop to cover each scenario.

Once you have removed the dark car- rier from the routing, you will want to make a few test calls. After confirm- ing that everything is operational, it’s back to business as usual. When you have identified that your original carrier has regained functionality, it’s time to switch back to your ‘sunny day’ routing.

Really! That’s it. No more juggling calls to every vendor you can think of, no more angry emails from manage- ment and customers, and no more lengthy apologies explaining why you just slaughtered your Service Level Agreements. Pat yourself on the back – you just became a hero at your busi- ness!

WHAT IS A RESPONSIBLE ORGANIZATION (RESPORG)?

A Responsible Organization (RespOrg) is the entity authorized by the toll-free subscriber to as- sume the duty of managing and administering the associated records in the 800 Service Manage- ment System (SMS/800).

In short, a RespOrg’s responsibilities include:

• Adherence to the Industry Guidelines for Toll-Free Number Administration. • Work with the Help Desk Administrator to obtain, maintain, and correctly utilize SMS/800 interface capabilities and the Toll-Free number resources allocated to SMS/800 for customer assignment. • Adherence to agreements established through the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), industry forum process.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 GENERAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

The RespOrg is responsible to its Customer for management of the SMS/800 record. This may in- clude, but is not limited to, coordination with Toll-Free Service Providers and with the Help Desk. The following general responsibilities are necessary for appropriate management of the SMS/800 record. A RespOrg will: Have just a single Customer for a SMS/800 record. NOTE: For Shared Use Toll-Free or Bundled Services, the Provider of the Shared Use Toll-Free or Bundled Service is treat- ed as the Customer. Inform its Customer of the specific function that it, as a RespOrg, will per- form. Inform its Customer of the specific responsibilities the Customer assumes for identifying its requirements to the RespOrg. Inform its Customer of the specific responsibilities the Customer assumes for identifying its requirements to the Toll-Free Service Provider. Build up its own pro- cess for its Customer to notify it of changes to a SMS/800 record. Implement, in a timely way, all Customer requested changes to the SMS/800 record to support the Customer’s Toll-Free Service. Treat all Customer information as confidential unless otherwise instructed by the Customer. This information is and must be treated as Customer Proprietary Network Information. In any case, all non-proprietary information will be made accessible to all other RespOrgs and Toll-Free Service Providers on an equivalent basis. Non-proprietary information has been identified as: the Toll- Free Number, the RespOrg Identification (Re- spOrg ID), the status of the Toll-Free Number or Customer Record in SMS/800, and the asso- ciated effective date and time of the Customer Record. For multi-carrier routing situations, the Area of Service (AOS) of the Customer Record is considered proprietary but distinguishable by those Toll-Free Service Providers (with SMS/800 access) listed on the Customer Record. If re- quested by any party, a RespOrg must give the Toll-Free Number status, RespOrg ID, and trou- ble referral number for any Toll-Free Number listed in SMS/800.

TROUBLE REPORTING RESPONSIBILITIES:

The RespOrg is responsible for accepting, referring, coordinating, and/or resolving all trouble re- ports related to a Toll-Free Service for which it is identified as the RespOrg in SMS/800. The fol- lowing general responsibilities are required for legitimate management of Toll-Free Service trou- bles: Provide the appropriate contact number(s) for Toll-Free Service troubles on a 24-hour-a-day, 7day seven days basis, for accepting Toll-Free Service trouble reports from its Customer or other parties who have identified a potential trouble condition. Give the proper trouble reporting man- agement interface(s) for Customers and the Help Desk. Affirm and, when appropriate, correct the information listed on the SMS/800 record to resolve the trouble. At the point when the trouble is not SMS/800 related, the RespOrg or the customer will allude the trouble to the applicable orga- nization. Advise its Customer and/or the affected Toll-Free Service Provider(s) of the proper status during resolution of the Toll-Free Service trouble and maintain appropriate documentation of the trouble resolution.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 MEDIA STIMULATED MASS CALLING (MSMC) EVENTS NOTIFICATION:

At the point when the RespOrg has been informed that a Media Stimulated Mass Calling (MSMC) event is going to occur, they have the responsibility to proactively alert the appropriate Telecom- munications Service Providers Network Management Centers of the impending event in agree- ment with the procedures defined by the ATIS Next Generation Interconnection Interoperability Forum (NGIIF) in the MSMC Notification. The RespOrg is responsible for notifying their Customers (including Resellers) that they have the obligation to inform the RespOrg of any intention to have a MSMC event. The RespOrgs should advise the Resellers that they have to inform their Customers that if they take part in or schedule a MSMC event, they should inform the reseller preceding that event taking place. MSMC event notification shall be given by the RespOrg no less than 10 business days before the event. On the off chance that the 10-day advance notification is impossible, then the RespOrg shall contact potentially impacted network management centers as soon as they end up mindful of the event. Either notification shall be in agreement with NGIIF defined procedures.

TEXTING AND SMART SERVICES (TSS) REGISTRY:

The Texting and Smart Services (TSS) Registry, operated by Somos, Inc., serves as the centralized and authoritative provisioning and routing database for all multimedia services associated with Toll-Free Numbers. Businesses that offer text messaging capability on Toll-Free Numbers (called Service Registrars) can enable and set up routing in the TSS Registry in the interest of their cus- tomers. The TSS Registry confirms that the Toll-Free Number is in Assigned or Working Status (not unassigned or otherwise inaccessible) and notifies the supplier of voice-based services (known as the RespOrg) that a request to text-enable the Toll-Free Number has been received. Every RespOrg has an account in the TSS Registry. Once the TSS Registry account has been accessed, the RespOrg will be notified every day of any requests to text-enable their Toll-Free Numbers. RespOrgs have two full business days to accept or deny the request. It is the RespOrg’s duty to act on every single pending request in a timely manner. Options for automated responses (auto-approval or auto-re- ject) are accessible to RespOrgs to reduce the response time. Toll-Free Subscribers may furnish advance instructions to their RespOrg with respect to authorization of text-enablement. RespOrgs should only deny requests for legitimate business reasons, such as if the Toll-Free Subscriber has not given permission to the Service Registrar to text-enable their Toll-Free Number. Once the en- ablement request is authorized by the RespOrg, the TSS Registry sends out the routing informa- tion to the messaging ecosystem. There are several Routing Database providers connected to the TSS Registry who receive continuous updates of any additions or alterations to Toll-Free Numbers, making activations achievable within minutes. Once a number has been released to the spare pool by a RespOrg, the number will revert to that of non-text enabled.

UNDERSTANDING THE TELEPHONE NUMBER:

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) implemented calling procedures that required all long-distance calls within an area code to be prefixed with the area code, in order to make it possible to assign central-office prefixes with 0 or 1 in the middle position (except for N11), which would otherwise be wrongly taken by the local telephone switch to constitute the area code.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 With area codes dwindling using the existing assignment methods, this grew the number pool for every area code by roughly 25%, and furthermore granted the later addition of area codes with middle digits other than 0 or 1.

Requiring a 1 to be dialed before the full number in some areas also accommodated area codes in the form N10, such as 210 in the San Antonio, Texas area and 410 in eastern Maryland. Therefore, an individual calling from San Jose, California to Los Angeles, California before the change would have dialed 213-777-1263 and after the change 1-213-777-1263, which permitted the use of 213 as an exchange prefix in the San Jose area. The preceding 1 also generally indicates a toll call, even though this is inconsistent across the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) because the FCC has left it to the U.S. State Public Utilities Commissions to regulate for traditional landlines, and it has since turned out to be trivial for cell phones and digital VoIP services which currently offer nationwide calling without the extra digit.

The NANP number format is summed up in the format NPA-NXX-XXXX:

Component Name Number Ranges / Notes Allowed ranges: [2 - 9] for the first digit, and [0 - 9] for the second and third digits. When the second and third digits Number Plan of an area code are the same, that code is called an Easily NPA Area (Area Recognizable Code (ERC). ERCs designate special services; Code) e.g., 888 for toll-free service. The NANP is not assigning area codes with 9 as the second digit. Allowed ranges: [2 - 9] for the first digit, and [0 - 9] for both Prefix (Central the second and third digits (however, in geographic area NXX Office Code) codes the third digit of the exchange cannot be 1 if the sec- ond digit is also 1).

XXXX Line Number Can be any numbers from 0 to 9.

For example, 234-235-5678 is a valid telephone number with area code 234, central office prefix (NXX) 235, and line number 5678. The number 234-911-5678 is invalid, because the NXX must not be in the form N11. 314-159-2653 is invalid, because the NXX must not begin with 1. 123-234-5678 is invalid, because the NPA must not begin with 0 or 1.

The country calling code for all countries associated with the NANP is 1. In international format, an NANP number should be listed as +12125550100, where 212 is an area code (New York).

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 Each three-digit area code can support 7,919,900 telephone numbers:

• NXX may begin only with the digits 2 through 9, providing a base of 8 million numbers: (8 × 100 × 10000). • However, the last two digits of the NXX cannot both be 1, to avoid confusion with the N11 codes. • Despite the widespread usage of the NXX 555 for fictional telephone numbers, the only such numbers reserved for fictional use are 555-0100 through 555-0199, with the remaining 555 numbers available for actual assignment as information numbers (subtract 100). • In specific area codes, some other NXX prefixes are normally not assigned. These include: the home area codes, adjacent domestic area codes, adjacent domestic area code overlays, area codes reserved for future relief efforts, industry testing codes (normally NXX 958 and 959), and special service codes (e.g. NXX 950 and 976).

Some central office codes in certain plan areas are intentionally not issued. For example, numbers 212-718-XXXX, where 212 and 718 are both New York City area codes. These are typically avoided to prevent confusion between an area code and a similarly numbered local exchange in the same region. 958-XXXX and 959-XXXX are usually test numbers. Using 0 or 1 as the first digit of an area code or seven-digit local number is invalid, as is a 9 as the middle digit of an area code; these are trunk prefixes or reserved for North American Numbering Plan expansion.

Toll-free numbers in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) are called “800 numbers” after the original area code which was used to dial them. They include the area code 800 (since January 1, 1966), 888 (since March 1, 1996), 877 (since April 4, 1998), 866 (since July 29, 2000), 855 (since Oc- tober 9, 2010), 844 (since December 7, 2013), and 833 (since April 22, 2017). Area codes reserved for future expansion include 822, 880 through 887, and 889.

North American toll-free numbers are con- trolled by a network database (SMS/800) in which any toll-free number may be assigned to a local or long-distance telephone num- ber, a T-carrier, or Primary Rate Interface (PRI) line under the control of a Responsible Organization (RespOrg). Direct inward dial- ing and toll-free number portability are sup- ported.

Additionally, toll-free numbers usually capture the telephone number of the caller for billing pur- poses through automatic number identification, which is independent of caller ID data and func- tions even if caller ID is blocked.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 SHARED USE:

In toll-free telephony, a shared-use number is a vanity number (usually a profitable and easily identifiable phone word), which is rented to multiple local businesses in the same competing industry in different cities. In the United States, the RespOrg infrastructure is used to direct calls for the same number to different service providers based on the area code of the calling number.

For instance, a flower company could rent shared use of 1-800-FLOWERS in one city. The number belongs to a company in Carle Place, New York, but is redirected to local flower companies on a city-by-city basis and promoted by being printed on everything from individual bouquets to cam- paigns against the use of pesticides and their harm to bees.

One previous Mercedes merchant obtained 1-800-MERCEDES, charging other dealers to get calls to that number from their local areas. The automaker unsuccessfully sued MBZ Communications of Owatonna, Minnesota, operated by previous Mercedes merchant Donald Bloom, alleging de- ception and trademark infringement. Mercedes was ultimately compelled to obtain a different number, 1-800-FOR-MERCEDES.

A company renting 1-800-RED-CROSS at an excellent cost to individual, local Red Cross chapters as ‘shared use’ was less fortunate. The Federal Communications Commission reassigned 1-800-RED- CROSS to the Red Cross as a crisis response number for Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Shared use can be used as a means to evade FCC regulations against warehousing, hoarding, and brokering toll-free numbers. Technically the number is not being sold, it is being rented one city or area at a time. The practice is potentially dangerous as it leaves local businesses advertising numbers which they don’t own, meaning they have no number portability. The cost incurred per minute and per month is typically far higher for a shared-use number than for a standard toll-free vanity number which a local business controls outright. In addition, there is very little protection if the shared use company fails to meet its obligations or goes out of business.

There are also technical limitations to shared-use vanity numbers. VoIP users are difficult to geo- locate as their calls might be gated to the public switched telephone network at a site hundreds or thousands of miles from their actual location. A roaming mobile or internet telephone user is effectively (like the user of a foreign exchange line) attached to a distant rate center a long way from their physical address.

VANITY NUMBERING:

A toll-free vanity number or custom toll-free number is easy to remember. It spells something, means something, or it contains a numeric pattern that is simple to recognize. An easily remem- bered number is valued as a branding and direct response tool in marketing and advertising for businesses.

In the United States, Federal Communications Commission regulations require that numbers be assigned on a first come, first served basis.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 This gives vanity number proprietors who serve as RespOrgs a commanding advantage in gather- ing the most valuable phone words, as they have first pick of newly disconnected numbers and to newly introduced toll-free area codes.

BENEFITS OF VANITY NUMBERING:

There are many benefits for businesses willing to invest in toll-free vanity numbers. From creating strong brand repetition and equity to being able to more accurately calculate ROI in Print Marketing/ Advertising, these vanity numbers are well worth their cost to ob- tain. Whether your marketing budget is in the thousands or the millions, efficiency is key in making your dollars go far. Let’s look at how a toll-free vanity number would be used in specific print marketing/advertising campaigns to provide your business’s Marketing Department with valuable insight on ad performance.

First Step: Assign a unique toll-free number to each individual campaign or ad placement. It’s up to you how granular you get when you first start with direct response tracking, but at the very least you should have a unique number for each medium you use to advertise. For example, radio, billboard, television or print. As you progress you’ll find that each radio spot or each print advertisement may have very different response rates and tracking them individually will help you hone which ones have the best return on your investment.

Second Step: Analyze response rates Once you have assigned numbers to your ads, it’s an easy process to track response rates. Let’s say you assigned number 1 to your print ad in ABC Magazine. There are many call tracking soft- ware programs that can help monitor calls and segment them into colorful reports and charts but all you really need, at the most basic level, is the total number of calls. That’s something you can usually get from your regular carrier service.

Third Step: Attribute leads to campaigns After you analyze your call reports you need to attribute those calls to the corresponding cam- paign. For example, let’s say number 1 (assigned to ABC Magazine) received 215 unique calls. That means you received 215 responses to your ad in ABC Magazine. Now let’s say you assigned num- ber 2 to your print ad in Industry Magazine. Number 2 received 72 unique calls. Using the total distribution of each magazine, you are able to calculate how well each advertisement performed in relation to the other. It’s really that simple.

Remember the 3 A’s of direct response tracking: Assign, Analyze, Attribute. As you become more experienced with direct response tracking you can track your response in more detail. You can get more granular in your ad tracking. You can even connect call tracking to your Google Analytics. By doing so you will find that your marketing dollars are more impactful, and your ROI increases exponentially as you refine your targets over time. It’s a simple strategy that takes the human element out of lead tracking and eliminates the inaccuracies created with the age-old question “how did you hear about us?”

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 TOLL-FREE NUMBER & DISASTER RECOVERY HISTORY:

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 BELL SYSTEM / NANP (1876 - 1940):

From its beginnings in 1876 and all through the initial segment of the twentieth century, the Bell System developed from basically local or regional telephone frameworks. These frameworks ex- tended by developing their endorser bases, and in addition expanding their service areas by ex- ecuting extra local exchanges that were interconnected with tie trunks. It was the obligation of every local administration to configure telephone numbering plans that suited local necessities and development. Accordingly, the Bell System reformed into a cha- otic arrangement of many varying local numbering frameworks. The assorted variety obstructed the productive activity and interconnec- tion of exchanges into a nationwide framework for long-distance tele- phone communication. By the 1940s, the Bell System set out to bring together the various numbering plans in presence and built up the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) as a bound together, orderly way to deal with productive long-distance service that inevitably did not require the contribution of switchboard operators.

86 NPA’S W/ AREA CODES (1947):

The new numbering arrangement was authoritatively acknowledged in October 1947, partition- ing the majority of North America into 86 Numbering Plan Areas (NPAs). Every NPA was allotted a Numbering Plan Area code, frequently curtailed as area code. These codes were first utilized by long-distance operators to establish long-distance calls between toll offices. The principal cus- tomer-dialed direct call utilizing area codes was made on November 10, 1951, from Englewood, New Jersey, to Alameda, California. Direct distance dialing (DDD) was accordingly presented the nation over and by the mid-1960s most areas of the Bell System had been converted and it was commonplace in urban communities and most bigger towns.

WIDE AREA TELEPHONE SERVICE (WATS) - 1961 (INTRASTATE 1966, INTERSTATE 1967):

Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS) was a flat-rate long distance service offering for customer dial-type telecommunications in a portion of the countries that conform to the North American Numbering Plan. The service is between a given customer phone (otherwise called a “station”) and stations inside indicated geographic rate areas, utilizing a solitary telephone line between the customer location and the serving central office. Each access line could be set for outward (OUT- WATS) or inward (IN-WATS) service, or both.

WATS was presented by the Bell System in 1961 as a crude long-distance flat-rate design by which a business could get a special line with an included number of hours (‘measured time’ or ‘full-time’) of long-distance calling to a predetermined area. These lines were frequently associated with private branch exchanges in expansive organizations. WATS lines were the reason for the main direct-dial toll-free +1-800 numbers (intrastate in 1966, interstate in 1967); by 1976, WATS brought AT&T Corporation a billion dollars in annual revenue.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 The framework was crude by modern measures. It, at first, gave no help to Automatic Number Identification and no separated record of calls, rather expecting subscribers to get costly fixed- rate lines which incorporated some number of long periods of inbound calling from a “band” of one or a few U.S. states or Canadian areas. Early InWATS 800 calling did not have the complex routing features offered with modern toll-free service. After competitive carriers were permitted to contend with AT&T in setting up toll-free service, the three-digit exchange following the 800 prefix was connected to a particular destination carrier and area code; the number itself corre- sponded to specific telephone switching offices and trunk groups. All calls went to one central destination; there was no way to perform a toll-free call to another country.

Despite its constraints (and the generally huge expense of long distance in that period), the frame- work was sufficient for the requirements of substantial volume clients, for example, lodging net- works, airlines and contract auto firms which utilized it to fabricate national exposure.

For smaller regional organizations who received few long-distance calls, the first InWATS was re- strictively costly. As a fixed-rate mass service requiring uncommon trunks, it was suited just to expansive volume clients.

+1-800 TOLL-FREE PREFIX:

A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is charged for all arriving calls as opposed to bringing about charges to the originating telephone subscriber. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge.

A toll-free, Freecall, Freephone, 800, 0800 or 1-800 number is recognized by a dialing prefix like a geographic area code, for example, 800.

The highlights of toll-free services have advanced as telephone networks have moved from elec- tro-mechanical call switching to completely computerized program-controlled networks.

Initially, a call charged to the called party must be set through a telephone company operator as a collect call. The operator needed to anchor acknowledgment of the charges at the remote number before manually finishing the call.

A couple of substantial organizations and government offices received an extensive number of collect calls, which proved tedious for operators.

Preceding the advancement of automated toll-free service, many telephone companies gave a manual variant of caller free service.

Cases of operator-assisted toll-free calling incorporate the Zenith number introduced in the 1950s in the U.S. and Canada, as well as the first manual ‘Freephone’ service introduced by the British Post Office in 1960.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 A Zenith number was typically accessible from a predefined area, anything from a couple of close- by cities to a territory or state and was recorded in local directories in every community from which the subscriber was to acknowledge the charges for inbound calls. The two introduced frameworks were comparable in idea. The calling party would ring the operator (‘0’ in Canada/U.S.) and request a particular free number. In the U.S., the caller would request a number like “Apex 1-2345” and the operator would investigate the relating geographic number from a list then place the call with charges reversed.

Until the InWATS toll-free service was introduced by the Bell System on May 2, 1967 and the Lin- kline (later “Freefone”) 0800 services by British Telecom on November 12, 1985, manually ringing the operator was the standard method to place a toll-free call. Many established manual “Free- phone” or “Peak” numbers continued being used for many years subsequent to contending auto- mated frameworks (0800 in UK, 1-800 in U.S.) were actualized in parallel for new toll-free numbers.

Toll-free numbers in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) are commonly called “800 num- bers” after the first area code which was utilized to dial them. They incorporate the area code 800 (since January 1, 1966), 888 (since March 1, 1996), 877 (since April 4, 1998), 866 (since July 29, 2000), 855 (since October 9, 2010), 844 (since December 7, 2013), and 833 (since April 22, 2017). Area codes reserved for future expansion include 822, 880 through 887, and 889.

AT & T DIVESTITURE (1984):

For over 100 years, Ma Bell, sometimes called the “Bell System” or currently known as “AT&T”, controlled almost all telecommunications in the United States. Once the largest company in the world with over one million employees, the company consisted of 22 local Bell companies (includ- ing New York Telephone and Ohio Bell), AT&T Long Lines (the long distance division), as well as Western Electric (the subsidiary that manufactured telephone equipment), and Bell Labs (one of the premier research organizations in the world).

In 1984, because of the monopoly AT&T had over phone service, the company was broken-up and the local Bell phone companies were divvied up among seven companies called “Regional Bell Operating Companies” (RBOCs). These seven independent Regional Bell Operating Companies were: AmeriTech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, Southwestern Bell and US West. The seven RBOCs controlled the circulation and distribution of all telephone numbers in their re- spective territories. This drove long distance service competition, which created the need to tie a telephone number to a long distance service provider.

For outbound calls, the 1984 AT&T divestiture brought multiple competitors offering comparative services utilizing standard business telephone lines; the special WATS line was ultimately sup- planted by other flat-rate contributions. The requirement that an inbound toll-free number termi- nate at a special WATS line or fixed-rate service was additionally rendered obsolete by the 1980s because of intelligent network capability and technological improvement in the +1-800 service.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 A toll-free number may now terminate at a T-carrier line, at any standard local telephone number or at one of multiple destinations in lieu of time of day, call origin, cost, or other options.

FCC DOCKET 86-10 (1989):

In 1989, a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order (as part of Docket 86-10) found that a national database system for Toll-Free access would offer both advantages and disadvantages as contrasted with the NXX Plan access solution. The real advantage of the national database system was that it would enable Toll-Free number portability and entice competition since a customer could change carriers without changing numbers. Its downside was that it would raise access time for Toll-Free calls until Signaling System 7 (SS7) was deployed more extensively.

“Number portability” here refers to the ability of a customer to change 800 service providers with- out being compelled to change phone numbers. Under the database system, every one of the 800 numbers are stored in a computer database that includes, for each number, a field identifying the carrier chosen by the customer.

SS5 and prior systems used in-band signaling, in which the call-setup information was sent by playing special multi-frequency tones into the telephone lines, known as bearer channels. As the bearer channel was directly accessible by users, it was taken advantage of by using devices such as the blue box, which played the tones required for call control and routing. As a solution, SS6 and SS7 implemented out-of-band signaling, conveyed in a separate signaling channel, thus keep- ing the speech path separate. SS6 and SS7 are alluded to as common-channel signaling (CCS) protocols, or Common Channel Interoffice Signaling (CCIS) systems.

Following a survey of the petitions for reconsideration and several developments involving SS7 deployment, on August 1, 1991, the FCC enacted a comprehensive order, which mandated the implementation of Toll-Free database access by March 4, 1993. A subsequent FCC order moved the true cutover date to May 1, 1993.

In a series of orders, the Commission has overseen the establishment by Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) of a database system for 800 access. The database system facilitates 800 number portabil- ity, thus allowing greater competition in the provision of 800 services. LECs that implemented the database system were permitted to cease offering the NXX method previously used to screen 800 calls. The FCC required the Bell Operating Companies (BOCs) and GTE meet minimum standards for database access time as a condition for removing NXX access. By March 1, 1995, each LEC was required to meet the following rules: (1) none of its database traffic may have an access time of greater than five seconds; and (2) the average access time for the greater part of its 800 database traffic must be 2.5 seconds or less. In a prior waiver order issued in 1992, the Common Carrier Bu- reau granted Pacific a waiver of certain March 1, 1993 access time requirements, denied without bias as premature Pacific’s request for a waiver of the March 1, 1995 five-second requirement, and expected Pacific to accomplish an average access time of less than one second by March 1995.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 The Commission also mandated that, by March 1, 1993, no more than three percent of each LEC’s 800 traffic encounter an access time of greater than five seconds.

LECs for the most part use their common channel Signaling System 7 (SS7) networks to query this database and determine the best possible routing for each of the 800 calls. Under the NXX rout- ing system, every carrier offering 800 service was assigned specific three-digit prefixes, or “NXX codes,” which were used by LEC switches to identify the best possible routing of 800 calls. Under this system, customers who wished to change 800 carriers were obligated to change phone num- bers to reflect the new company’s NXX codes.

RESPORGS (1993):

On February 10, 1993, the FCC released an order, which pronounced access to the Toll-Free data- base by Responsible Organizations (RespOrgs) to be a Title II common carrier service and required the BOCs to record a tariff for Toll-Free database access by March 5, 1993. The effective date of the tariff was May 1, 1993. The order also mandated that any entity which met appropriate financial and technical eligibility requirements could serve as the RespOrg for a Toll-Free Number record at the request of their customer. With this provision, users could become their own RespOrg or they could use an IC, a LEC, or a third-party as a RespOrg.

In addition, on May 1, 1993, the management and assignment of Toll-Free Numbers transitioned from the interim 800 NXX Plan to a 10-digit management plan in the national 800 Service Manage- ment System (SMS/800).

Each individual ten-digit toll free telephone number (+1-800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, and 833 area codes, as well as any future toll-free area codes created that share the same traits) is overseen by a RespOrg. At the time of inception, there were only five original RespOrgs. These original five included: ATL Communications, AT & T, Cable & Wireless, MCI, and Sprint.

Today, there are approximately 350 RespOrg services, which vary in size from enormous Incumbent Local Ex- change Carriers (ILECs) to companies that control just a couple of num- bers. All RespOrgs operate under the same tariff and are required to take after specific guidelines for this pro- cess. These rules are maintained by a national industry aggregate known The ATIS Logo is a registered trademark of the Alliance for Telecommunications as the SMS/800 Number Administra- Industry Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. tion Committee (SNAC), a committee of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), and membership is available to any RespOrg.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 TOLL-FREE DISASTER RECOVERY INTRODUCED (1993):

888 TOLL-FREE PREFIX INTRODUCED (1996):

877 TOLL-FREE PREFIX INTRODUCED (1998):

866 TOLL-FREE PREFIX INTRODUCED (2000):

855 TOLL-FREE PREFIX INTRODUCED (2010):

844 TOLL-FREE PREFIX INTRODUCED (2013):

SMS/800 REBRANDS TO SOMOS, INC. (2015):

Formerly known as SMS/800, Inc., it was announced at the 2015 Toll-Free User Summit in Orlando, Florida, that the company would be rebranding under the new name, Somos, Inc.

Today, Somos manages more than 40 million Toll-Free Numbers. As the holder of the FCC SMS/800 Functions Tariff, Somos is focused on empowering Toll-Free Service Providers with the ability to share information securely, in new ways and more places. This is the reason why Somos expand- ed Toll-Free beyond voice, to data. Through continued innovations like the Texting & Smart Ser- vices (TSS) Registry, the Somos team is proudly at the center of the evolving telecom landscape.

Somos is essentially responsible for the following: • Enabling Toll-Free Service Providers, Service Registrars, Routing Database Providers, and SCPs • Managing and administering Toll-Free Number registry (SMS/800 Toll-Free Number (TFN) Registry) • Operating the industry’s only CTIA-endorsed registry for text enabling Toll-Free Numbers • Acting as a Toll-Free Industry resource for thought leadership

ENHANCED SMS/800 PLATFORM LAUNCHED (2016):

On April 4, 2016, the Enhanced SMS/800 platform was launched and made available to RespOrgs in order to provide additional functionality.

833 TOLL-FREE PREFIX INTRODUCED (2017):

ENHANCED SMS/800 TRANSITION TO SMS/800 TFN REGISTRY USER INTERFACE (2018):

The Enhanced SMS/800 was transitioned to the SMS/800 TFN Registry User Interface (https://tfn- registry.somos.com) on June 30, 2018. With this transition, Enhanced SMS/800 users continued to have access to the features they relied on daily to manage their Toll-Free Number portfolio, such as Bulk Search & Reserve and One Click Activate, but using a new, more user-friendly, and secure interface.

USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674 THE FUTURE OF DISASTER RECOVERY FOR TOLL-FREE:

Stay tuned! We will be discussing the future of Disaster Recovery for Toll-Free in our next eBook release.

ABOUT RESPORG.COM:

RespOrg.com is America and Canada’s first and largest independent, carrier-neutral, Responsible Organization, as well as being known as the most technically advanced Service Bureau, managing millions of toll-free numbers. For over 25 years, telephone companies, wireline and wireless car- riers, VoIP service providers, call centers, and enterprise clients have trusted RespOrg.com with the management and maintenance of their telephone numbers and essential carrier services. Offering products for Least Cost Routing, Disaster Recovery, Toll-Free Texting, Toll-Free Number Search & Reserve, Number Lookup Tools, and a Toll-Free Number Management Portal, RespOrg. com strives to bring automation, efficiency, productivity, cost savings, and a reduction of complex- ities to all businesses who seek or currently control their numbering assets.

RespOrg.com strives to be a thought leader and an innovator in the Telecommunications space. Our dedication to simplify processes through modern technology and automation has led us to the very roots of toll-free number management. In an effort to push our industry forward tech- nologically, we offer this guide to help others learn about the history, future, and significance of Disaster Recovery for toll-free. We encourage new minds and new prospective thought leaders to join us in our quest to simplify, streamline, and modernize the many outdated processes that still exist today. In an attempt to do so, we invite you to see our next generation software that is reshaping our industry. Join the revolution to modernize, automate, and streamline the essential processes of toll-free number management.

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USA: 2700 NE 4th Street, Suite #240 - Bend, OR 97701 | 1-800-RESPORG | CAN: 1285 West Broadway – Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 (800) 737-7674