Presentation Numbers

Simple and effective call management

The whys and wherefores

Because Caller Line Identity services (CLI) make personal telephone numbers accessible to third parties, and because telephone numbers are a form of personal data, CLI raises a number of important privacy and data protection issues. As a result, Ofcom, the regulatory authority for the UK communications industries, now requires that the line identity should always represent the correct identity of the business calling a customer, or the number where return or subsequent calls should be made to.

Presentation Numbers are a simple way of ensuring that your business complies. If your business has separate incoming and outgoing lines, then a separate Presentation Number can be used to route any return calls back to a different location, providing effective traffic management and resilience for your inbound calls. Along with our suite of Telebusiness and Customer Contact Solutions, businesses such as contact centres can take advantage of additional calling and routing options.

Increase your profile

For example, by using a non-geographic number, such as 0800 and 0845, national businesses and contact centres can route all their returned calls to a single centre, while local businesses can use them to gain a national presence. You can then keep the same number, regardless of where you are in the UK or if you decide to move offices.

Put simply, free or local rate numbers really improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, by attracting customers, while national rate numbers can unlock new revenue streams for your business.

You can also route your return calls to more experienced personnel, who may be better placed to deal with more detailed enquiries.

Simply makes things easier all round.

Got a question? Call us on 0800 953 0180

Features & benefits

Presentation Numbers

Simple and effective call management

Features

• Efficient call routing - Presentation Numbers allow effective routing of returned calls to be answered by a different department or location.
• Customisation - contact centres can represent different clients from the same location presenting a different number per client.

Benefits

• Regulatory compliance - Presentation Numbers ensure that you're compliant with Ofcom requirements (avoiding their sanctions).
• Flexibility - by using non-geographic numbers, there's no need to change numbers when you move offices.
• Using a free phone number (0800) - lets your customers call you back for free.
• Improve marketing effectiveness - Telebusiness Numbers give a higher response rate to marketing campaigns than ordinary geographic numbers.
• Improve lead generation - 0800 (Freephone) numbers can increase inbound leads to your sales centre because your customers call you back for nothing.
• Increase calls - 0845 (local rate) numbers can attract customers, whatever the location, at a low cost call rate.
• New revenue - 0870, 0871 & 090* numbers can provide a significant additional revenue stream. You’re paid for every call you receive.
• National reputation - 08 numbers simply give your organisation a bigger, better image, whatever your size and your location.
• Simplicity - use Telebusiness numbers to structure how your customers call you by creating a national point of contact and simple, easy-to-remember numbers.
• Improve customer service - improve business responsiveness by delivering customer enquiries to the right place, first time.

That’s it, in a nutshell.

* Subject to PhonepayPlus approval.

Got a question? Call us on 0800 953 0180

Detailed Info

Presentation Numbers

Simple and effective call management

Numbers that make sense

Presentation Numbers are available in conjunction with Business Phone Lines, ISDN PR, ISDN BR, Centrex and IP Multimedia. And you have a choice of five types:

Type 1

This number is generated by the subscriber's network provider. It’s stored in the network and applied to an outgoing call at the local exchange by the provider.

Verification & authenticity

Because the number is applied by network equipment, there’s no need for it to be verified each time a call is made. Instead, the level of authenticity will depend on the checks made by a network provider that a subscriber is entitled to use a particular presentation number.

Type 2

This identifies a caller's extension number behind a DDI switchboard. Although the number or partial number is generated by the user's own equipment, the network provider is able to check that it falls within the range and length allocated to a particular subscriber. That way, the authenticity of the number can be ensured..

Verification & authenticity

This type of number is considered to carry sufficient authenticity to be classified as a network number and is carried as such by some networks.

Type 3

Limited to the far-end breakout scenario where a call's access to the public network may be different to where it was originated (e.g. where there are several transitions between several service providers). The number is generated by the user's equipment but isn’t capable of being subjected to network verification procedures.

Verification & authenticity

Verification is based on a contract between the subscriber and the network provider in which the subscriber gives an undertaking that only authentic calling party numbers will be generated.

Type 4

A presentation number available for the onward transmission of the originating number where a call breaks into a private network and breaks out again before termination. On the breakout leg, the number is generated by the user's equipment although it will have already been verified in consequence of having been delivered to the private network.

Verification & authenticity

To maintain the verification, it’s necessary to ensure that the number submitted by the private network is the number that was received. Where a Type 4 service is offered by the network provider, the subscriber must give a contractual commitment that they will only submit CLIs that have been received from the public network. Unlike other types of presentation numbers, Type 4 numbers may not always be ‘diallable’; this will depend on the nature of the number received from the public network.

Type 5

Presentation numbers that identify separate groups of callers behind a private network switch wishing to send different outgoing CLIs. A typical scenario is a call centre making calls on behalf of more than one client.

Verification & authenticity

Type 5 presentation numbers are generated by the user's equipment. Subscribers will need to enter into a similar contractual commitment with their network providers as for Type 1 presentation numbers - i.e. that they’re entitled to use the numbers they have selected.

All good sense, really.
 

Got a question? Call us on 0800 953 0180

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