Posted on: 5th November 2024, by Magrathea
Hello and welcome to the November newsletter, combining news from Magrathea and around the industry.
What’s included
- The value of special numbers
- Broadband managed orders update
- Service Spotlight: Digest authentication with IP screening
- Ofcom Investigations
- One Touch Switching for Residential Users
- One Touch Switching for Business Users
- Ofcom Statement: Future of Telephone Numbers (Revenue Sharing)
- Events and outings
The value of special numbers
One of the reasons we believe phone numbers will be around for many years to come is the popularity of what are often referred to as ‘gold’ numbers. Sales of these numbers that often have significance to the organisation using them have remained steady for many years now.
If you think one of your clients would benefit from a memorable or relevant phone number to help increase sales or improve advertising campaigns, do get in touch. We charge a one-off allocation fee starting from £100 and our team will help you find the ideal number from our stocks that are not available through our Numbering API or portal.
Broadband managed orders update
We have recently completed a review of our broadband (fibre and partial fibre) product and have identified that when installations are complex our existing pricing does not reflect the amount of extra support work required.
We had anticipated that clients would select the ‘Magrathea Managed’ option for complex orders which help mitigate these costs, however it’s now apparent that it isn’t always obvious that an order will be complex until the process is underway and much time has been committed to understanding why.
To help us address this discrepancy we have decided, effective on any order submitted from 1st January 2025, if the order is moved to ‘delayed’ status, the order will automatically be upgraded to a ‘Magrathea Managed’ order and the additional charge will be applied. Common reasons for orders being put into delayed status are orders requiring SSRAMs (Site Specific Surveys), Work Surveys, Road Closures or Dig Work required.
In the event the delay is not a complex issue requiring hands on management by our team, we will of course remove the ‘Magrathea Managed’ indicator and the additional charge will not be applied on completion of the order.
Please also remember that any order placed for business premises must be submitted as a Premium order type, this will ensure sufficient time is assigned to the installation and a greater cabling distance is automatically provided for. Any orders for business premises submitted as basic will automatically be rejected.
If you would like to learn more about our Broadband offering and get access to our portal, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our team!
Service Spotlight: Digest authentication with IP screening on SIP
For SIP originated calls, we offer three secure ways for your traffic to be authenticated. Registration via username and password, pre-authorised IP address or digest authentication – which is a combination of the first two.
With digest authentication your username and password registration can have an IP mask applied to it, so that our servers recognise which account you are using but only allowing traffic using that username if the IP address is one that has been pre-registered.
As well as offering an additional layer of security, it will also mean that you can use the same IP for authentication on two different accounts which you could not otherwise do, for example when using a standard account and a gold account simultaneously.
There is no charge to use this and if you would like to use it on your accounts, please contact our support team with your instructions.
Ofcom Investigations
In October alone, Ofcom have commenced two investigations into compliance with General Conditions. One relates to accurate and reliable caller location information to emergency organisations and the other relates to failure to comply with obligations relating to the effective and efficient use of telephone numbers.
We are flagging these here as this demonstrates that Ofcom are following through on their commitment to enforce the general conditions and are demonstrably more active in doing so in recent times.
Magrathea have a number of tools and policies in place to help clients comply with General Conditions and we are always happy to discuss any concerns you may have in these areas. For a reminder of the General Conditions and how we can help you we have a summary guide here.
One Touch Switching for Residential Users
In light of the extension granted to continue the NoT+ process until 24th October, Ofcom wrote to relevant service providers to remind them that the NoT+ process would be decommissioned on 24th October and also to urge providers to improve OTS matching success rates. A copy of the letter can be viewed here.
One Touch Switching for Business Users
Since the launch of OTS for residential users has gone fully live and the NoT+ process removed, attention is now being pulled into the development of a Gaining Party Led (GPL) process for business customers.
Co-chaired between the OTA and the Federation of Communications Service (FCS) an industry working group has been working on this for some time now and have recently released a webinar to share a status update with us all. The webinar, offering a high-level summary of the process and an overview of the regulations, can be viewed here.
In addition, a new best practice guide to avoid erroneous transfers on the Openreach network has also been released and can be found attached to this email.
Ofcom Statement: Future of Telephone Numbers (revenue sharing)
We summarised this consultation back in December, a copy can be viewed here . There are no significant changes in the final statement and the resulting changes to the National Telephone Numbering Plan will take effect in April 2025.
The key thing to note are that revenue sharing (with called party or calling party) is not permitted on 01, 02, 03, 05, 070 and 076 ranges.
084 and 087 ranges no longer allow revenue sharing with the calling party, but the called party has no restriction.
Revenue sharing can be directly or indirectly so if you do any type of credit or cash for calls schemes you should check the details carefully to see if you need to make changes ahead of the April deadline.
Events and outings
It’s a busy month for industry engagement with a variety of our team getting involved.
We will be heading up to One George Street, Westminster on 13th November to join the NICC Open Forum. As active NICC members this is a great opportunity to meet with others face to face and to share updates on the work each task group has done throughout the year. This year there is a keynote from Ofcom on the Telecoms Security Act and as well as CLI authentication and scams. This event is open to non-members too, details are here.
On Tuesday 19th November we have a CCUK Anti-Scams Webinar. This brief session is for CCUK members to learn more about a new initiative they are working on with National Trading Standards to help improve information sharing and crack down on fraudsters jumping between service providers.
Next, we have the ISPA Awards on 21st November. Always a glamorous event and this year will be no different, taking place at The OWO Raffles in Whitehall, we enjoy getting dressed up and celebrating with the many ISPs and altnets we work with. Magrathea sponsor the Best Voice Provider award and will be there to congratulate all of the finalists.
Then rounding off the month, on 27th November we will be attending the FCS CSP+ Event. This online session is titled ‘Navigating Change: Communication Service Providers in a time of transformation’. Speakers will be representing DSIT, Ofcom and a number of service providers. Tracey Wright will be joining one of the panels to talk about the strategic priorities for a complex supply chain. The event is free to attend, just contact fcs@fcs.org.uk for more details.
What’s on our minds…
When we caught up with the Support Team this month they said we have seen a flurry of fault reports without enough information to effectively deal with them. So, to help us provide a brilliant level of service, we would like to remind our clients that it’s really helpful if you can provide call examples when reporting a fault. Ideally more than one and note in the body of the email the date, time and number dialled. It’s really helpful when you attach a trace too but by adding the basic details our team are able to very quickly direct the message to the most appropriate person and get it looked at quickly.
A copy of our guide on common faults and how to help us react quickly and efficiently is available from our client download page here: Handling Common Faults
Or for clients with MAGIC portal access the guide can also be found here . If you would like information on how to access the portal please email support@magrathea-telecom.co.uk
And finally, we would love to hear from you and understand what topics you would like us to cover and what information you would like to see in our newsletter. If you have any feedback or specific areas you feel we should cover in more detail – please email us info@magrathea-telecom.co.uk
Kind regards
Client Focus Team, Magrathea
The information contained in this guidance is for your information only and is not intended to be relied on. It does not constitute legal professional advice, nor is it a substitute for you obtaining your own legal professional advice. Magrathea accepts no liability whatsoever for any errors, omissions or statements in this guidance or for any loss which may arise from your use of this guidance.