Toll Bypass

[Guest_imported]

Hello – I am looking for so information about the method of routing calls sometimes called “Tail end hop off”, “Leaky PBX” or “Toll bypass”.

This is how it works. A company may have two offices, one in LA and one in New York which have networked PBXs. Using existing voice or VOIP links, this company could route any call from the LA office to any phone number in the 212 area code trough the New York PBX first and then route it out as a local call.

Is this legal? Also, has anyone run into any problems implementing this?

Thanks,

Cable-Guy

 

[RLHarris]

This is completely legal, but watch out for caller ID or E911 errors.

Companies large enough to justify point to point dedicated circuits have been doing this kind of routing for years. The only difference now is that VoIP connectivity makes it less costly to implement.

As with any VoIP application, your voice quality will be as good as your network. Even if the existing WAN connectivity provides acceptable quality for station to station calls, adding more traffic may affect quality unless it is monitored. A good design would include QoS monitoring on the network that could reject the traffic. The Definity dial plan would use the full digits to send the call over the PSTN when the VoIP link reaches capacity.
Robert Harris
Communications Advantage

http://www.communicationsadvantage.com

 

[lopes1211]

This is far less of an issue with today's LD rates. With some at 3 cents per minute, they can actually rival your local service (we pay a flat 8 cents per local call). Also keep in mind the cost of the point to point. We are very used to hearing that a VOIP call is "free". Nothing is free. If you have an extra 1Meg of BW, you should see more of a savings (certainly better quality) by removing the extra BW and continuing to let calls route via your LD vendor. I crunched the numbers once trying to use some "extra" frame relay BW to route calls between Baltimore and LA. It actually cost more for the frame BW + the local call than it did to just pay for LD. This was before even factoring in the hardware $. -CL

 

[RLHarris]

It's true that the toll cost is pretty cheap for interstate calls provided you have a dedicated IXC T1 - another cost to factor in instead of just usage - otherwise you have to factor in the analog lines as well - which may be comparable in cost to the additional bandwidth.

It sounds like the customer is already using the connectivity for internal calling. If they are doing any trunk to trunk transfers to route outside customers to NY instead of making them redial, then that is additional resources to factor in.

Plus, bandwidth is getting cheaper, and just like PSTN trunking, chances are that most companies over-engineer anyway. If the WAN resources aren't available, the call can always go back to the PSTN. Robert Harris
Communications Advantage

http://www.communicationsadvantage.com

 

[Guest_imported]

Thanks RLHarris and Lopes1211.

We currently have VOIP Trunks to our other locations for extension dialing, and the WAN isn’t being fully utilized, so I think I’m going to go ahead and set this up. I just wanted to make sure this is legitimate way of routing calls.