Allstream’s new toll-free service uses the exclusive routing capability of The Toll-Free Exchange for one-stop, one-step activation of inbound toll-free service from Canada, peered directly with the Inter-Exchange Carrier (IXC). The Toll-Free Exchange is a carrier-neutral IPX network and digital platform directly connecting the toll-free Responsible Organization (Resp Org) and bypassing the Public Switched Telephone Network. Using Allstream’s national feature group network and The Toll-Free Exchange IPX platform, Resp Orgs can—for the first time—quickly receive competitive flat-rate pricing and one-step service delivery through a digital platform that auto-provisions in real time. We talk to Terry Causey, Allstream’s Vice-President of Network Architecture & Engineering, about how this new partnership will radically improve enterprise communications, reduce costs and eliminate complex provisioning on calls from Canada.

Q: How does this new partnership work?

This provides a virtual marketplace for acquiring Canadian-originated toll-free services. Any service provider or enterprise that manages their toll-free services as a unique Resp Org is a potential user of this marketplace.

Q: How does it provide better cost control?

A Resp Org can now go to The Toll Free Exchange marketplace and acquire Canadian-originated toll-free services at a fair price without lengthy negotiations with the usual carriers that dominate this space. Pricing is fixed at a flat rate. Most of Canada is priced at a reasonably low rate, though there are a few high-cost regions that have a separate pricing structure to keep the overall costs down.

Q: How does it provide disaster recovery?

Allstream’s ingress network for toll-free is a combination of redundant TDM trunking to the regional PSTN tandems and a mixture of VoIP trunking with our SIP peering partners. Any user of this service can utilize Allstream’s network as the primary route and flip to an alternate provider using a backup CIC-template in the unlikely event of a prolonged outage.

Q: What makes this different from other offerings?

This is unique as there is no easier way to establish toll-free services in Canada than through this method. A user can establish a relationship in a day and have services up and running the same day. Adding new toll-free numbers is instantaneous — there’s no order process or waiting for numbers to be provisioned. And they maintain ownership and management of the individual toll-free numbers. The Toll-Free Exchange platform also enables Resp Org to Resp Org peering, a patented routing method exclusive to The Toll-Free Exchange. Partners of the Exchange will immediately peer traffic with other carriers and service providers such as Peerless, Intrado, Five9, inContact and many more. For more information, visit allstream.com. Photo: mihailomilovanovic/iStock

The post The benefits of an all-digital enterprise toll-free service appeared first on expertIP.