VOIP Tech Chat → Re: Back to worst-case-scenario to start with!

Ok, now that CallCentric is back up, I'm wondering about next steps for my business. I have our primary business telephone number with Callcentric (we like the call treatment feature that lets us block inbound calls with a wildcard - all 800 numbers, for example, really cuts down the telemarketing calls.

We have multiple ways to make outbound calls (PRI and a POTS line), and multiple inbound numbers, so we we were able to notify clients to reach us on an alternate number, but I'm sure we missed some calls.

I believe our company is as redundant as is possible (multiple inbound and outbound channels across three providers, spare phone system control box in the closet, etc.) but I can't figure out how to make a single number redundant across providers?

Which leaves me in a "better the devil you know than the devil you don't " scenario. We've been happily using Callcentric since 2008 or 2009, and the denial of service issue was the first real problem we had, which seemed to be resolved by just forwarding our main office number to one of the DIDs hosted on our PRI. Then of course, this issue, where the forwarding didn't work.

Is there a way to make a number redundant across two providers? If not, what's the best way to ensure our primary number always is available? Port it to a multiple-channel RCF with AT&T and then point it where ever we need to?

Thanks for any thoughts you have!

No, this is not possible unless the two providers have an agreement and the carrier supports this - but I doubt any providers will be willing to do this. The closest you could get is a single provider with multiple geo locations and a disaster recovery plan to fail over your phone number to another geo location if the first one dies.

Thank you for bringing that up Nitzan! It's not about having other Voip providers as backups, but the DID issue that causes problems. It's next to impossible to make DID's redundant in this case.

Best advice I can give here is:
1) Get two DIDs from separate providers so if one goes down clients can still reach you on the other. Just print both on your business card/website/etc.
2) Make sure your providers have adequate disaster recovery plans in place.