[asterisk-biz] ANI

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 10:19:55PM +0200, Trixter aka Bret McDanel wrote:
> There are legit reasons to set the ani to the customer and not the
> provider, especially for those that want to use it as a pots line
> replacement service.

Certainly, and I've (explicitly) never suggested any differently.

> On Mon, 2008-05-12 at 16:09 -0400, Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
> > On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 11:56:06AM -0400, Peter Beckman wrote:
> > > On Fri, 9 May 2008, Steve Totaro wrote:
> > > > However, there should be a law against bogus ANI.
> > > 
> > >   So as a VoIP provider, what exactly is the ANI I should set?  A phone
> > >   number in the LATA in which my server is located?  Any phone number I
> > >   "own" or at least control?
> > 
> > If the subscriber for whom you're transiting the call to the PSTN has a
> > dialable DN for that line, then you should use that number.  If it's a
> > trunk-group type facility, any number which can be called to reach that
> > trunk group.  If the particular facility is outbound only, any number
> > that addresses an inbound facility billed to the same customer,
> > preferably at the same physical location.
> 
> ideally it would be the number that the customer chooses that they have
> proven is theirs.  However this becomes harder when you get resellers of
> resellers.  You also have to have a database, which is checked for each
> and every call to see if that customer is allowed to dial out with that
> ani.  This increases the switching cost to set up the call, increases
> the overall costs in terms of maintaining that database, and is not
> infallable (a customer may have the number one day and not the next).

As I noted, I'm perfectly happy to let aggregators do it by contract;
the hammer that will fall on them is big enough that I don't think they
need to validate a second (or third) time.

> If it boils down to a fine, you can have a indemnify and hold harmless
> clause but for those to really be effective you have to have the person
> in a jurisdiction where they can be served and be forced to comply,
> which makes international customers difficult, it also means that they
> have to have enough to actually pay, if they dont you are still on the
> hook for the fine.

Yup.  Things are a bit too wild and wooly for me in that market space
just now anyway; I don't want them pulling the entire PSTN over on top
of themselves (and me).

It ain't what it was in 1978, but it's still better than most.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                   Baylink                      jra at baylink.com
Designer                     The Things I Think                       RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates     http://baylink.pitas.com                     '87 e24
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