Deep Thoughts from the DoNS

I was in the TAC the other day, and an analyst brought this odd problem to me.  She explained that an inContact customer was dialing or calling this one TF number and that through inContact, the call would never 'answer' and connect the agent to the number, yet the customer could call this TF number directly and be 'connected'.  The analyst, upon doing some testing, found that when she called the TF number from her cell phone, the call was successful in that she heard a recorded message, but she noticed that the cell phone never indicated that the call was actually answered.   It was the lack of an 'answer' or lack of Answer Supervision, that was the problem and it spawned the following discussion or explanation.

In the telecom or phone network, the term Answer Supervision is used to indicate a signal or message that tells the calling network that the called party has answered the phone and billing can begin.  It is also this signal that causes all the audio paths to be connected.  Prior to Answer Supervision being provided, the caller will usually be able to hear the called parties phone ring and can even hear the called party when they answer the phone, but if no 'supervision' is provided, then the voice path will not be opened from the caller to the called.  For inContact, Answer Supervsion has another important role.  The inContact platform cannot 'hear' when a call is answered.  It has to be told, and it is this Answer Supervision that tells inContact that a given call has been answered and that processing can continue.  This means that when an agent called that number, inContact could never successfully connect that agent to that number because inContact never even 'knew' that the call was answered.

I have even seen cases where lack of Answer Supervision has caused cases of 'dead air' and 'one way audio'.  In that instance the customer was serviced by a T1, using ISDN protocol.  Due to problems on the customers D-channel, which controls all the signalling of calls on the T1, the D-channel was going in and out of service.  As it happened, the customer had two ISDN T1s and the loss of the D-channel would cause new calls to be routed to the second T1, and those worked fine, but any calls on the first T1, that were in the process of ringing when that D-channel would fail, would never get or send the needed Answer Supervision needed to open the voice paths, resulting in a dead air or one way audio call.

So we see, that proper supervision is as important to good telephone communication as it is to raising good kids.

 
Henry St. Andre
Director of Network Systems
801 715 5200

This occasionally happens.  An inContact customer calls our TAC and says they are having problems calling a TF number.  They hear echo, or the call disconnects, or the voice quality is poor, or the IVR system the TF number routes to is not working properly, etc.   The support person, will first check to see if it is a TF number that UCN 'owns' or provides RESPORG services for.   If so, they will then begin the process of trouble shooting the problem.  IF however, they find that the TF is owned and RESPORG'd by another company, this is when trouble shooting a TF problem becomes very tricky.  The challenge is this.   TF numbers are owned and managed by the actual customer who uses that TF.  Say you are calling some TF, lets use 1-800-XYZ-COMP.  It is the company XYZ who has authority over that TF and who has selected what long distance carrier(s) will process that TF.  This means that problems with echo, static, low volume and other sound quality problems will be issues that only this long distance carrier will be able to address and it is only company XYZ who will be authorized to open tickets on that TF with that carrier(s).  UCN cannot fix echo or sound quality problems on TF numbers that are not owned by UCN because that TF is not controlled nor handled by our network and we are not the authorized user or owner of the number.

This is what will usually happen next.  The support technician, will instruct our customer that the TF is not under UCN or inContacts control and that the customer will need to contact the owner of the TF number and tell them of the problem.  In some cases it may be possible for UCN to contact the long distance carrier or RESPORG provider and let them know that the TF is having a problem, but again, UCN has no authority with that carrier and cannot authorize any trouble shooting on that number.  We have to rely on that long distance carrier or RESPORG to contact the owner of that TF number and to  pursue the issue.  We can even offer to conference in and help 'trouble shoot' the issue if people will cooperate, but because we do not RESPORG or otherwise own or control the TF number, it can be difficult or even impossible for UCN to 'fix' a TF that does not belong us our our customers.