As pointed out earlier, ASTPP does not support LRN (Location Routing Number) call routing and billing yet, which is necessary for routing traffic to the United States even if sending calls here from abroad because most carriers rate calls based on LRN and not DNIS anymore. Routing and rating calls based on the dialed number results in a loss of LCR functionality and can cause a great margin of error. Approximately 48% of numbers in the USA are ported either to a different local carrier or a different rate center Central Office (when a business or residence moves to a different part of town that is considered a ported number) which results in a higher or lower cost than the originally dialed number. Wireless networks are also using LRN to groom blocks of 10,000 phone numbers to various home location registers as they see fit instead of making switches perform this task. The most popular interface for retrieving this data from an LRN service provider is a SIP 302 redirect message. The 2nd most popular method would be ENUM via DNS and finally very few vendors have a so-called MySQL interface. The official source of the LRN database is Neustar (SIP-IX is their VoIP friendly access method) although many carriers go through a reseller to retrieve the data at a lower expense, either per query dip or a flat rate weekly charge.

Additionally, ASTPP does not even have interstate/intrastate/local/indeterminate call jurisdiction routing and billing yet which practically every other switch I have seen does support. This is done by using an NPANXX database such as Telcordia's LERG 6 and the appropriate rate tables to match the first 6 or 7 digits of the calling number and called number to see if the states or ratecenters are the same. A secondary source of this information would be API queries from Local Calling Guide but it should be stored locally in any case. Another reason this is important is that when selling retail minutes to an end user, international and interstate calls must be rated with two extra taxes and fees- the FUSF and FTRS, unless the customer is exempt with a FCC 499A (wholesale).

Hopefully at some point ASTPP can support these features as an awful lot of long distance traffic terminates to the United States domestically and international POI and this method of call routing and billing will not be changing for more than a decade from now due to tariffs put in place by the FCC and PUCs.

Thanks for your consideration for adding these features.

Created on behalf of Justin Hannah, Marc, Chandan Singh and Dusty Countryman.