On January 31, 2022 SMS/800, Inc. filed new rates with the FCC in the Service Management System (SMS/800) Functions tariff. Barring any industry comments the rates will be effective February 15, 2011. The good news is the rates went down. The key rate to our customers is the per number per month rates which went from $.1054 to $.0966. OK it’s not huge, but in this day and age any rate reduction is appreciated. As always ATL will pass that saving on to you on your February 15 bill. If you have any questions feel free to call.

LAKE ELSINORE, CA – January 3, 2011 – Over 800 votes were cast by qualified TA agent members in the fifth annual Telecom Association (“TA”) “Members Choice” Awards for 2010. 

TA’s voting members are heavily experienced technology industry consultants and channel sales partners that have compared all the best and affordable vendors against one another. Through hard earned experience, TA members know which telecom industry vendors to avoid and which ones to recommend. Having TA’s qualified voting members select TA’s vendors as their choice means they are both trusted and proven in their winning category. 

To be designated by TA as a qualified TA “Voting Member”, a TA member must show themselves to be both experienced and qualified. To measure their voting qualification, TA examines the member’s business website, their LinkedIn page and even interviews them on the phone if necessary. “If I wouldn’t feel comfortable referring my best customer to them I don’t want them voting in TA’s awards,” concluded Baldwin, also an active telecom agent himself. 

ATL RESPORG SERVICES WAS NAMED THE MEMBERS CHOICE IN THE RESPORG CATEGORY. 

Some of the ATL praises posted on the TA site include: 

Excellent customer service and issue follow up; none better. Best RespOrg! 

Posted by: Baron Thrower, CEO, The Thrower Group, and LLC. | 09/15/2010 at 10:47 AM 

ATL’s customer service is unmatched among our various telecom vendors. ATL is consistently responsive, courteous, and willing to help educate their customers regarding both how to advantageously set up toll-free numbers and industry trends around toll-free in general. I always feel like ATL has time for me and there is absolutely no arguing with their turnaround on requests. 

Posted by: Enhanced Service Provider, Commercial Customer (verified by TA) | 09/15/2010 at 10:51 AM

Yesterday more than 20 companies met to work on a proposal to expand or replace the board of SMT.  SMT is the organization that was established when toll free number portability was being implemented and by FCC order had one representative for each of the seven Bell Operating Companies (BOC).  Since the mergers the board has  only three members.  This workgroup is open to any company that is a RespOrg and will culminate with a request to the FCC to order the change.  Below is a link to the proposal.

Proposal

A discussion of this has been opened on LinkedIn in the RespOrg group.

Most of you know us by now. We (Melisa and I) work with you daily. We enjoy all of our clients. So you know who we are. Think about it, have you ever turned to a co-worker and said “call the ATL people and ask them”.  You know you have! We know you have, so don’t make us name names.

For the last seventeen years we never have had titles.  Aelea (our President) says we can use anything as long as it isn’t President. So who are we to you? If you ask Mel and I who we are our response is pretty much the same, we are the best, D-bomb, second to none, super heroes, work horses, sharpest tools in the shed, rock stars, and much, much more. But we have no clue as to what to call ourselves. This question has prompted this blog…….What do you think we should be called?

 Now I know that some of you just thought of some pretty funny things! Let’s keep it “G” rated otherwise Melisa will be trying to get me to stop crying in the bathroom by the end of the day. Trust me it is not pretty when that happens.

Sometimes we get calls for the “High priestess of toll Free” so of course I put the caller on hold turn to Mel and say” There is a call for the High Priestess of toll free, ……….Can you go get Aelea for me?”  See, she has a title.

So we are leaving this up to you, do not disappoint us.  Our new business cards are waiting for you.  Just a note, I will not put hunk on my business cards no matter how much you beg.  .Humm….. Let’s see “thanks for calling ATL, this is Greg the head hunk” That might not work for Kyle and Tom and they may feel it necessary to challenge me for the title.

It’s up to you.  Try to give us at least some that really can be used.

SMS routes by Carrier Identification Codes (CIC).  If you are an IP Provider,  how is that working for you?  As the industry moves towards IP and the old Bell companies announce they are getting out of the old landline business, what happens with the routing of toll free?

I am in discussions with several entities about this.  Should a new system be designed and implemented to bypass the current SMS?  If so does that take involvement from regulatory entities? Should the SMS be upgraded to include IP addresses?   Do the new IP providers even want to work with SMS as it is still controlled by a board of the former Bell Operating Companies.

What are your thoughts.

I should have been in Oregon Thursday night, but weather interfered and I only got as far as Denver.  I spent the night there and then after a long two weeks got home Friday.  If I missed you this trip, I’ll try next trip.  I have met with some really fascinating companies that are succeeding because they think outside of the box, or like me know the inside of the box really well.  It works either way.  I would like to thank those of you who met with me and tell you it means a lot to me when you rave about my reps. ATL has the good fortune to have some great people and it is all worth it when it gets confirmed by our customers again and again.

I fell apart on my travel blog as the days got longer and the mornings earlier.  After I left New York and New Jersey I went to DC, West Virginia and Philadelphia.  All in all I have to say DC is still my favorite city.  I lived there for a couple of years many years ago and, except for the weather, it is my favorite city.  I was walking from a meeting with Alliance for Telecom Industry  Solutions (ATIS) to Comptel (a great industry association) and I was suddenly walking right by the White House.  I don’t know how others feel, but I love being close to the decisions that influence the world.

On a side note, if anyone wants to offer me a job where I can be in DC only in the good weather (no humidity please) and of course a hefty housing allowance because I would want to live right downtown, I’m your person.  I realize these are very tough terms, so if no one wants to meet them I will understand.   I will just suffer in a beautiful mountain resort in Oregon.

About six months ago Rick convinced me to get a Garmin.  I am what you might call a late adopter.  In the 70’s I didn’t want a pager, in the 80’s I didn’t want voice mail, in the 90’s I didn’t want e-mail and I never wanted a cell phone.

Rick found me a Garmin at a good price but since then have never really found an instance where it was needed.  Yesterday I was in New Jersey and fell in love with it.  Growing up in California I am used to freeways that if you have a freeway exit on one side, you can immediately get back on the other side. Not true in New Jersey.  If you miss a turn off there you are dumped onto surface streets from which you will never recover.

So, back to my GPS – when you miss a turn it doesn’t say, “you’re an idiot, now what are you going to do?”  It calmly and without raising its voice says, “Recalculating, recalculating.”  Then it continues to calmly lead you back to where you should be.

All life needs to work harder to act like a GPS.

Aelea has left us to visit those of you who live all the way over on the east coast.  Snack, Think, Work is her daily rendition on how her travels across the east coast are going.

Day 1

I got to Boston last night.  I pride myself in using public transportation, not only because it is cheaper which goes to the bottom line, but also because I used to be a city girl and want to make sure I still have it in me.  So I buy a train ticket from the airport, but I can’t find the train.  I ask someone and they point me to a bus, which I thought would go to the station.  It actually did; all the way to station I was going to take the train to.  The bus charged me $2.00 and now I had the $4.25 ticket unused.  Then today when I thought I would take the subway to the train station, I couldn’t find the ticket.

Since I had been cooped on airplanes all day I decided to walk to the hotel.  I was dragging my bag, computer case and the bag I take on planes with books, telecom magazines I am so behind in reading there internet is still being invented, CD player, headsets – in other words heavy things to keep me occupied because I get bored easily. 

Not only did it turn out the hotel wasn’t all that close; it was night and 96% humidity.  Forty minutes later I final get to the hotel and probably looked and smelled like something off the street because I was off the street.  I have to say though the five or so people I asked for direction were very helpful.

With the exhaust of the current toll free number inventory and a number of new entrants into toll free marketing,  keeping your number safe is becoming a bigger challenge.  We have always received some questionable port requests from people and resporgs that are “phishing” for vanity numbers, but they are now becoming more aggressive.  They are actually NASCing numbers that do not belong to them.  In fact, one resporg tried to tell us that the SMS Help desk had told him that NASCing a number that he wanted was a perfectly legitimate practice( we got it back).  That means it is very important to make sure you are keeping track of your toll free numbers.  ATL has always made sure our clients are aware immediately if someone has requested a port or has NASC’d a number a way.  However, it is up to the client to review our notification and to respond to us promptly.  We have only 48 hours to release or reject and in most cases we do not have end user information.