[asterisk-biz] ANI

[Trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Mon, 2008-05-12 at 15:43 -0400, Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
> When calls are dumped into the PSTN, they *have* to have valid ANI; too
> much of the semantics of the entire remainder of the PSTN depends on it. 
> 

That is not true, ANI is not used for routing or billing of the call,
the BTN (billing telephone number) is used for billing.  Now some
carriers use the ANI for intercarrier compensation, but that is not
something that matters on the PSTN itself, and to that end phantom
traffic can exist even with valid ANIs (traffic that is enough to
complete the call but not enough to properly bill carriers for that
call).

> 
> But there has to be an ANI, and it has to point somewhere valid -- even
> if it's the edge provider itself as proxy for the end sub.


Case and point the federal government will often send calls out onto the
pstn with a ani and caller id of 0000000000, which is less than valid.
This disproves assertions that it has to point somewhere valid.

-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
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