Toll Free Services
Toll free services are telephone
numbers with the (800), (888), (877), and (866)
exchanges. When a toll-free number is dialed, the call is handed off from the Local
Telephone Company to the toll free recipient's long distance carrier.
The owner, or recipient of these toll-free calls is billed for each
minute the toll-free number is used at the recipient's rate from each carrier. These calls
are free to the caller. Toll-Free calls may terminate on a company's local telephone
number, which would be a switched access call and billed as such, or it may terminate on a
company's T-1, which is a dedicated access call, and would be billed at the lower
dedicated access rate.
CNS standard toll-free numbers can
be called from all (50) states, Canada and the United States Virgin Islands. CNS also
offers International Toll-Free Service (ITFS). Customers must pay a minimum monthly charge
per originating country that will be using the ITFS number, to maintain the toll-free
number in each country.
CNS also offers enhanced features on
its toll-free services.
These Include:
DNIS (Dialed Number Identification Service) - is a T-1 based
toll-free service only. With DNIS, the network sends a specific (3 - 8) digit number
per toll-free number, which the customer or its vendor chooses with each call.
If a customer has (5) toll-free numbers terminating on a T-1 for instance, each toll-free
number would typically be assigned a unique 3-digit DNIS number. With this service,
the telephone system can see the DNIS digits on each incoming call and can then determine
which toll-free number was dialed. This way, the telephone system can be programmed
to forward the (5) different toll free numbers to (5) different extensions within the
telephone system. Therefore, the sales toll-free number can be directed to the sales
department, the customer service toll-free number can be directed to the customer service
department, etc., while they each share the same channels of a T-1 line. CNS does
not charge its customers for this service.
ANI DELIVERY is also a T-1 based service where the long distance
network provider sends the actual telephone number of the caller to the recipient's
telephone system on each toll-free call. If the customer has equipment that can
capture and utilize this information, this can be a valuable service to have. The
customer can have both DNIS and ANI Delivery on a particular toll-free number. The
customer's equipment must be able to read all the digits that are coming in from the
network on each call.
ROUTING OPTIONS
Each toll-free number can be routed to two or more locations based on
various parameters.
These routing options include:
- Time of Day Routing - the toll-free number is routed to different local telephone numbers
of T-1s depending on the time of day.
- Day of the Week Routing - the toll free number is routed to different local telephone numbers or
T-1s depending on the day of the week.
- Geographical Routing - the toll-free number is
routed to different local telephone numbers or T-1s depending on where the call originates
from (by state or area code).
- Call Area Selection - the toll-free number can be blocked from certain areas (by state,
area code or exchange)
- Message Referral - the toll free number is
forwarded to a recording (up to 6 months) that informs callers that the toll-free number
has been disconnected or refers callers to the new number.
- Route Completion - toll-free numbers that
terminate on a T-1 may overflow to a secondary telephone number or T-1 if the primary T-1
is busy.
- Percent Allocation - the toll-free number is
routed to two or more telephone numbers or T-1s based on customer-specified percentages.
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There are one time setup and monthly recurring
charges for each of the routing Options.
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