Straight-talking, in writing

The Simwood blog.

Telecoms, AI in the call path, network engineering and the occasional strong opinion. Several times a week since 2009.

Dirty surcharges now on more British Isles calls

By Simon Woodhead If you’ve followed our previous blogs on origin surcharges, what comes next will probably not surprise you. If this is the first yo…

Massive consumer telecoms price rises

By Simon Woodhead Given the ongoing cost of living crisis, I’d like to shine the spotlight on another of this industry’s dirty little secrets. It isn…

Protecting your customers from fraud

By Simon Woodhead It has been a week or so since we updated you on our plans for blocking inbound and outbound calls according to Ofcom’s DNO list. I…

Blocking fraudulent calls

By Simon Woodhead Ofcom publishes the ‘DNO list’, a list of inbound only phone numbers from high profile organisations that should never originate ou…

The noose is already round your neck!

By Simon Woodhead In ye olde days, when punishment by hanging was a thing, life wasn’t fun but there was one positive (beyond being there to witness…

STIR/SHAKEN update

TLDR: Regulations are getting ever tighter around US termination traffic. Simwood Inc customers can expect increased levels of scrutiny and Know Your…

UK Numbering Pricing

By Simon Woodhead TLDR: All conserved and desirable 020 ranges (i.e. 020 7 and 020 8), and Conserved area codes, will now have a small set-up charge…

Norway CLI Restrictions

By Simon Woodhead In the latest act of the relentless re-localisation of telecoms, as domestic operators seek to re-enforce their monopolies, major N…

Dirty surcharges come to 03 and 08 (except here)

By Simon Woodhead In the latest twist to the sordid tail of origin surcharges, it seems to me that those emboldened by having got away with surchargi…

Partner Handset Auto-Provisioning

Today we are announcing the arrival of our new handset Auto-provisioning feature for our Simwood Partner Platform. Auto-provisioning uses the power o…

A change in our international focus

By Pete Farmer Once upon a time, everyone started offering international numbering services, mainly because they could at a technical level. A simple…

“How do I bypass anti-spoofing?”

TLDR: We’re not going to answer that question, but we are going to explain why! The best way to avoid anti-spoofing procedures is simply not to spoof…