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.

Virtual Interconnect (Inbound) rate changes

The OFCOM Narrowband Review is increasing the cost/reducing the revenue on incoming calls, effective February 1st. In the light of the rate changes w…

Non-geographic numbering out-payment changes

The OFCOM Narrowband Review is increasing the cost of incoming calls effective February 1st. We will be absorbing these changes where possible and ha…

Freephone Rate Reductions

The OFCOM Narrowband Review is increasing the cost of incoming calls, effective February 1st. We will be absorbing these changes for Freephone and, a…

Realtime Channel Information

Our portal, and the API on which it is built, has always offered a view of the number of channels currently in use, along with historic usage informa…

The Importance of Caller ID

We launched our new SIP stack a little over a year ago now, and despite clear documentation, our own Guidance on Nuisance calls and supporting multip…

Indirect Access – Simwood termination from PSTN lines

Indirect Access is the means by which you can dial a short code (ours is 12940) on a traditional phone line followed by the number you want, and the…

Cessation of inbound SMS

We have offered inbound SMS on some of our geographic number ranges for a while but BT Wholesale withdrew the product shortly after and the majority…

Christmas VoIP attacks. How did you fare?

In December we released yet more features (balance locking and automated alerts) to protect you from VoIP fraud should one of your customers or your…

999 price changes – helping you meet your GC4 obligations

Communication Providers have been obligated to offer 999 services on VoIP calls since OFCOM modified the General Conditions several years ago. The Co…

Thanks for a great year!

I wanted to write to wish you the best for the coming festivities and to say thank you for working with us this year. I really hope it is a good one…

4 quick ways to help stay safe from VoIP fraud this Christmas

We want you to relax this Christmas so if you don’t already, why not make use of the multitude of features we offer to restrict the VoIP traffic you…

Limit your fraud exposure by locking your balance

We offer lots and lots of features to help you avoid or contain the cost of fraudulent traffic from either your or your customer’s equipment being co…