Skype blocking irish number ranges?

H2G2

I have had difficulty calling some Irish landlines from Skype and submitted a query to their helpdesk. The answer I got from them was: “For a number of financial and fraud reasons, calling to that number range is currently not possible via Skype +353 1 5 numbers are in our blocked list and it is not possible to unblock them”.
Does anyone know what this means, or how to interpret it?

tak

Are you calling regular Irish landline numbers or are you calling VoIP extensions that are routed via the same Dublin number (eg +353 1 xxx xxxx plus ext yyyyyy) ?

If some goon started a fraud going from VoIP extensions off a Dublin number then Skype would have to stop everything to that number to stop him.

Rather_b_diving

I assume whom ever Skype are using to traffic calls into Ireland was allowing premium rate numbers - 15xx which could have meant they were losing a lot of money !!

This seems the most plausible reason

H2G2

tak wrote:

Are you calling regular Irish landline numbers or are you calling VoIP extensions that are routed via the same Dublin number (eg +353 1 xxx xxxx plus ext yyyyyy) ?

As far as I am concerned I am calling a regular Dublin phone number (+353 1) 54xxxxx and not premium or anything like that - its actually a merchant bank HQ. It is an extension, so I have tried the main number and nothing. Someone has suggested to me that the bank in question may use a service provider that skype does not have an agreement with. But I have also tried lots of random numbers in the range +353 1 54xxxxx and all get the same error, so that suggestion does not seem valid.
Very strange

Solair

Sounds like they've some notion that they should block 353 15 xx xx xx xx
Because 15 XX is premium rate here, not realising that you cannot dial 15 XX from abroad, +353 1 5XX XXXX is a local dublin number.

They shouldn't be blocking +353 1 XXX XXXX that's utterly ridiculous.
It sounds like someone doesn't know what they're talking about at Skype.

You can't dial any Irish premium, or other special rate numbers from outside the Irish network, the call will not be connected.

MickyJoe

Looking at http://www.eircom.ie/About/Activities/Sn1_pt2.pdf - page 9 - it appears that 00353 1 50xxxxx numbers are allocated to Dublin South so it looks like Skype should only be blocking 00353 1 5yxx xxx where y is 1 or greater (see page 4)!

Solair

Skype shouldn't be blocking +353 1 XXX XXXX at all

You cannot reach a 1550 or other premium rate number from outside the Irish dialling system. They're not an area code and don't exist as international numbers.

+353 1 550 xxxx would be a perfectly valid Dublin number

i.e. its 01 550 xxxx

It's not a 1550 number.

H2G2

I agree with Solair and I asked Skype to look into it. 3 weeks later all I can get from them is "I have sent your case to the pstn department for them to verify this matter". :mad: Will post when I get answer (if I ever get one) for those who are interested.

fatherdougalmag

I'm sure Skype would be interested if they knew it was blocking an entire geographic region from using their service for incoming calls!

MickyJoe

00353 1 55x xxxx is not in use as part of the dublin numbering scheme if you look at page 9 of the document that I posted a link to earlier. Only the 00353 1 50xxxxx is used in South Dublin according to this.

You might have a better chance of getting them to release this range is you point this out to them.