Can I keep my current phone number(s) if I switch to BounceTel services?

In most cases, yes, BounceTel supports Local Number Portability (LNP). A BounceTel sales associate can determine whether specific numbers are portable.

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Can I connect to BounceTel services if I have a dynamic IP address?

Yes, customers can connect to BounceTel services with a dynamic IP address by using registration.

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Can I send a number in the caller ID that is not provided by BounceTel?

Yes, BounceTel allows customers to send whatever 10-digit number in the caller ID they would like to send. Bear in mind that if a customer sends a 10-digit number that does not represent their business, it may be illegal and a breach of the BounceTel acceptable terms of use. This functionality is primarily for call forwarding applications where it is desirable to know the true calling party.

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Can I send a 7-digit number for local calling?

Yes. BounceTel supports 7-digit, 10-digit, 1+10-digit, and 011+CC+TN international dialing.

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Does BounceTel support Caller ID (CID)?

Yes, BounceTel supports passing caller ID

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Does BounceTel support E911?

Yes. BounceTel supports E911 on customers' BTN and BounceTel Enhanced Local Numbers (ELNs). Customers must make sure they send the correct BTN or ELN on any call to 911; otherwise the call center will receive the wrong address because addresses are registered against the calling number. There is a $50 per-call charge for any call to 911 from a calling number that is not a BTN or ELN.

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Does BounceTel support faxing?

BounceTel supports T.38 for faxing, as well as faxing over G.711 ?-Law.

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Does BounceTel support QoS?

Long Answer: QoS is typically deployed on a homogeneous network. A homogeneous network is a network under the control of one entity and designed and deployed using a single policy for packet classification and prioritization. Any time a packet crosses a network boundary, it might flow under a different policy for classification and prioritization which no longer matches the policy of the network that it left. When such policy changes occur, the QoS tag on the packet might be altered from its original state. This is re-classification. Re-classification can occur at any network boundary and depends on the policies of both networks. Thus, any QoS tag placed on packets before they leave a network might never reach the BounceTel network. In addition, any QoS tag BounceTel places on the packet might never reach the destination network. QoS is only useful if there is a bottleneck between the source and destination endpoints and more than one type of traffic traverses that bottleneck. In a case like that, the QoS policy is meant to prioritize one type of traffic over another. Typically, a primary distinction exists between voice/video and data. There are other types, such as network control traffic, but for this discussion, only voice or data traffic is included. Thus, if there is a separate Internet connection for voice (no data is sent over that connection), deploying QoS on that connection will serve no purpose. It makes no sense to try to prioritize one voice connection over another, and more than likely, no routers or switches exist that are capable of doing so. The BounceTel network runs 99.99% voice traffic. BounceTel does not have the capability to prioritize one voice stream over another. While the BounceTel network marks packets accordingly and implements QoS policies, it makes little difference in the flow of packets across the network. BounceTel also keeps adequate available bandwidth on all links to ensure they never become congested. QoS is of benefit if both data and voice traffic use the same Internet connection. In this case, traffic should be classified accordingly and packets prioritized before they go out over the Internet connection. In addition, the ISP should be contacted to classify and prioritize packets before they send traffic back over the Internet connection. A customer?s Internet connection is likely the largest (and possibly the only) bottleneck between the customer?s PBX and the BounceTel Session Border Controller (SBC) they signal to. Therefore, it is the primary point where QoS should be enabled. Enabling QoS at that point will help reduce or eliminate packet loss of voice traffic, reduce jitter for voice traffic, and reduce latency for voice traffic. All of these affect call quality. In addition, customers should determine the total bits per second of traffic they have allocated to voice after enacting their QoS policy and ensure that it is large enough to accommodate the number of simultaneous calls they anticipate, given the bandwidth requirements of their particular codec. Remember, customers must also count any headers on the codec (RTP, IP, UDP, Ethernet/Frame Relay/MLPPP, etc). For G.711, they should plan for 88 Kbps per call. For G.729, they should plan for 38 Kbps per call. In addition, they should ensure that it is not possible to set up more calls than the allotted voice bandwidth can handle.

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Does BounceTel support registration?

Yes, BounceTel supports registration SIP trunks.

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How are local calling areas determined?

Local calling areas are determined by comparing the rate center of the calling party number (CGPN) to the rate center of the called party number (CDPN). BounceTel typically follows the rate center relationships defined by the ILEC servicing the customer?s area. Thus, in almost all cases, if the ILEC in the customer?s area has defined that two rate centers are local to each other, all calls that fit that relationship definition will be rated as local calls. If a customer needs to know whether specific calls will be treated as local, they may submit a request to the BounceTelCustomer Service Department to have their particular calling patterns verified.

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How does local calling work?

Local calling is based on both the called and calling party numbers. Here are the rules, in the order they are applied: • If the called party number is local to the calling party number and the calling party number is either a BTN or ELN, then the call is rated as local. • If the called party number is not local to the calling party number and the calling party number is either a BTN or ELN, then the call is rated as long distance.

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Does BounceTel support QoS?

Long Answer: QoS is typically deployed on a homogeneous network. A homogeneous network is a network under the control of one entity and designed and deployed using a single policy for packet classification and prioritization. Any time a packet crosses a network boundary, it might flow under a different policy for classification and prioritization which no longer matches the policy of the network that it left. When such policy changes occur, the QoS tag on the packet might be altered from its original state. This is re-classification. Re-classification can occur at any network boundary and depends on the policies of both networks. Thus, any QoS tag placed on packets before they leave a network might never reach the BounceTel network. In addition, any QoS tag BounceTel places on the packet might never reach the destination network. QoS is only useful if there is a bottleneck between the source and destination endpoints and more than one type of traffic traverses that bottleneck. In a case like that, the QoS policy is meant to prioritize one type of traffic over another. Typically, a primary distinction exists between voice/video and data. There are other types, such as network control traffic, but for this discussion, only voice or data traffic is included. Thus, if there is a separate Internet connection for voice (no data is sent over that connection), deploying QoS on that connection will serve no purpose. It makes no sense to try to prioritize one voice connection over another, and more than likely, no routers or switches exist that are capable of doing so. The BounceTel network runs 99.99% voice traffic. BounceTel does not have the capability to prioritize one voice stream over another. While the BounceTel network marks packets accordingly and implements QoS policies, it makes little difference in the flow of packets across the network. BounceTel also keeps adequate available bandwidth on all links to ensure they never become congested. QoS is of benefit if both data and voice traffic use the same Internet connection. In this case, traffic should be classified accordingly and packets prioritized before they go out over the Internet connection. In addition, the ISP should be contacted to classify and prioritize packets before they send traffic back over the Internet connection. A customer?s Internet connection is likely the largest (and possibly the only) bottleneck between the customer?s PBX and the BounceTel Session Border Controller (SBC) they signal to. Therefore, it is the primary point where QoS should be enabled. Enabling QoS at that point will help reduce or eliminate packet loss of voice traffic, reduce jitter for voice traffic, and reduce latency for voice traffic. All of these affect call quality. In addition, customers should determine the total bits per second of traffic they have allocated to voice after enacting their QoS policy and ensure that it is large enough to accommodate the number of simultaneous calls they anticipate, given the bandwidth requirements of their particular codec. Remember, customers must also count any headers on the codec (RTP, IP, UDP, Ethernet/Frame Relay/MLPPP, etc). For G.711, they should plan for 88 Kbps per call. For G.729, they should plan for 38 Kbps per call. In addition, they should ensure that it is not possible to set up more calls than the allotted voice bandwidth can handle.

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If I forward a call to a number that is local to the calling party, will it be treated as a local call?

No, because the calling party number is not a BTN or ELN. If a customer forwards a call to a number that is local to the BTN or an ELN and they send that BTN or ELN as the calling party number, then yes, the forwarded call is rated as local.

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Is faxing over VoIP reliable?

BounceTel has experienced average fax success rates exceeding 95% for customers on both T.38 and G.711. Many customers have seen success rates over 99% for both protocols. Faxing over VoIP has come a long way in the past ten years, and most modern devices have no trouble performing fax over VoIP. However, there are still several devices on the market that have poor VoIP faxing implementations. If a customer is having difficulty faxing over VoIP, they may wish to try an alternate faxing platform. BounceTel device certification plans include testing fax over both T.38 and G.711 for both inbound and outbound directions.

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Is it possible for someone to spoof caller ID information?

Someone who uses a VoIP connection, regardless of whether the phone number is from a PSTN, cellular, satellite or VoIP provider, can spoof phone numbers. Anyone who uses a VoIP connection has the capability of sending a caller ID (CID ? the calling party phone number that appears on the recipient?s phone) that does not belong to them, as long as their service provider does not screen CIDs. In addition, if they send a CID on their outbound call to a recipient who receives calling name service (CNAM), that recipient will see the registered name as the calling name. The reason is simple: when the called party?s local exchange carrier (LEC) receives the call, the called party?s LEC will dip the CID and lookup the CNAM information. Since the CID is a valid CID, that dip will return the registered CNAM information. This capability is also present from various TDM service providers, so it has been around and has been a possible threat for far longer than VoIP services have been around. VoIP has simply lowered the cost of entry for this particular type of malicious act. On June 27, 2007, the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation approved the ?Truth in Caller ID Act of 2007? which outlaws this practice, both over traditional phone services and over VoIP. As of December 11, 2008, it was not signed into law.

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What codecs does BounceTel support?

BounceTel supports G.711 ?-Law and G.729 Annex A for voice; RFC 2833, inaudio DTMF, and SIP INFO for DTMF methods; and T.38 or in-audio tone-based signaling over G.711 ?-Law for faxing.

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Will calls ever traverse the public Internet?

That depends on what is considered to be the "public Internet." In reality, there is no such thing as the "public Internet." The Internet is set of private networks that use public IP addresses to interconnect to each other. If customers have a public IP address, they can send traffic toward any other public IP address, and they can receive traffic from any other public IP address. This does not mean, however, that the general public has access to any of their traffic at any point while traversing the private networks that make up the Internet. Typically, when traffic is sent from one public IP address to another, the customer?s traffic traverses the private network of their ISP, the private network of their ISP's ISP, and possibly several other private networks before it reaches their intended destination. The number of private networks that it traverses depends on whether they are connected to a Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3 ISP. It also depends on whether the destination is connected to a Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3 ISP. BounceTel connects directly to several Tier 1 ISPs in each city. If customers connect to a Tier 1 ISP, then their calls typically only traverse their network, their ISP's network, and BounceTel?s ISP's network before arriving at the edge of the BounceTel network. If they happen to be using one of the same Tier 1 providers that BounceTel uses, then their call only traverses their network to get from their network to the BounceTel network. Even in the worst case of their ISP being a Tier 3 ISP, their traffic does not likely traverse more than four networks to get from their network to the BounceTel network. Once a call reaches the BounceTel network, BounceTel attempts to terminate it directly to the PSTN. If BounceTel does not have direct connectivity to the PSTN in the market of the destination party, they pass the call off to another carrier for termination to the PSTN. In many cases, this alternate carrier is a Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) that has direct control over the destination market. In some cases, the alternate carrier is another SIP carrier who passes the call off to another party. When BounceTel does not pass the call directly to the PSTN, they pass the call on to the next entity via SIP over the Internet. In some of those cases, the RBOC and the BounceTel Tier 1 ISP are the same entity, so the call travels from the BounceTel network to their network and then directly to the PSTN. Currently, it is cost prohibitive to purchase direct, point-to-point connectivity between the BounceTel network and the networks of all the carriers used to terminate calls. To do so, BounceTel would be required to significantly increase rates, at which point VoIP would no longer be cost-competitive with the Plain Old Telephone System (POTS).

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