Faxability not an option when connected to Browns Bay exchange? You gotta be joking?

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Spong

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Topic # 31628 24-Mar-2009 20:29

I have customer who decided to downsize from seperate phone and fax lines at home, to a single phone line with faxability. They were able to keep their original phone and fax numbers, but when I was called in, I found that when their fax number was called, the line had a standard ringing cadence, instead of the single long ring you'd normally get with faxability. Therefore their fax machine when set to faxability mode (distinctive ring) just ignores all calls thinking they're just regular phone calls, as you'd expect. A call to Telecom support confirmed that the Browns Bay exchange is "too old" to support faxability, and hence my customer has been given "dual number' instead. The CSR told me we need a fax machine that supports "dual number" or the ability to answer when it receives calls from the allocated fax number only. I can't believe Browns Bay could still be in the dark ages - hey it's a pretty big suburb on the North Shore feeding some of the bays including us here in Mairangi Bay also. Does anyone know where I can find such a fax machine, and models? I've never heard of them, and I'm not sure if they even exist. the Telecom CSR didn't have a clue either.

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Reply # 203119 24-Mar-2009 20:54

Move to VoIP and get a fax to email number?

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matt45

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Reply # 203126 24-Mar-2009 21:16

Browns Bay Exchange contains 2 types of neax switches 1 is a K and 1 is a E, the K which is what you customer will be on does not support distinctive ringing, however the E does, but they do not have shared number ranges, if you customer wants to move to the E switch they will need a number change and rejumpering, if they want they can also have the old numbers customerlinked (diverted) to the new numbers.

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Reply # 203138 24-Mar-2009 21:56

coffeebaron: Move to VoIP and get a fax to email number?

you dont necessarily need to move to voip - you can just get a fax-to-email servce by itself, probably for cheaper than the faxability charges too

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Spong

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Reply # 203141 24-Mar-2009 22:10

Dual number (what they've been given, when they asked for faxability) is costing them around NZ$2.50 a month. I did a quick check of fax to email services, they seem to be around US$12.95 a month. Does anyone make a fax with built-in caller ID that could answer, when calls are made to that number only?

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matt45

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Reply # 203143 24-Mar-2009 22:14

BTW K switches can not provide Caller ID, which i *'think* rules out that possibility

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Reply # 203145 24-Mar-2009 22:21

Spong: Dual number (what they've been given, when they asked for faxability) is costing them around NZ$2.50 a month. I did a quick check of fax to email services, they seem to be around US$12.95 a month. Does anyone make a fax with built-in caller ID that could answer, when calls are made to that number only?

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scottjpalmer

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Reply # 203165 25-Mar-2009 00:42

Spong: . . . Does anyone make a fax with built-in caller ID that could answer, when calls are made to that number only?

CallerID shows the number of the calling party not the number being called - or am I missing something here?

Jughead

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Reply # 203187 25-Mar-2009 08:40

matt45 is correct. Browns Bay has been upgraded but the way switch boards work is they all have thier own number ranges.

So rather than upgrade an area and force everyone to change thier number they plonk the new swtich right next to the old one and slowly migrate people over.

After all many people on the k switch are quite happy with their service and would rather keep thier number they have had for years.

Your friends could move to the new swtich and get customer link for around $20 per line. If they didn't want a permanent redirect they will get the free change of number serive for three months which informs callers of the new numbers.

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Reply # 203194 25-Mar-2009 09:19

I would have thought with Number portability, that having to change phone numbers when you moved switches was a thing of the past?

matt45

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Reply # 203195 25-Mar-2009 09:26

porting the number to another switch is technically possible but it is not a provided service as it is not that easy to do.

raytaylor

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Reply # 203353 25-Mar-2009 22:12

Thats really interesting.
In Taradale, with a population of 11,000+rural, they dont have caller id. Browns bay has a pop of ~4,000+surrounding

I also have never heard of a fax machine that will distinguish between the called number if the ring style is the same.

I would suggest setting the fax to listen mode. When you answer a call, the fax machine will listen to the call and if it is a fax, will automatically kick in - you just have to wait 5 seconds before hanging up the phone. If no one answers then the fax should be set to answer after 10 rings. If an answering phone is needed, you will need it built into the fax. Most brother faxes support this.

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Reply # 203360 25-Mar-2009 22:44

scottjpalmer:
Spong: . . . Does anyone make a fax with built-in caller ID that could answer, when calls are made to that number only?

CallerID shows the number of the calling party not the number being called - or am I missing something here?

thats correct. callerid = the party calling you.

in this case the technology used is DID - direct inward dialling. More commonly used with ISDN but also available on analog. SIP trunks also support sending the DID number.

I did a quick google search to see if i could dig up a ueful article and this one seemed to explain it quite well:
http://kbase.gfi.com/showarticle.asp?id=KBID001349

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Reply # 203652 27-Mar-2009 05:01

Don't be to supprised your not the only one the taradale exchange in napier doesn't support faxability, caller id either word from telecom we are waiting to see if prices drop on more up to date hardware before we upgrade the exchange and that was ten yrs ago and they are still waiting

Bung

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Reply # 203660 27-Mar-2009 07:02

Jughead: matt45 is correct. Browns Bay has been upgraded but the way switch boards work is they all have thier own number ranges.

So rather than upgrade an area and force everyone to change thier number they plonk the new swtich right next to the old one and slowly migrate people over.

After all many people on the k switch are quite happy with their service and would rather keep thier number they have had for years.

Your friends could move to the new swtich and get customer link for around $20 per line. If they didn't want a permanent redirect they will get the free change of number serive for three months which informs callers of the new numbers.

The parent exchange of the RLU obviously copes with multiple number ranges so what was stopping Telecom from migrating all the K customers as a block? I've heard that the power savings from newer technology would have easily paid for the change if it had been done.

matt45

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Reply # 203764 27-Mar-2009 17:04

its not only the job of migrating customers it is the capacity for new customers, these switches need to last for up to another 10 years, there will be an increase in customers in the next 10 years hense the lack of capacity. and as for the shared number ranges, if you share a migrate a kai number onto an E switch when that kai number is called the call goes to the kai switch which has to be programed with the routing code of the E switch for that number, the call is then routed through the IN to the E switch, doing this for thousands of customers is simply not viable IMO.

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