DID numbers ultimately forwarding to cell phone?

Quote:

Would doing this be illegal?

No, but there are mechanisms in place whereby the carriers don't have to pick up the cost (especially if you do the 1000 line setup you mention, which will trip a flag).

So the end result would be a lot of paperwork for us and for callwithus.

I'm surprised that you've raised it with him and it hasn't been fixed though. I suspect he hasn't fully understood the issue. He has a misconfigured switch, and that will ultimately amount to a whole bunch of hassle for him later.

gabe :

I'm familiar with the concept of loss leaders, but it's a fundamentally different issue where you can benefit financially by doing what's described below. Where the number does not share revenue, you can bilk the phone company, sure, but you can't profit personally. Where there _is_ revenue sharing, however, well, just imagine what happens if you set up 10000 revenue sharing numbers, and just leave 10000 calls to these numbers open. Assuming a margin of 1p per minute, you're making 100 pounds a minute (ignoring the costs of running the computer, that is). Hence my surprise at seeing this happening - it's a money tree. Just checked my bill - I was charged a rate of $0.014 per minute, and I've even checked with the operator (it's a small company with very quick and excellent customer service, well, at least for the day I've used them, anyway) - he assures me that it's no mistake, and that the carriers they use to terminate do not distinguish the 0844 prefix from other 08X rates. (There is, however, a higher rate on 0870 calls if you look at the pricing guide.) I was loathe to post this, in case there is a mistake on the part of the callwithus guy, but now that he's written me back, I don't see why I shouldn't... now it's time to set up my own 10000 revenue sharing numbers - what's the capacity of an asterix setup again? (: Which brings me back to - what am I missing? Would doing this be illegal? If the error is indeed by one of the large carriers, it would probably take them quite some time to realise what was going on...

all of the free conference call services in the USA work this way. they get money in the form of 'martking fees' from the local exchanges that handle the calls. there several ongoing legal cases most started by AT&T(who overwhelmingly takes the hit) they have already succeeded in shutting down yak4ever that was a service that had you call a number based in iowa(usually free from your cell phone or unlimited long distance plan) and than dial number for countries around the world. it was completely free to the user, cost AT&T big buck and profited yak4ever handsomely. it is called telecom arbitrage. you are not missing anything and as long as you do not directly violate anything in your contract it is indeed legal. of course expect your contract to state something like 'calls must be for the purpose of conversation between two individuals.' of course your service also could be canceled is the company is not making a profit from you. it is quite unlike that you could succeed at keep the lines open.

as far as setting it up yourself you will probably need some very close connections to the telecoms industry. you do not just sign up for revenue sharing number on a website. this is exactly how IPKall and freedigits two companies that offer free USA DID numbers work(they are in very high cost termination rate centers) but it is not as easy as just signing up for a service that gives you back money on all incoming calls. if you do find someone who will pay you please do let me know.

When he got back to me, he was quite explicit, so I'm fairly sure he understood perfectly - as I understand it some of the carriers he uses for termination simply don't distinguish 0844 in the same way that they do 0870. So I don't think the error is on his end, but rather on the part of whoever he's using to terminate the calls.

Besides, I was never actually serious about setting up some system or other to exploit it - while I'm sure it could be done for a time, I'd rather just keep my day job. I'm rather fond of it, anyway.

But thanks for the info in any case, spg.