The end of 076 VOIP numbers?

Johnboy1951

For reference the best I can do is to link to this post

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=104411854&postcount=7336

which has the relevant links and quotes.

My reading of the material is that ComReg has concentrated on Service Providers and Telcos to the detriment of those who use 076 numbers.

We have five 076 numbers since they began to be issued.
Each has its own purpose or person associated with it.
Calls are made to these numbers without charge when using VOIP, from anywhere in the world.
Calls are made to other VOIP contacts free of charge, regardless their location.

Essentially it is a cost-free set up.

There are additional allowances made for making and receiving calls to landlines and mobiles.

What is to happen to the cost-free VOIP set up should Comreg implement their proposals?

The future looks dim for cost-free VOIP communications.
(unless I am misreading things completely)

Mr. G

Given most Governmental departments changed from 1890 -> 076 they may well end up either:
1) Forcing 076 to be included in telecom plans
2) Retire 076
3) Keep as is

1) is what I predict would be the preferred option, but not sure if it will be allowed under competition rules. It will be an interesting one. It's worth noting that 076 is charged by some VoIP providers even, so I think they should either respect it and treated it as a geographic number or get rid of it.

The other issue with 1800/1890/1850 (I know 1800 is not included in this), but it conflicts with the 01 dial tone so cannot be called outside of Ireland.

Victor

Another thread there: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057776138

Johnboy1951

Mr. G wrote: »

Given most Governmental departments changed from 1890 -> 076 they may well end up either:
1) Forcing 076 to be included in telecom plans
2) Retire 076
3) Keep as is

1) is what I predict would be the preferred option, but not sure if it will be allowed under competition rules. It will be an interesting one. It's worth noting that 076 is charged by some VoIP providers even, so I think they should either respect it and treated it as a geographic number or get rid of it.

The other issue with 1800/1890/1850 (I know 1800 is not included in this), but it conflicts with the 01 dial tone so cannot be called outside of Ireland.

They have another alternative ...... oblige the telecom companies to either include in plans, or not charge at all, for 076 1xxxxx numbers which have been allocated to government.
That would allow the rest of the 076 VOIP numbers to be treated as the market decides.

It has been quite some time since I looked closely at these things, but for instance if you originally got a 076 number from Freespeech you could use a SIP account to call that number as a SIP number free of cost, in the format
07612345@freespeech.ie

Similarly if you got an 076 number from Blueface, it had a SIP URI associated with it (extension number) so that could be called using a SIP account, free of charge, using the URI
12345@sip.blueface.ie
or some such URI.

My recall on those is a little hazy, but it would be a shame to destroy those functions by discarding all 076 numbering.

I think that variation on your 1) above might be workable.

Gmaximum

Mr. G wrote: »

Given most Governmental departments changed from 1890 -> 076 they may well end up either:
1) Forcing 076 to be included in telecom plans
2) Retire 076
3) Keep as is

1) is what I predict would be the preferred option, but not sure if it will be allowed under competition rules. It will be an interesting one. It's worth noting that 076 is charged by some VoIP providers even, so I think they should either respect it and treated it as a geographic number or get rid of it.

The other issue with 1800/1890/1850 (I know 1800 is not included in this), but it conflicts with the 01 dial tone so cannot be called outside of Ireland.

When the first fixed line framework was awarded in 2009 by the OGP there was a push to have the 076 range given preferential rates. This was for calls from state agencies

At the same time they were trying to get providers to treat them as a geographic number as there was consistent feedback coming from the general public that they were being over charged when contact state agencies. That said many agencies are still using shared cost numbers

I'd imagine it would take an EU directive similar to the roaming one to force the issue

Victor

Gmaximum wrote: »

That said many agencies are still using shared cost numbers

At this stage, this is just a subsidy to Eir, as the shared cost element is quite expensive for some users.

flaneur

They should just treat 076 as a landline for calls from mobiles or landline bundles.
People don’t understand why they’re being gouged with non geographic rates for calling what looks like a landline.

We used an 076 number and we had to give up as people thought we had relocated to the Northwest. It caused total confusion with people saying “we were talking to some guy in Donegal”

076 was a bad choice of code which seemed to be inspired by the UK use of 07xx for mobile and non geographic services.

We should be using 08x codes for all of those.

One solution might be to just move 076 to 0817 or something like that?

Victor

03 is still available.

flaneur

03 isn't going to be released for VoIP use as it's been put aside for possible renumbering of the entire network. VoIP is simply way too niche.

They haven't any plan to do so yet, but there's a plan to ensure they they have the possibility of using in the future.

For example, they could do something like move all landlines to 03 to simplify the whole system.

You could, for example, close the numbering with it and scrap the whole need for landline area codes.

Or, you could use it to replace 01 and expand it to 031, 032, 033, 034 etc etc

flaneur

Also btw :

If comreg's consultation is still open it is PUBLIC, so maybe just answer the questionnaire and respond with with specific concerns as an end user.

It's your opportunity to engage with the development of these systems!