Traffic Pumping
History of Traffic Pumping
With unlimited domestic long distance becoming a standard industry offering for wireless and wireline carriers, “free” domestic conference bridges and adult chat lines have exploded across the country. Some of these numbers are homed to more rural domestic locations where the terminating carrier is allowed to charge substantially higher access fees. While advertised as “free” to the end subscriber, it is not free to Service Providers. These bridges and chat numbers drive up traffic volume and cost Service Providers tens of millions in monthly usage expenses. In most cases, Service Providers cannot pass these expenses to their end subscribers because of unlimited long distance plans. Currently Service Providers are absorbing these expenses, but as the costs increase, they may need to review options to reduce exposure.
Implementation of Traffic Pumping
Figure 1 illustrates the call flow and inter-carrier compensation (ICC) between a wireless provider, a long distance carrier, and the terminating CLEC. Today, most long distance domestic rates vary depending on several factors about the call itself. These include terminating state, terminating company, and whether the call is inter-state or intra-state. In our example, the wireless provider sends traffic to the LD provider for termination and pays long distance charges. The LD Provider then terminates the traffic to the carrier who owns those numbers. The LD Provider pays access fees that are passed to the Wireless Provider. As shown in Figure 1, no direct payment occurs between the Wireless Service Provider and terminating CLEC because these fees are incorporated into the LD rates. The Wireless Service Provider cannot pass the variable usage fees to its end users due to commonly used unlimited domestic long distance plans.
Figure 1: Implementation of Traffic Pumping
Impact of Traffic Pumping
Based on the results of our industry study, The Impact of Traffic Pumping-Overview of 2010, we calculated Wireless Service Providers spent over $150 million in annual long distance fees associated with Traffic Pumping Companies (OCNs). We estimate this number jumps to $170 million in 2011.
In addition to variable operating expenses, Traffic Pumping may impact the Service Providers in the following other areas:
- Capacity Planning
- Network Performance
- Budgetary Projections
Connectiv Solutions’ Approach towards Traffic Pumping
Connectiv Solutions has monitored Traffic Pumping cases since early 2007 for the industry. Leveraging our ability to collect, process and analyze billions of call detail records for our clients, Connectiv Solutions has developed a sampling methodology to identify Traffic Pumping call scenarios. In fact Connectiv Solutions has created and continuously updates a list of 10-digit numbers that are directly related to free bridges and chat lines. This proprietary list is used by clients to better understand their Traffic Pumping exposure.
Click here to clearly understand how Traffic Pumping is impacting your business with our Professional Services.
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Below you will find a brief description of the features now available so you can see for yourself what’s new.
Microsoft Office Support (32 bit)
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iPad Support
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Dial Me Before Web Meeting Starts
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Show PowerPoint presentations “on the fly” directly from your computer with the benefit of user interface controls for easy management. No upload required! Presentation share also provides full animation and slide build support which helps makes your presentation more dynamic and effective.
- Optional Presentation Upload mode still available.
Microsoft Office Communicator R2 2007 Support
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iPhone Moderator Support
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No download or app store purchase required.
This browser based feature allows to you to easily manage audio participants while on the go. No need to be in front of your computer! Utilize online management features such as dial me, dial out, mute/unmute, chat and open/close meeting room door.
Q&A Mute All
Manage an audio Q&A session on the web so all participants have an opportunity to ask a question. This function mutes all participants who can virtually raise their hand to speak in the meeting by pressing #66 on their telephone keypad.
New Check for Updates Functionality
Take advantage of new features and functionality as soon as they are made available! This new feature automatically checks if an updated version of the meeting application is available for download. You can define the update interval using the taskbar icon.
Desktop Video
Updated meeting application includes major improvements to quality of desktop video. Add more impact to you meetings by letting participants see you online!
Post Conference Email
Attendee connection information can automatically be emailed to you after your meeting so you know how long participants were actually connected.
Unified Meeting usage is now included in the Reservationless-Plus post conference email. The usage details include participant names and/or phone numbers, time joined, time disconnected, duration, and connection type.
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