Magrathea Newsletter – 24th November 2021

Posted on: 24th November 2021, by Magrathea

Welcome to the latest edition of the Magrathea Newsletter, combining news from Magrathea and around the industry.

Ofcom’s Emergency Video Relay statement

As mentioned in our July newsletter, Ofcom announced their decision to require fixed and mobile telephony providers and providers of internet access services to provide (or contract to provide) a free 24/7 video relay service for deaf British Sign Language (BSL) users to enable communication with emergency services.

Under current rules, those who have hearing or speech impediments are able to communicate over the phone through an Ofcom-approved text relay service but as these services rely exclusively on written English, it’s possible for British Sign Language (BSL) users to be misinterpreted.  Ofcom’s new requirement will come into effect from 17 June 2022.

Ofcom received an application from Sign Language Interactions and have recently released a new consultation to decide if they should be approved to provide the service.  A decision will be published in January 2022.  More information on this can be viewed here: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/228141/consultation-emergency-video-relay-sli-service.pdf

Porting in the UK: Common Issues

At Magrathea our porting team work really hard to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible for our clients when moving numbers. We understand how important it is to get right and we’re very experienced at sorting out any issues when they arise.  However sometimes things happen outside of our control and you may wonder why problems occur.  Please find attached a customer information sheet on common UK porting faults, which explains some of the ‘mysteries’ of the porting process and what happens when things go wrong.

International calls presenting in-country CLI

We are increasingly aware that many more International destinations do not allow calls that are originating outside of their country but that are presenting a local or in-country CLI. These calls will sometimes be blocked or rejected by the far end carrier, or have a replacement network number inserted with the call passed as anonymous to the far end handset.

If you experience unexpected call failures to destinations that you know are valid, please do check to see if this circumstance could be the case. Unfortunately, as this is usually brought in as an anti-spam measure in place from the far end, there is typically no way to route around this but if you are in any doubt please send over the call examples and we can investigate.

Nuisance Calls

A reminder that Ofcom have the right to withdraw number ranges from a range holder if they have significant concern over nuisance calls originating from a particular number range.

Whilst we make every reasonable effort to ensure our ranges are not involved with nuisance calls, due to the risk of the impact of ranges being withdrawn we are renewing our efforts to prevent and detect misuse and in turn encourage each of our clients to review their own customer base to ensure compliance with all current regulations and guidance. To help us to satisfy our obligations as a range holder, we will continue to monitor and review and will be asking clients to provide evidence of compliance with the Ofcom guidelines where necessary.

PSA 15th Code of Practice

The Phone-Paid Services Authority has published a new Code of Practice, which will come into force on the 5th April 2022.  If you are operating Premium Rate services, we strongly recommend that you familiarize yourself with this new Code.

The new Code aims to raise standards, prevent harm, be simpler to comply with and be underpinned with smarter enforcement.  Details on the new Code can be found here: https://psauthority.org.uk/for-business/new-code-15

Porting Portal Video

Our second information video – this one a tour around our Porting Portal is now available to watch. Please take a look at the video here: https://www.magrathea-telecom.co.uk/introduction-to-our-porting-portal/

Your feedback as always will be welcomed, and if you don’t already use the Porting Portal and would like to, please drop us an email to support@magrathea-telecom.co.uk so that we can get you set up with access to these tools.

Porting Freeze

A reminder that our Porting Desk will be closed for the festive period on Friday 17th December 2021 and service will resume on Tuesday 4th January 2022. No new UK or Irish ports will be submitted during this period – any ports submitted prior to this date that would normally be completed during this period will have the porting date delayed until January.

As always here at Magrathea we appreciate your comments and feedback, if there is anything you would like to contact us about, or you would like to opt out of receiving future newsletters, please email info@magrathea-telecom.co.uk