How to part with a traditional telephony operator and not lose calls

I know several dozens of large and not very companies that, once having connected a landline phone number, did not dare to change their communication provider. And this despite his shoals of varying severity.

Say, one company had to connect a number in a neighboring region with another operator: we boldly squared the confusion with the settings, plus double counts. Another company purchased equipment for a six-figure sum, but all in vain: the operator was unable to provide the desired channel line.

Operator Transition Limitations

Or here's another case. The barber shop I went to for 10 years was in the building where Magnit decided to enter. And during the repair, the workers damaged a little and pulled out a telephone cable with a root, leaving about 20 companies without communication at once, including a hairdresser. Her room was old, from MGTS, it was being repaired for more than two weeks, and during this time the salon was empty - I got there in time for the middle of the third week.

For safety reasons, they began to indicate a mobile number on business cards in addition to the main one. But mobile does not inspire confidence among customers. By the way, I go to the same master, but he works in a different salon: the old one never recovered.

Why are companies afraid to change providers? They are afraid, of course, not of this, although here the chance remains to get soap instead of awl. In fact, there is only one fear: the current number is recorded with clients or printed in a magazine, on business cards and a sign. If he stops responding, then some of the clients will go to competitors.

It would seem that it’s difficult, users of mobile numbers who have replaced the telecom operator will say. Yes, indeed, there is a Mobile Number Portability service. Its essence is that before making a call, it first becomes clear which operator the number belongs to. The right of the subscriber to bind a mobile number to himself is fixed by law, and operators fulfill it.

In other words, you can change the mobile operator, leaving the same phone number. When using landline communication there is a similar service: Local Number Portability.

However, in Russia, operators are not required to transfer city numbers to each other. Well, since they are not obliged, then why should they suffer losses, giving the capacity and customers to someone else. Although you can always write a request to transfer the number to another operator: what if you agree?

SIP: you cannot leave

And now, fearing to lose existing customers, the company continues to use the services of an operator involuntarily. Or begins to look strange. And finds.

The most common option is landing calls on a SIP line. At first glance, there is nothing wrong with this and there are a lot of operators on the market with this approach. But he does not guarantee the quality of the connection.

First, every vendor, when it implements SIP support, has something in mind. And, using SIP-compatible hardware or software from different manufacturers, it is very easy to get a broken system due to different implementations of the same protocol. That is why most operators have lists of recommended programs and equipment with which everything has been tested.

Secondly, a call sent through SIP enters the public network, and can be routed along the most fantastic trajectories. The call goes through dozens of networks and inter-operator joints. And even with the connection established, signal transmission from one subscriber to another proceeds in different ways.

And in the photo there is a counter at one of the telecom operators. And where is our call lost here?

At each junction and redirection, the stability of the connection falls uncontrollably. This leads to a deterioration in the quality of voice transmission and interference - clicks, crackles, croaking, omissions, delays. In principle, even if this were all limited, the scheme could be called quite viable.

But - and the operators are not able to control this - 100 calls will go along the optimal route and subscribers will not experience any problems. And at the same time, the 101st is lost in the intricacies of networks, and no one will ever know about it if it does not meticulously control the logs on the side of all the points involved in the call service. Now let’s imagine (remembering Murphy’s law) that this particular challenge was from a client who would make, well, let’s say the monthly profit of the company.

For example, according to the experience of one of the call tracking services based on a telecom operator (i.e., with its own switch and direct connections with the main operators), the number of calls when SIP is excluded from their processing chain grows by 10-15%. That is, approximately 10-15% of revenue disappears in the abyss of IP-networks.

Gradual transition

The second option to solve the problem "customers are used to this number" is a gradual transition. The old operator sets up unconditional forwarding to the number connected to the new one.

And already here, at the new one, the “correct” call reception is organized with the necessary distribution method, with the obligatory hint for the operator that the call has come to the old number and it is necessary to notify the client about its replacement.

At the same time, calls from the new operator are not prohibited from leading through the IP network to their terminals. To avoid losses, you can register backup mobile numbers of employees and set up a scenario in which forwarding will go to them if there are problems with the SIP connection.

This allows you to shorten the call path over the Internet. Compare: IP connection between operators + last mile VS only last mile by IP. There is no transit IP connection between the old and new operators, which means that the call gets to the new one through channels with guaranteed quality of work.

After some time, when the flow of calls to the old number becomes so small that the cost of its operation will exceed the possible benefits, you can turn it off.

This option allows you not to burn bridges: if the new operator does not live up to expectations, the company will quietly roll back to the old one and continue searching for the ideal.