The Dial Plan ChallengesThe Dial Plan Challenges
The “dial plan” remains key, and ignoring it may cause issues later such as possible sanctions from the FCC.
June 12, 2014
The “dial plan” remains key, and ignoring it may cause issues later such as possible sanctions from the FCC.
Only about 45% of franchised hotels and motels and 32% of independent hotels have direct 911 dialing, according to an Associated Press report on a survey conducted by the American Hotel & Lodging Association.
That's just one of many 911 issues where either hosted or premises-based solutions lack the ability or proper programming to allow users to dial 911 directly.
911 dialing is the most visible, but other issues with dial plans remain. For example, how many providers and premises-based solutions allow direct 211, 311, 411, 511, 611, 711, and 811 dialing in addition to 911? The 3-digit dialing varies from county to county and from state to state. Some 3-digit codes are access to government and emergency services.
Another issue that plagues the hospitality industry is feature code dialing (Vertical Service Codes) by guests, because guests that access local facilities (by dialing 9 first for an outside line and then *XX) can run up hundreds of dollars of charges by dialing *69 for example.
Other issues in dial plans may also prohibit guests from dialing toll free numbers: 800, 844, 855, 866, 877 and 888.
SIP providers that have routing issues within their networks can introduce additional issues that prevent mobile users from dialing the customer numbers residing on their networks. These kinds of issues take longer to sort out.
When failover for SIP routing is used, is it simply failover or does it include automatic alternative routing? In a recent complaint with a customer, we found the failover numbers were reversed and each of the two numbers was routed to the other automated attendant. Once the routing was corrected, we then discovered that automatic alternative routing was also in effect – meaning if the SIP trunk group became "ACB" or "ATB" (All Circuits Busy or All Trunks Busy) then calls would overflow to the backup route before receiving a busy signal or out of service conditional recording.
The "dial plan" remains key, and ignoring it may cause issues later such as possible sanctions from the FCC. Document and test your dial plans, and don't ignore glitches or wait for penalties.
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