Why do I need a long-distance carrier?

Many people wonder why their telephone company charges different prices for different types of long-distance calls. Doesn't this mean that customers can get charged a lot on all of their long-distance calling service since every call can be a different price? The answer to this question is an obvious, "yes." They will certainly be charged more because of all the additional parties involved and extra steps needed due to the distance that their call must travel.

The local telephone company or "local exchange carrier" (LEC), as it is known in the industry, is the entry point for a person who wants telephone service. An LEC, however, is not concerned with finding the most favorable ways of making the whole long-distance connection. They are initially just concerned with taking care of the physical network, like telephone poles & wires and big telecom switches, which supports the local calling area. And of course, they also need to make sure that all long-distance calls are organized so that each finds the proper connections to the communication super-highway.

For this reason, a market exists for smaller companies to help organize long-distance only calls and it all begins with their ability to find the best ways of making long-distance connections. In the past, there was only one way in which calls were connected because there was only one telephone company in the whole United States. Later on, other LEC’s were formed but long-distance calls were all still handled by only one long-distance telephone company. Customers had very little choice about how much they paid on their telephone bills, especially on their long-distance calls, which were often very expensive to make. But then the government changed telecommunication regulations and enacted anti-monopoly laws against the one long-distance company. Thus, the road was paved toward allowing other companies, not just the LEC’s, to serve customers’ long-distance telephone needs. Now customers could choose which company was going to provide local service and which was going to provide long-distance. This was particularly important for people who used a lot of long-distance because the new long-distance companies offered much more affordable rates compared to those offered by LEC’s who were not pressured to find the most efficient ways to make the complete connection across all different areas to the final intended destination.

The current dual-company, phone-service situation means that customers can choose one company for their local telephoning needs – an LEC – and then choose a different company – a long-distance carrier - to handle their long-distance calls. With this set-up, all local calls are serviced by an LEC and all long-distance calls by the long-distance carrier. Of course, the LEC will still be responsible for making sure the landline wires coming into a house work properly as well as organizing calls within the local area. But when someone wants to make a long-distance call, the LEC recognizes this particular customer’s request for connection with a destination that is outside of the local-calling area and sends it to the long-distance carrier. The long-distance carrier then takes over the call and sends it to the communication super-highway so that the call can connect with someone in another area, state, or even country. The long-distance carrier uses the communication super-highway just like an LEC would, the difference being that it focuses only on long-distance service so that it is able to offer much lower rates than LEC’s do. With its special partnerships allowing it to serve calls to destinations all over the United States as well as the whole world, a long-distance carrier is the best and most cost-effective resource for consumers.

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The Communication Super-Highway of Long-Distance Calling

Many people think that phone calls are made by two telephones being connected to each other by the same copper wire, but this is simply not true. In fact, there are many different things that are going on at the same time when a phone call is made.

First, a telephone customer always needs the primary services of an LEC (Local Exchange Carrier). An LEC is the telecommunications company that takes, maintains support equipment for, and organizes all calls made and received in a local-calling area, which is simply a group of telephone numbers close together in a geographic space about fifteen miles in diameter. For example, because houses are in the same city and are within fifteen miles of each other, they are in the same local-calling area. Every time someone uses the telephone in a local-calling area, the LEC makes sure the call that is going or coming is working in the way that it should.

If someone calls outside of the local-calling area, a call must cover a longer distance to reach the correct destination that is in another local-calling area. This call is now no longer considered a local call (from local calling area) but is instead referred to as a long-distance call. This is true even if the two local-calling areas are side-by-side. The only time a call is not considered long-distance is when one phone number connects with another in the same local-calling area. It is the LEC’s responsibility to make sure that long-distance calls are working and organized not only within the local-calling area, but also within the larger LATA.

LATA (Local Access and Transport Area) is a geographic region made up of many different local calling areas. In the same way that there are many different telephone numbers in one local-calling area, there are also many different local-calling areas that make up one LATA. In other words, the local-calling area is always a little piece of the whole LATA making this LATA the bigger collection of many smaller local-calling areas. A call that travels from one local-calling area to another (in the same LATA) needs to use “local-toll” service. Local-toll should not be confused with local service (inside the local-calling area) because local-toll service only deals with long-distance calls. It is “local” only in the sense that calls stay within their own LATA, but this has nothing to do with service inside the much smaller local-calling area.

The other type of long-distance calling is the situation where calls travel outside of one LATA to other LATA's. To make this easier to remember, this type of long-distance is called "state-to-state" or perhaps "international" depending on the destination. Because local-toll calling is regulated by state agencies and state-to-state/international calling is regulated by the FCC, the federal government agency who regulates telecommunications, an LEC must organize long-distance calls in different ways. That is why there are so many differences in price when LEC's charge for long-distance calls. An LEC will charge one price for local calls, another price for local-toll long-distance calls, and a third price for state-to-state and international long-distance calls.

LEC's are essential to telecommunications but they cannot do the whole job by themselves. In order for LEC's in different LATA's to be able to communicate with each other, as happens with all state-to-state/international calls, they have to go through an IXC: IntereXchange Carrier. This is simply another company that works to connect one LEC to another LEC. Without an IXC, a customer being served by one LEC could never reach another being served by a different LEC. The call would only go as far as the LEC but then stop. With the IXC, telephone numbers which are in different LATA's can still make a connection.

Sometimes an IXC will connect to another IXC so that it can get to the correct LEC. Most of the time, a series of IXC's and LEC's must work together to connect a customer in one LATA to another in a different LATA. If this network of LEC's, and IXC's could be seen all at one time working together, it would appear so busy that it would look like one big highway with many cars driving bumper to bumper. But the good news is that callers never have to deal with all that confusion. All someone needs is their LEC and they will be connected to this communication super-highway. They first "enter the highway" through their LEC, just like a car enters an entrance ramp. The LEC then sees where the call wants to go and then sends it onward to the appropriate IXC who sends it to another IXC if needed and so on until it arrives at the destination's LEC which connects the caller with the destination's ANI.

Remember that someone only really needs to use the communication super-highway when they make state-to-state or international calls just like they use the interstate highway when they travel to other states. In this manner, with all of the different parts of the telecommunications super-highway industry working together, consumers are able to make calls not only in their local town, but also to destinations all around the world.

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5 Easy Ways to Increase Your Business Using a Toll-Free Number

Toll-free numbers allow customers to contact your business without them having to pay for their call. Studies have shown that consumers are more likely to call a business with a toll-free number than those who only have a long-distance number, and 90% of Americans say that they use toll-free numbers. By following these five easy steps, you can discover for yourself how a toll-number can help your business grow.

1. Expand your market. Toll-free numbers help your business reach customers beyond your local calling area. This gives you the opportunity to market your business nationwide. In the age of the Internet, it is much easier to reach a larger catchment area and a toll-free number does not limit you to a specific locale. If you don’t provide service in certain places, toll-free numbers even have the flexibility to block calls from those areas.

2. Advertise your number. Toll-free numbers lend an air of legitimacy and professionalism to your business. By using a toll-free number, your business may appear larger and more established to the consumer which will make him/her trust you more. Research shows that consumers who are looking though the phone book to find a business are much more likely to call one with a toll-free number than a business with a long-distance number.

3. Initiate a direct response mechanism for impulse buyers. By allowing your customers an avenue to immediately react to your company’s efforts calling for their action, it prompts significant increases in phone orders. Television advertisers have known this for years. After seeing a commercial with a toll-free number, a consumer is ready to learn more or buy immediately. They need a way of acting on their impulse and a toll-free number provides the avenue.

In a study conducted by telecommunications R&D company Telcordia Technologies, formerly Bellcore, paper ads were run that were nearly identical except that one had a toll-free number and the other didn’t. The ads with the toll-free number received six times the number of calls than the ads without the toll-free number.

It has also been found that buyers who use toll-free numbers to order over the phone generally order more merchandise and higher ticket items nearly every time they call.

4. Qualify your buyers. Toll-free numbers enable your business to use time more efficiently and effectively. With a toll-free number, you know that someone who has called your business is already interested in what you have to offer. You spend less time trying to find interested prospects and let the number find them for you.

5. Analyze your call detail. Toll-free numbers allow you to track calls and access all of a call’s details such as the number, time, date and duration of every call. This information cannot be blocked and is an excellent tool for generating leads which can lead to more sales. You could use this valuable information to analyze your marketing attempts to see where your information is well received and target those areas more effectively. You can see which prospects have not been turned into customers and contact them in other ways with follow-up calls or mailouts.

Location is one key concept associated with toll-free numbers. The Telephone’s ability to keep customer connected at a great distance from the business itself necessarily assures that these customers are spread out across various geographic areas. Conversely, regardless of where a customer may be, a toll-free number represents a centralized, secure place where a business can always be found and contacted for information or services. It is always seen as a positive and trust-creating element; like having the store next door to your house.

Obtaining a toll-free number is easy to do and most companies will work with you to find a number that can represent your business in a “catchy” way, like 1-800-FLOWERS, so that your customers will be able to remember it more easily. Toll-free numbers can even be ported which means that if you move locations, your number can move with you.

With such resources and benefits, a toll-free number is decidedly necessary for business owners. The ability to increase sales and promote goodwill among potential customers is simply impossible to pass over especially in light of how simple this service is to set up and how convenient it is to use.

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