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Cost of Caller ID

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compuveg

IS-IT--Management
Dec 3, 2001
307
US
OMFG, my PRI provider says to turn on ANI would cost $200 (NRC), and it costs $0.01 per call... Is that a ridiculous rate?

Thanks in advance--
 
I would say that is very unreasonable. I am no expert on pricing of LEC and CLECs...but I can tell you that one CLEC here in Pennsylvania was charging $5 for caller ID on a PRI. The question even arose as to why you wouldn't get it. I am sure you can get quotes from other companies. Come companies might even buy out your current contract with your provider to get your business.
 
I'm glad you say it is unreasonable. That was my suspicion, but it is always great to have confirmation.

We have been in contract with Sprint since 2000. They're bullying us into renewing the contract by ways of alleging they told us 3 months ago, via email, that the PRI's rate was going to go up $200. Nevermind that I know a local loop alone is only $170, we've got to bid the stuff out and get new voice and data lines as a result.

I find it ironic that they want a contract so they can show on the book that they're going to have money coming in. They're handling us so poorly they're not even going to have a customer with us in the end. Oh well, guess we'll have to take the 9000 monthly minutes we're paying ~$0.07/minute for and go start paying $0.02/min somewhere else, and get Caller ID for free.

Sorry about my rant. I'm not about to delete that stuff though. :)
 
CID is part of PRIMARY ISDN, it has always been there. Which Sprint provider are you using? I have never heard such a thing like that! Totally unreasonable in this day and age, that sounds like a company gone nuts!

(BTW you can rant all you want. We don't mind)
(Somebody has to stir the pot!)

Depending on your area, you should be able to find a decent service provider. Is Sprint the LEC?

....JIM....
 
Well, Sprint sends us the bills. I looked up on and found that ATT/Ameritech is who owns the CO we're going into, so I suspect they will give us the best rate when we bid this out. Despite Sprint pushing us into a new contract, they're being terribly slow about providing an actual quote. Argh, I hate these folks.

You can bet that in our bidding this out we'll get caller ID.
 
Well, you said rant, here goes... :)

Aaaah, hilarious, now they're saying we don't have a PRI or ISDN. What's left? It comes into a T1 card, into a CSU/DSU, and into the 100D DS0 interface. What am I missing, and why can't my account rep just tell me what we have?
 
It sounds like they are playing games. Ask for a copy of the CSR (Customer Service Record), that should spell out the service Sprint is providing to you, and all the gory details.

I believe the AT&T/Ameritech PRI offering is similar to what AT&T/Pacific Bell offers in California. They may offer a multi-year contract with options. And by-the-way there is NO charge for CID on any AT&T ISDN service, either NRC or monthly. It is part of the service offering as the standard spells out.

....JIM....
 

Well, my sales manager @ Sprint says, "Your line is a dedicated T-1. Much like a PRI (provides 23B+D) or ISDN but the difference is the T-1 doesn’t have a D channel for signaling. "

So I guess it is just a dedicated T1. I can't imagine how signalling's done, but this might explain our lack of Calling party information on our handsets. (I'm lying though, I know signalling must be done with a small amound of bandwith of each line, right?)
 
You are correct. There are 24 channels and signaling is contained in the same channel as the voice. 64k channels (56k for voice, 8k for signaling) This is indeed why you aren't getting ANI.
 
Conventional DS1 service uses Channel Associated Signaling or CAS, that is how channelized service functions. Each channel has signaling bits that provide on-hook or off-hook indication and some do three-state signaling for its own channel. Whatever information is sent, is done on an individual channel basis. This type of DS1 service can be configured in several ways depending on customer equipment capability and purpose, ie: tie trunks, CO trunks, INWATS trunks, OUTWATS trunks, etc.

Now, I don't know what kind of service you receive on the DS1 you currently have from Sprint, but looking at the switch configuration should be telling. From my background, the only service offering that provided ANI (reference bluemr2 post above) was INWATS TOLL FREE in the format I mentioned in my posts above. There again, we keep beating the dead horse: ANI - CID. In addition unless your PBX equipment has software that will enable that type of format you WILL NEVER GET ANI!!!!!!!!

ANI IS NOT CID! ANI IS NOT CID! ANI IS NOT CID!

....JIM....
 
I'm just glad it wasn't myself that said anything about CID or ANI this time. :)

I'll look into what our 100D's configuration is in regards to how these CAS lines are coming in over the T1.

CSRs have been requested from Sprint and AT&T, who apparently is providing analog lines @ the CO to get piped across our T1. Long story short though, to get 17 lines into our system, we're paying > $1000/month. I've got to assume that when this stuff was originally installed, they recognized my organization had little experience in this sort of stuff and took advantage of it.
 
BWUAHAHAHAH! Sprint tells me they can't generate a Customer Service Record. I'm really beginning to loathe the telecomm industry.
 
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