Re: ZA phone number allocations

Simeon and Aragon conversed thusly: -

>> What is the value of distinguishing operators from the public in this 
>> instance?  Joe Public can benefit from routing information too.

> I'm with you on this... my response William was kind of a trick question ;-)

Indeed. For those who maintain that routing information is only valuable to operators, the question arises: "Who is an 'operator'?"

Is it someone with a licence?
As of this week, there are 532 entities with either an IECS or IECNS licence, or both, or more than one of each*, on ICASA's database. However, they are not the only people who might be "operators" in the sense of routing voice traffic. Class licensees may also do so, even though a Class ECS licensee isn't entitled to numbers from the national Numbering Plan. PECN licensees also exist, and may route their own traffic, if not that of commercial third parties. Indeed, more generally, persons can act as "operators" without any licence at all if they are reselling services - including numbers - from a licensed operator. 

* I kid you not. Sentech has seven of them, for example. Many other "previously advantaged licensees", and others, have more than the normal pair.

Is it someone with an Interconnection Agreement filed with ICASA?
You might wish to rely on Interconnection Agreements. While a survey of these will provide a list of many of the more significant operators, other operators make use of third party agreements, so this doesn't help either in providing an exhaustive list.

When one speaks of many hundreds of entities with a claim on access to such information, and it's unclear who does and does not belong to this not-so-exclusive club, the difference between "Operators" and "Joe Public" is so blurred to be useless. Add to this: -

Is it someone with a PABX?
It's no great feat for a modern PABX to do least cost routing, if connected to multiple operators. Routing information is then also obviously useful to these non-operators. Think Asterisk. There are no doubt many thousands of these.

A more relevant question, perhaps, is why routing information should NOT be public knowledge? 
IP routing information is all publically accessible. Why should voice be any different?

Perhaps this also casts some light on why the Regulator's job isn't quite as easy as it would at first glance appear ;-)

> Sound like a perfect job for the regulator!

I'm not rising to the bait on that one! We have a very, very, long list of things to attend to ...

Oh, and BTW, it's not a phone number "allocation", it's an "assignment", Brian. Allocation is the process of deciding the general purpose of a resource (number, spectrum, etc.) In this case, 087- numbers have been *allocated* to VoIP services. The particular number in question was *assigned* to Bitco by ICASA, who is (supposed to be) using it to provide VoIP services to an as yet unidentified customer.

This brings us back to the issue of why number assignments SHOULD be public knowledge, and the origin of this thread. Who do you complain to if you're being spammed from a number? The operator to whom the number is assigned, in the first instance.

Kind regards,
 
William Stucke
ICASA Councillor
011-566-3009
My personal opinons here, as always on this list.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Simeon Miteff
Sent: 05 December 2012 09:54 AM
To: IOZ
Subject: Re: [IOZ] ZA phone number allocations

On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 12:53 AM, Aragon Gouveia <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 04/12/2012 23:31, Simeon Miteff wrote:
>>
>> How do you figure it must be public knowledge? If operators require 
>> this info for routing, only operators need access to it.
>
> What is the value of distinguishing operators from the public in this 
> instance?  Joe Public can benefit from routing information too.

I'm with you on this... my response William was kind of a trick question ;-)

Without porting information, ICASA's number allocation database would be of already limited (and steadily decreasing) utility to the public.
Now we have a situation where this information is in the hands of a closed group of operators who have commercialized it.

Sound like a perfect job for the regulator!

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