<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:courier,monaco,monospace,sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div style="font-family: courier,monaco,monospace,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I worked for a payphone operator that had ported a large number of their pay phones in prisons over to an ATA/DSL. I think they eventually pulled them out because not a single ITSP could deliver dial around compensation reliably over to the destination POTS carrier. Without that, the company did not receive a portion of the revenue from the 800 numbers (calling cards) the prisoners would always use. Actually it wasn't just a problem in prisons, but in the few thousand other ATA's with DSL they had deployed. Oops!<br><br>Doug.<br><br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">----- Original Message ----<br>From: Harry McGregor <hmcgregor@espri.arizona.edu><br>To: Commercial and
Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion <asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com><br>Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 6:11:40 PM<br>Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] Asterisk for Inmate Communication Services?<br><br>
Hopefully
some
of
this
will
help
others
here.<br><br>I
helped
with
an
Asterisk
deployment
in
a
law
office
rather
recently, <br>and
it
was
a
ton
of
headaches.<br><br>The
biggest
issue
is
that
we
switched
them
from
Qwest
pots
to
Time <br>Warner
Telecom
ISDN
PRI.<br><br>On
the
Qwest
Pots
service
they
could
received
collect
calls
from
a <br>specific
prison.
Time
Warner
does
not
permit
3rd
party
collect
call <br>billing.<br><br>Most
people
don't
need
this
and
don't
care,
and
it
is
normally
not
a
big <br>deal,
and
more
of
a
fraud
prevention
issue
than
anything
else.<br><br>Of
course
most
of
our
problem
was
communication.<br><br>Client
called
us
and
said
that
they
"could
not
received
collect
calls", <br>so
we
went
back
and
forth
with
our
sales
rep
and
TWTC
Noc
trying
to <br>trace
this
down,
and
tested
collect
calls,
etc,
without
issues.
We <br>reported
to
the
client
that
we
could
not
find
an
issue
with
collect
calls.<br><br>Client
called
again,
with
collect
call
issues,
this
time
mentioned
it <br>was
a
prison.
We
tracked
down
all
of
the
prison
calling
services
we <br>could,
CBS
was
the
main
one,
and
setup
for
them
to
get
direct
billed. <br>Thought
issue
was
solved.<br><br>Called
again
with
this
issue.
After
some
teeth
pulling,
we
find
out <br>exactly
which
prison
it
is,
and
what
the
recorded
message
they
got <br>said.
Talked
with
this
specific
billing
company,
they
ONLY
do
prepaid, <br>or
third
party
billing
via
your
dial
tone
provider.<br><br>We
also
found
this
in
the
CDR,
which
helped
us
find
the
billing
contact...<br><br>
<br>2007-xx-xx
xx:xx:xx
<br>
928428xxxx
"INTEGRETELARIZO"
<928428xxxx>
xxxx<br>
ANSWERED
00:45<br><br><br><br>So
all
in
all,
it
took
about
30
hours
of
our
time,
plus
TWTC
times, <br>including
the
area
sales
manager,
and
a
director
in
the
NOC,
to
find
out <br>that
because
the
3rd
party
billing,
nothing
could
really
be
solved.<br><br>The
lawyer
refused
to
open
the
prepaid
account,
said
the
client
could <br>write
a
letter
instead,
and
is
still
thinking
of
moving
back
to
Qwest <br>due
to
the
issue.
$50
dropped
into
a
prepaid
account
vs
30+ <br>non-billable
hours
over
the
course
of
two
months...<br><br>Prison
phone
systems
make
the
prison
system
a
lot
of
money,
and
the <br>billing
companies
are
more
concerned
with
fraud
prevention
then
enabling <br>clients
to
talk
with
their
lawyers.<br><br>Problem
processor:<br>Integretel
Inc.
and
the
billing
processor
is
IPS.<br><br>
IPS
-
1-888-506-8407
(24/hour
service
number)<br><br>
The
account
can
be
setup
with
any
major
credit
card
(other
options <br>include
Western
Union....)<br>
If
you
add
$50
or
more
to
the
prepaid
account
at
one
time,
you
avoid <br>the
$4.99
processing
fee.<br>
If
at
any
point
you
decide
you
wish
a
refund
of
the
remaining <br>balance
of
the
prepaid
account,
IPS
has
a
$2.99
processing
fee
for
the <br>refund.<br><br>Problem
prison:<br>Grahm
County
correctional,
Arizona<br><br>Easy
billing
provider
to
work
with
(they
will
do
invoicing
for
law <br>firms,
etc):<br>Correctional
Billing
Service
1-800-844-6591<br><br>All
in
all,
if
you
do
any
work
for
a
law
firm
and
don't
use
an
ILEC, <br>expect
to
run
into
issues,
as
every
prison
is
different,
and
will
cause <br>you
headaches.<br><br>
Harry<br><br><br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>--Bandwidth
and
Colocation
Provided
by
<a href="http://www.api-digital.com--" target="_blank">http://www.api-digital.com--</a><br><br>asterisk-biz
mailing
list<br>To
UNSUBSCRIBE
or
update
options
visit:<br>
<a href="http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz" target="_blank">http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz</a><br></div><br></div></div><br>
<hr size=1>Never miss a thing. <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51438/*http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs"> Make Yahoo your homepage.</a>
</body></html>