This week Telstra have advised that they will be implementing new policies affecting the presentation of Telstra CLI numbers from networks that are not Telstra after 30th November. In the past, this type of behaviour was common in situations where a customer was trying to provide redundancy to their network, achieving a better call rate from another provider, or simply forwarding numbers through their phone system.
Unfortunately this change is likely to cause substantial disruption if you still have legacy numbers located with Telstra.
At this stage there is no suggested workaround to this, aside from removing any remaining numbers you utilise from the Telstra Network. If your organisation is affected, we are running substantial discounts on Category C number ports from Telstra, and free number porting for Category A numbers with Telstra.
At this stage we are aware of no other provider in Australia taking these extraordinary steps, and believe strongly that Telstra should consider implementing other measures (including the internationally recognised STIR/SHAKEN protocol) to address these issues.
It is the responsibility of all Carriers and Carriage Service Providers (C/CSPs), including Real World, to take active steps to reduce scam calls as outlined in the Communications Alliance (CA) publication CA C661:2020 Reducing Scam Calls Industry Code (Code) which came into effect in October 2020. This proposed change by Telstra is an extra measure Telstra are taking as not all C/CSPs are meeting their obligations under the Code.
How will the changes affect me?
- Provisioning during porting – we are awaiting further details from Telstra on the timing of un-blocks related to porting activity. At this stage, the intention is that the un-blocking will be applied within 24-48 hours of the porting request being received by Telstra. If Real World has pre-provisioned a Telstra number, the service may not be able to make outbound calls to Telstra, until an un-block has been applied in the Telstra network.
- Overstamping – arguably this was permitted if you could demonstrate ownership of the number. Following the changes proposed this will not be supported on any outbound calling,
- Call diversions – it is believed that this will not be affected by this change so long as the originating call that is presenting a Telstra A-party has made that call from the Telstra network. Telstra have indicated that it is their intention to support this where they have a record of the outbound call leaving the Telstra Network. We have some concerns as to the practicality of Telstra to implement this feature correctly, and it is possible that such behaviour will intermittently work.
- Redundancy for Telstra CLIs – Providing outbound calling redundancy using Telstra CLIs on another network will no longer be supported under this change. The only way to continue to provide outbound redundancy for your customers using Telstra services is to port the numbers off their network.