atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services T1's, CSU's and DSU's Need a LOT of DIDs

There was something called remote or expansion market numbers. I cant remember whey they call them.

Another option is VOIP. With this option you get a remote NPA and the call is transfered over a more cost effective medium (and yes VOIP is "safe" as long as you have a good carrier, 100% of the major call centers I work for use VOIP).

Why do you need more then one DID per NPA?

For this volume you should be paying .05 per DID, thats what I am paying with a major carrier.

One more thing, 7000 DIDs is not that much. Companies sometimes buy a entire NXX (0000-9999). What is a issue with your request is to have your 7000 DIDs is different NPAs, and hundreds per NPA.

I personally would go with a 800 number. Customers dont link assuming they are dealing with a local company only to find out they are not.

I appreciate all the advice. Which carrier is providing DIDs for 5 cents? The best price I have found is more than ten times that amount for a minimum of 5000 DIDs. They also charge a setup fee for each DID that is almost as much as the monthly cost.

Not having much luck finding low-cost DIDs. I know eFax and other businesses like AOL have a lot of DIDs and can't be paying much for them. I've heard that Global Crossing, Level 3 or AireSpring (sp?) can provide a lot of DIDs, but I haven't been able to contact a human there. If any of you has contacts at any of these big carriers, or at Verizon or ATT, I'd appreciate learning about them.

While I have an affiliation with Airespring, I would recommend a telecom broker to help you. There's a site, ShopForT1.com and while you have to fill out a form that's related to T1 service, the contact I know there could probably help you get in touch with the bigger carriers. His theory is that as a broker, if any of his clients have issues with a carrier, he'll stop selling their services, so he really pushes for customer satisfaction, even though he technically can't solve any issues directly. But it's probably easier to deal with a broker than directly with carriers.

buy one directory number in each location and use multiple call forwarding to an invisible 800 number.

I appreciate your suggestions. Any more suggestions on how to set up 7000 local numbers to go into a call center would be appreciated.

I think my client sells web sites to plumbers and then runs a call center for them. Each plumber is in business for himself and wants his own website and local phone number. When the homeowner calls the number on the web site, the call goes into a call center. The call center then gets the plumber on the other line or sets up an appointment for him.

Someone said we are trying to fool customers into thinking we are local plumbers when we are not. I don't see it that way. We are just handling calls for real local plumbers. Believe me I am not going out and fixing those leaking pipes myself.

Dont these "local" plumbers already have their own local number? Have them forward that number to an 800 number that goes to your call center. How are you gonna find a plumber in every city to justify having a local number there? I may be missing something here but your plumber explanation doesnt seem to make sense to me.

I am not telling my client how to run his business. He says he has 3000 local numbers already and gets over 12,000 calls a month. When I get more than that many calls for my services, I'll start telling him what to do and how to do it.

It would cost a local plumber about $50 to set up a local number and another $50 in monthly recurring costs. If my client cay buy numbers in bulk for 50 cents per month, he is saving someone a lot of money. Besides, I don't think he wants to advertise numbers and then have the call go directly to the plumber. There has to be a way for him to get paid for his time and expenses.

I am certainly not trying to tell anyone how to run a business. I fix telephones for a living and thats the extent of my expertise. Its just hard for me to think that one company can have that much influence on the plumbing industry to warrant a local number in every city. Even though I live in a larger city now, I spent most of my life in smaller communities. The plumbers there, or every other tradesman for that matter, if they had a guy call them up and tell them to let him handle all of their phone traffic would pretty much tell him to go pound sand.