Mobile messaging services provider TynTec has just launched a new service which will allow major telecoms carriers to route voice calls to mobile phones directly to their destination network operator.
The new service, called Voice Network Query, will overcome the issue of onward routing of voice calls to ported mobile numbers, thus reducing the issue of excess network traffic generated by voice calls misrouted due to mobile number portability.
When a mobile user switches network but retains their current phone number, calls have traditionally been routed via the user’s former operator’s infrastructure, which then routes calls to the operator which now provides service to the customer. This double handling of calls generates additional network traffic and transmission costs which, ultimately, are passed on to subscribers. With TynTec’s Voice Network Query, TynTec customers can check the actual network of a mobile number before routing the call, thus routing the voice call directly to the correct network and avoiding unnecessary network traffic.
TynTec is able to offer this unique service through its portfolio of deep-level (SS7) connections into the global mobile network. Using their access directly into mobile operators, TynTec can query any mobile number to establish its home network, whichever operator that number might have originated on.
Michael Kowalzik, CEO, TynTec, said: ‘Mobile Number Portability is a great thing for consumers but has caused huge amounts of problems in the routing of voice calls and lack of tariff transparency for the subscriber. Because mobile numbers are attached to a particular operator, when that number is ported onto a customer’s new operator, the routing process can become hugely complex.
‘Voice Network Query overcomes that problem with a simple and elegant solution – by ‘asking’ the phone what network its sitting on before routing the call it’s possible to connect directly to the right network without the hassle and cost of unnecessary connections through intermediary operators.â€Â
I don’t quite understand the last paragraph. Surely routing is for an incoming call so asking the network for the calling phone doesn’t help. Asking the recipient phone on which network it resides relies on reaching that phone which is what the system is trying to do already.