Orcon Homeline blocking 0900 calls?

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manhinli

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#17380 24-Nov-2007 10:44

I've been looking at Orcon's range of broadband products for a while, so I also looked at their Homeline product as well (you know... the broadband + line package deals...)

I looked into the Rate Finder at the bottom of the Homeline page, and noticed this:

Important information about Orcon Homeline:

Any smartphone services that you currently have on your line will be dropped when your line is transferred (with Homeline Plus call waiting, call minder and caller ID are retained, but any other services are dropped).
0900 calls are blocked on Orcon Homeline.

What? So I can't call a charity hotline or something?

Seriously, that needs some clarification.

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michaeln

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#96692 24-Nov-2007 11:37

WorthyCharity sets up an 0900 number with some telco. TCNZ or TCL most likely. They agree that every call that terminates on that number, the Telco will pay WorthyCharity a certain amount. In turn, the telco gets a cut---usually a fixed cost per call.

WorthyCharity advertises that you can donate by calling a certain number.

1. You are a TCNZ customer, and WorthyCharity is too. That's easy. $x appears on your TCNZ bill, TCNZ subtracts their $y service fee and remits $(x-y) to WorthyCharity.

2. You are a TCL customer but WorthyCharity is a TCNZ customer. Now it gets tricky. TCL does not/can't know how much the 0900 call will cost at the time it is made, so it has to wait for TCNZ to send a bill to TCL for your usage. That means there needs to be a mechanism in place to support this reconciliation.

Note that this is quite different from you making a toll call across networks. There the cost is known and the originating telco can figure out the bill easily. It still has to pay the termination telco for terminating the call, but as I said, it know what that will be at the time.

3. You are an Orcon customer. Nothing has changed, except that it is likely that Orcon does NOT have such a reconciliation relationship with TCNZ and TCL. That means that they have to block the call.

That's also the reason that international 0900 calls are not possible---too many bilateral arrangements would be required. In fact, it is obviously an n-squared problem.

What WOULD work would be a central 0900 broker, but there isn't one that I know of.

manhinli

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#96693 24-Nov-2007 11:44

Wow... you do know quite a lot.

That really answers my question, I wish they could work with Telecom or some other company to provide them...

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raytaylor

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#97385 28-Nov-2007 18:14

What would be good, rather than a central 0900 broker, is if the billing data was sent at the same time as the caller id data or at the end of a call.
Its a standard that many countries are working together with, and only takes a second.

User calls 0900 worthy charity on orcon homeline
Orcon routes the call to its telecom gateway and says to telecom, xxx is calling 0900worthy
telecom route it through its network of sewers to the landline.
Exchange sends callier id data down landline
At the same time telecom looks up in its database and starts timing the call

Caller hangs up.
Orcon tells telecom that the call has ended
Telecom tells orcon 'that will cost 20.00' tell the customer '20.00 - Worthy Charity Donation'
or if telecom and orcon have an agreement 'that will cost 19.00' tell customer '20.00 - Worthy Charity Donation'
Telecom sends engaged tone down landline

At the end of the month '20.00 - Worthy Charity Donation' appears on customers bill.

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old3eyes

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#97473 29-Nov-2007 08:25

manhinli: Wow... you do know quite a lot.

That really answers my question, I wish they could work with Telecom or some other company to provide them...

You could always make the call from your mobile..

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richms

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#97752 1-Dec-2007 02:32

Not if you are on prepay, since they also cant call 0900 numbers.

Richard rich.ms