Talking Telephone Numbers with BICS

There are myriad possibilities for cloud number allocation through APIs and web portals, like the BICS platform, which offers coverage in more than 140 countries

Maya Middlemiss

Back in the days when your phone line depended on a single copper wire to your premises, you took whatever number your monopoly phone carrier provided you with.

Today’s cloud-connected world is a very different place, with myriad possibilities for cloud number allocation through APIs and web portals, like the BICS platform, which offers coverage in more than 140 countries across a range of mobile, landline and toll free options.

Choice means complexity

[caption id="attachment_27981" align="alignright" width="200"] Daniel Behar[/caption]

Navigating the choices, never mind the regulatory frameworks, associated with number acquisition can be challenging for businesses if they try to go it alone. Get it wrong, and you face significant delays, inability to get numbers you want, and painful admin overhead. It pays to get expert help, so we connected with Daniel Behar, Project Manager of Cloud Communications at BICS, to talk about the different frameworks and regulations in play for cloud number adoption, and how the shift from a traditional PSTN telephone system to a SIP Trunking service drives efficiencies.

“We have the flexibility for customers to buy vertical ranges in 10,000+ different area codes across the globe, and of course some are more popular than others, which come with their own regulatory challenges.

“For example if a customer wants to buy a number in Paris, they have to be physically based in Paris. Germany is also very strict in its regulation. There we need to prove the end user identity before we can even display the number to the customer”, he explained.

“Numbers in the UK are comparatively easier to get, but there are still hurdles to overcome”

Complying with all these different local frameworks could be a full-time job for international businesses wanting the advantages of local phone presence in all their different locations. But BICS has centralised and smoothed the process for their clients.

Automating application and compliance

“We know and follow the numbering plan guidelines set by each regulator, keeping up with all their changes, so we can manage the submission of user IDs and corporate certificates." Behar explained,

"We have a set of tools which automates as much as possible, so businesses can upload and verify documents online”

This enables real-time provisioning of new numbers in more than 70% of jurisdictions, depending on local compliance standards - something which would be challenging for many businesses to accomplish on their own, particularly in an unfamiliar location.

Getting specialist help in this area is only going to become more important in the future, as regulators ramp up their response to increased threats from fraudsters, and demands from users for better protection and privacy. “We’re seeing a convergence into more strict regulation in Europe especially,” Behar reflects. “But that’s happening in parallel with more demand for automation in the market, and more APIs to remove friction from the various provisioning steps.”

For end users who just need to spin up a new range of X cloud phone numbers in location Y, it is no longer necessary to deal with the different regulators individually and build relationships with local carriers, or ensure compliance with the varying and changeable frameworks in play.

The moves that BICS are making in cloud number provisioning enable number allocation to be considered part of the ‘as-a-service’ subscription model which nimble organisations are coming to depend on in all other aspects of their cloud services. And, they come at a time when BICS has been recognised as the network behind the world’s top networks - powering most of the service providers in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for cloud comms services.

All things considered, it makes sense to manage everything through a single end-to-end solution and dedicated web portal or APIs in this way, with a provider like BICS.

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