Two Degrees warns: our 022 numbers can spook office phone systems
Two Degrees has warned that some office phone systems and contact database software will not permit their users to dial numbers using its 022 prefix.
Under number portability regulations, customers switching to Two Degrees will have the option to adopt one of the third mobile operator's 022 numbers, or bring their 021 number from Vodafone, or their 027 number from Telecom.
Two Degrees chief engineer Nick Read told NBR that his company is not offering any advice or fixes, instead recommending that companies contact their systems integrator, or whatever company is responsible for their phone systems or contact database software, to get the 022 problem addressed.
In a letter to business owners, Two Degrees dentifies two areas where the 022 prefix could cause problems:
1. Contact database systems, or any other application that uses or stores mobile phone numbers. These may have input masks or validation rules that do not permit mobile phone numers to be entered with the prefix 022.
2. PABX or office phone systems. These may be set up not to allow calls to an 022 number.
A test number has been set up - 022 022 TEST (022 022 8378) - that companies can dial to check if their phone system is already compatible.
Two Degrees is due to launch on an un-named day in August.
Mr Read told your correspondent - dialling in the guise of a citizen concerned about his own company's systems - that the launch would likely be early in the month.
Back to home
Back to top
Print
Email
Share
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Google
Yahoo
Technorati
Scoopit
NBR SERVICES
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Sign up for NBR subscriber content or email alerts
Latest
Comments and questions14
Why would you even want to change your number when signing up with these guys? Just take your old one with you?
Hang on..... I quote Mr Read "or whatever company is responsible for their phone systems or contact database software, to get the 022 problem addressed", surely these types of glitches should be ironed out by the provider prior to any such launch?
Should it really be the consumers responsibility to iron out design faults?
Hey Simon B, why has Vodafone only admitted now that it has been forcing consumers into deliberately complex and mystifying call plans for so many years?
Simon says..."surely these types of glitches should be ironed out by the provider prior to any such launch?" - well - Two Degrees HAVE identified the glitch before launch - AND It is not their glitch - the Contact Database vendor put the limit(if any) in place and needs to adress it - or the PBX simply needs to be reconfigured to allow such calls.
Good on Two Degree for identifing these potential problems in plenty of time.
(PS I am in the industry - not in Two Degree)
I got one of those letters in my last Vodafone bill too - why are they simplifying their call plans now when 2degrees is about to launch? NZ consumers have been very cynically treated by the incumbents for too long.
It's not Vodafone's fault Jim, everything they do is perfectly legal. We as consumers have a choice, if you don't like it, go to Telecom
bring on the competition
Why have both political parties when in government allowed this cosy cartel to screw us for so long?
Just to confirm - just tried to call the 022 test number from our large internal PABX system (2000+ users) and guess what? It doesn't work.
2nd Degree needs to be reminded that a telco is not just responsible for the handsets they sell to their customers, others on competing networks have to be able to call them - otherwise what they sell are camera's with built-in MP3 players.
As relative 'newbies' to the telco market 2nd Degree can try to deflect the responsibility off to PBX vendors and CRM software vendors. The reality is that it is the telco's own responsibility to engage with ALL stakeholders in the industry to make them aware of a new/ammended number range. (I seem to remember that it was Tex Edwards who refused to take an existing number range - that wouldn't have posed this problem)
The attitude displayed by 2nd Degree will result in their phones not being contactable by a large number of users for all sorts of reasons.
A simple example: Hotels & Motels "resell" telephone calling to their guests. If their call accounting software does not know about 022 phone numbers then the calls will not be allowed to proceed.
Many businesses use call accounting for internal cost accounting - again if the number cannot be costed then the PBX is instructed to block the call.
But hey, maybe they chose the name 2nd Degree to reflect the their 2nd rate attitude towards customer service.
This is not a design problem or fault of any PBX or office equipment, they just need to adjusted (most remotely) to restrict / allow this new number range. The same thing would have happened when telecom starting providing access to 1800 numbers or 028 number range was opened up. This is just 2 degrees trying to get some free exposure.
Same thing happened when they decided to - un announced - start issuing 021 0xxx xxxx numbers to prepay users - there are still loads of CRM systems and websites are not accepting the 8 digits after the prefix - for a long time many businesses didnt have the nessecary programming in their pabx to call the numbers - and vodafone did _nothing_ to advise of this change.
All the numbers are issued inline with the number administration deed documentation so if a pabx vendor is not updating systems as changes are notified on it, then they are at fault. I say good on 2degrees for taking the steps to advice people of the new prefix. There are still people who dont know about 029 so I expect ignorance will keep 022 being the bastard child of phone numbers for quite some time tho...
Some of you can't resist being nasty, can you? At least you are being made aware of a possible glitch. The general tone of the article is sarcastic too...is it to encourage some healthy competition in the market or continue with granny-telecom or cryptic vodafone?
Quote:
As relative 'newbies' to the telco market 2nd Degree can try to deflect the responsibility off to PBX vendors and CRM software vendors. The reality is that it is the telco's own responsibility to engage with ALL stakeholders in the industry to make them aware of a new/ammended number range. (I seem to remember that it was Tex Edwards who refused to take an existing number range - that wouldn't have posed this problem)
Reply from me (random person): They have, they've told people what their number range is and explained what they have to do to fix it. The same as Vodafone etc apparently did when they introduced new number ranges
Also the decision to take a new number range makes a lot of sense. Despite the recent introduction of number portability, the fact is the tie between prefix and vendor is still well embedded in the minds of most Kiwis, so much so that most people will presume 027 = Telecom, 021 = Vodafone, 029 = TC, 025 = Old crap Telecom.
It would be silly for 2 Degrees to take one of these prefixes (presuming it was even offered) and be associated with either Telecom, Vodafone or TC and have probably 80% of people think they're somehow related. Worse yet if they take 025 and people think they're just using a recycled old crappy Telecom analog network
Post new comment or question
To share this article, click on a service below