- Home /
- Verizon Federal /
- Contract Vehicles /
- FTS2001 Bridge Resource Guide /
- Products /
- Toll Free /
- International Toll Free /
International Toll Free
Many government organizations are realizing the need to reach globally to accomplish not only mission critical but day to day responsibilities; however, the need to reduce costs continues.
In the current international environment, many government organizations have multiple call centers to receive calls and are limited to inbound or outbound IDDD services available from the monopoly PTT in the country where the callers are located. As the European telecommunications market opens, organizations are looking toward international inbound solutions as a method to provide more consistent service while reducing costs.
Through the International Toll Free Service portfolio, Verizon Business offers a robust set of International inbound features and value-added services. This collection of services is capable of satisfying a government organization's inbound voice calling needs in over 60 countries.
The Verizon International Toll Free Service portfolio forms the foundation for a comprehensive international inbound voice solution for government organizations, which enhances both the Verizon domestic and international service product offering, while providing your organization with better service and more competitive pricing than other international carriers.
The portfolio of Verizon International Toll Free Service consists of:
- Verizon International Toll-Free Service (ITFS)
- Universal International Freephone Numbers Service (UIFN)\
- Global Business Line (GBL)
This portfolio of International Toll Free Service has worldwide recognition, global reach and high reliability of service. Verizon's global network has the ability to serve its customers' requirements wherever they are located. Verizon Federal's sales force in the U.S. coupled with our overseas offices in over 60 countries around the world, are able to address our customers' network requirements.
Verizon International Toll Free Service: Verizon International Toll Free Service offers country-specific and Universal International Freephone Numbers Service toll free access, deliverable to U.S. government organizations with dedicated and switched locations in the U.S. and international switched (IDDD) locations. Verizon International Toll Free Service is fully integrated with the Verizon Toll Free advanced features product suite from order entry, call processing, billing, feature functionality and trouble management.
From an access viewpoint, Verizon Business offers country-specific toll free access from over 60 countries and Universal International Freephone Numbers access from approximately 18 countries with additional countries expected to be added. The ability to terminate to an international common business line from a Verizon toll free number domestic or international is called Verizon Global Business Line.
Universal International Freephone Numbers Service: Universal International Freephone Numbers Service is a value-added service of International Toll Free Service that allows government organizations to access a single-toll free/freephone number from all Universal International Freephone Numbers capable countries. Customers can receive Universal International Freephone Numbers that apply for all present and future Universal International Freephone Numbers capable countries. This service is international, but not country specific. It is a numbering plan "without borders" which allows for ease of cross-border marketing.
Universal International Freephone Numbers Service allows a caller to dial a freephone (toll free) number from a participating country by dialing the international access prefix followed by non-geographic country code of 800 and eight customer specific-digits.
Universal International Freephone Numbers Service is intended to significantly enhance the current international toll free/freephone service provided by the various telecom carriers throughout the world. Today, international toll free/freephone service is accomplished by providing toll free access numbers unique to each country from which a subscriber wishes to receive calls. Countries with Universal International Freephone Numbers access include: Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.
Global Business Line (GBL): Today government organizations that need to reroute calls to internationally located offices can do so only by combining a medley of service components, yielding multiple bills and non-standard functionality, supported by no integrated ordering and billing systems. By contrast, Global Business Line is a seamless order entry and billing functionality that responds to an organization's needs on a long term and immediate need basis.
GBL is designed to provide an orderly and reliable method of incrementing a government organization's toll free service configuration with international links worldwide (apart from regulatory restricted toll free access countries). A government organization can now point their domestic 8XX number to a specified IDDD termination on a one off basis or via feature routing. It also supports repointing of international inbound toll free numbers from selected overseas countries to specified IDDD terminations.
Verizon Toll Free Service features and functions are the backbone of the International Toll Free Service portfolio enabling government organizations to direct and manage their international inbound calls to suit their driving needs.
Organizations that use toll free numbers have a variety of objectives. One objective most organizations have in common is to route incoming calls to the location or call center that meets the caller's needs in the most optimal way. Verizon International Toll Free Service permits government organizations with international toll free number(s) to route incoming calls from any country to one of many possible destinations, under many different circumstances.
Advanced Features
Verizon Advanced Features for international inbound can significantly increase the functionality of Verizon Toll Free Service. Advanced Features are designed to tailor Verizon Toll Free Service to meet your organization's requirements. Advanced features fall into three general classifications:
- Origination Features
- Routing Features
- Termination Features
Origination Features
Origination features allow government organizations to direct incoming traffic to the appropriate location based on characteristics of the call's origin. These features allows your callers to decrease the amount of time they wait to reach the appropriate agents, while also cutting call duration and time wasted by manual direction of traffic.
- Extended Call Coverage. Extends an organization's geographic reach for toll-free inbound calls from Canadian locations.
- Geographic or Country of Origin Routing. Controls which of your organization's locations will receive calls based upon originating country.
- Cross Corp ID Routing. Allows calls to be routed to any location so that your organization's facilities are used most efficiently.
- Tailored Call Coverage (Canada Only). Limits the geographic range of incoming Canadian calls so your organization only pays for the calls in the geographic area specified.
- NPA
- NPA/NXX
— Extended Call Coverage
Verizon's basic toll free service includes the 48 continental United States, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands. Extended call coverage provides availability from additional area(s) at no extra charge. Canada is the only area considered an Extended Call Coverage option. Extended Call Coverage utilizes your same Toll free number and existing termination(s), while expanding your coverage to include Canada (any subset of 17 Canadian Area Codes).
— Geographic or Country of Origin Routing
Geographic or Country of Origin Routing provides the ability to define routing options based on the call's country of origin. Geographic regions used for routing are customer-defined and allow your organization to route based on originating country codes. Routing occurs by country or a group of multiple countries.
— Cross Corp ID Routing
Cross Corporate ID Routing allows your government organization to route 800 calls to any answering location and thus use your facilities more efficiently. The location need not share the same Corporate ID as the 800 number. (A Corporate ID is an identifier that links 800 numbers and service locations (terminations) together in Verizon Business's internal systems.)
Cross Corporate ID routing allows single-site organizations to use service bureaus as "second locations" to answer overflow or off-peak calls without setting up separate facilities.
— Tailored Call Coverage
This feature allows a government organization to block incoming calls from specific origination areas. It is available in Canada on a NPA/NXX basis only. It is not available for overseas originations. Blocked areas are defined by one of the following:
For example, an agency in New York may only be interested in receiving calls from specific cities in New York. Calls from any other area would be blocked. Anyone calling from a blocked area would hear the message: "This 800 number cannot be reached from your calling area."
Unlike banding features, Verizon Tailored Call Coverage allows government organizations to designate the areas from which they wish to receive calls down to the NPA/NXX level. Tailored Call Coverage can be used regardless of the number of the agency locations. This service can be used in conjunction with the following routing options, which are explained in the following section entitled "Routing Features."
Routing Features
Verizon International Toll Free Service Routing Features allows government organization's to direct incoming traffic in ways that most effectively utilize their answering resources. Your organization may select from any of the various options listed below to find one that meets your needs and schedules.
- Time Interval Routing
- Day of Week Routing
- Holiday Routing
- Percent Allocation Routing
- Alternate Routing
— Time Interval Routing\Time of Day
Permits the most effective use of your staff and other resources by routing calls to various locations based on the time of day of the call.
Time Interval Routing routes a single 800 number's incoming call traffic to different agency locations according to the time of day the call is made. For example, all calls from the UK could be routed to an East Coast office from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (EST) and to a West Coast office from 5:00 PM to 9:00 AM (EST). This capability helps government organizations utilize their staff most effectively and thereby save money. Customers simply establish a schedule that provides a route for completing all calls during all time periods of the day. Time period intervals begin and end in five-minute increments. A maximum of 48 time slots per day are allowed.
— Day of Week Routing
Permits the most effective use of your government organization's staff and resources by routing calls to various locations based on the day of the week of the call.
This feature will route calls to different locations depending on which the day of week the call is made. For example, all calls can be routed from Germany to an East Coast location Monday through Friday and to a West Coast location Saturday through Sunday. Like Time of Day Routing, Day of Week Routing is designed to help you reduce overhead and to better control internal operations. Government organizations simply establish a schedule that provides a route for completing all calls for each day of the week. A different routing arrangement may be chosen for each day.
— Holiday Routing
Allows calls to be routed on holidays chosen by the government organization, according to a plan that accounts for special holiday requirements. Holiday Routing directs calls to different locations on specified holidays or for specified ranges of days. A maximum of 15 single-day holidays and three ranges (composed of up to 10 consecutive days) can be specified for up to five (5) calendar years.
— Percent Allocation Routing
Helps prevent call overload at any one location by distributing calls on a percentage basis. This feature allows government organizations to route calls for a single 800 number to two or more answering locations based upon the percentage distribution your organization designated. For example, you could choose to have 30 percent of the international calls routed to a New York office, 30 percent to a San Francisco office, 30 percent to a Chicago office and 10 percent to a Dallas office. This option helps prevent call overload at any one location, reduces call delays, and manages call loads based on the capabilities at each location. Your organization can have up to 99 allocation arrangements per time slot.
— Alternate Routing
Defines special routing plans for calls in the event of an emergency, such as a service disruption, so that lost calls are minimized. Your government organization may create up to 99 alternate routing plans that can be activated by Verizon Business in the event of an emergency. This feature protects your organization against service disruption due to unexpected events or disasters. For example, if a snow storm hits the East Coast closing the New York City office, this feature could route all calls to the San Francisco or any other West Coast office which otherwise only accepts calls after 5:00 PM (EST). Execution of the feature could be accomplished in only 1 minute for a single 800 number or within 5 minutes for up to 250 numbers grouped together in a set. The alternate plans can be set up using any features, whether previously subscribed to in the main 800 routing plan or not.
Termination Features
The International Toll Free Service termination features allow government organizations to direct incoming traffic to specific terminating locations. By utilizing these features, organizations are best able to effectively allocate answering resources. Your organization may select from any of the various options listed below to find one that meets the objectives and needs of your organization.
- Network Call Transfer (NCR)
- Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS)
- Enhanced Call Routing (ECR®) (ROW to U.S. Terminations only)
— Network Call Redirect (NCR)
NCR can be used to reduce caller frustration by controlling inbound call congestion. Network Call Redirect (NCR) is an advanced feature that redirects calls to other pre-defined alternate location(s) during outages, busy conditions, or when agents are not present to handle calls. Alternate destinations may consist of a network announcement, and reallocating calls to one of the other agency's domestic or international locations. A network manager has an unlimited number of choices of why, where and how to overflow calls based on Trunk Group, Type of Service (both inbound and outbound) or individual Toll Free/Vnet number.
Typically, NCR is referred to as call overflow and can be used with Verizon, LEC, ISDN or non-ISDN access facilities. Network Call Redirect is divided into two products: NCR Outbound and NCR Inbound. Both NCR Inbound and Outbound provide government organizations with the opportunity to overflow a single call five times. Internationally NCR applies with some limitations on number routing.
— Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS)
DNIS is used extensively by government centers answering calls for multiple 800 numbers much like in a call center atmosphere. It can also be used to identify origination point of calls on the same 800 number. DNIS identifies multiple 800 numbers coming into the same location by the outpulsed digits received on the customer premises equipment. Verizon Business can outpulse between 1- and 10-digits. This feature is available to government organizations with dedicated termination and equipment configured to process DNIS digits.
— Enhanced Call Routing (ECR) (ROW to US Terminations only)
International Toll Free Service can also be used with the Enhanced Call Routing (ECR) product line which provides automated voice response, voice processing, and call routing for organizations pursuing better and efficient ways to talk with their constituents and employees.
With International Toll Free Service, Verizon Business offers government organizations the benefits of one-stop shopping and premier worldwide service with a single vendor solution. Through this end-to-end service, organizations gain globally consistent service, enhanced call efficiencies and total global management. Two key management services, Verizon Toll Free Guardian, and 800 Network Manager, offer government organizations the ability to provide true global management functions on their International Toll Free Service.
Verizon Toll Free Guardian
Verizon Toll Free Guardian offers government organizations the ability to reroute incoming calls when their primary call terminating location has experienced service disruptions or severe conditions. Toll Free Guardian only applies for inbound international toll free calls carried on the Verizon network, and applies when the service disruption occurs in the U.S. It does not apply to a service disruption that occurs in the originating International PTT's network.
Verizon Toll Free Guardian offers your government organization the ability to provide an alternate routing plan for use when situations of this nature occur. If your organization is unable to receive Verizon International Toll Free calls due to a failure in the U.S., Verizon Business will, at your organization's option, provide one of the following services for the toll free number that has experienced the failure:
| 1. |
If the Toll Free number that is out of service is a Toll Free Business Line, Verizon Business will reroute traffic to another existing business line; or |
| 2. |
If the Toll Free number that is out of service is a Toll Free Switched WATS Line or a Toll Free Dedicated Line, Verizon Business will reroute traffic to another existing Toll Free Business Line, Toll Free Switched WATS Line or Toll Free Dedicated line; or |
| 3. |
If the government organization does not have another existing Toll Free termination to accept calls from the affected service, Verizon Business will establish a new business line termination and reroute the affected service to this new temporary alternate line. The government organization must supply an existing phone number; or |
| 4. | Regardless of the type of Toll Free line that is out of service, Verizon Business will reroute to a standardized prerecorded message explaining service conditions and requesting callers to call back later. This feature is designed solely to explain service conditions and provides no media-related or other information or service. Calls will terminate after the message. |
Verizon Toll Free Guardian can reroute a call to a message announcement which can be a Standard message or Customized message. Or the call can go to another location, CBL or DAL. There are 5 standard messages that can be set up for Toll Free Guardian.
Below you will find examples for standard message announcements:
- We are unable to answer your call, please try again later.
- Due to weather conditions, we are closed today.
- Due to weather conditions, we cannot answer your call at this time; please try to call again later.
- Due to a recent emergency, we cannot answer your call at this time; please try to call again later.
- Due to technical difficulties we cannot answer your call at this time, please try again later.
800 Network Manager
800 Network Manager allows government organizations to manage their toll free network configurations and route their toll free traffic dynamically over the Verizon network without any Verizon Business customer service routing intervention. At a moment's notice, your organization can change and implement back-up routing plans for immediate disaster recover or reroute incoming calls based on inbound traffic patterns.
Information Management Tools
For customers who want a better way of monitoring, analyzing, and controlling their telecommunications resources, we offer government organizations FTSNet. The FTSNet platform offers access to Verizon InteractSM Network Management Services which is a comprehensive suite of Web-based network management, electronic billing and customer care tools. Verizon Interact Network Management Services gives your organization a unique, flexible, and robust management platform that allows you to better monitor, analyze, and control your telecommunications resources. Verizon Interact Network Management Services can also help your organization attain proficiency goals, improve productivity, and achieve greater cost control - all of which impacts your bottom line.
- Traffic Reporting - data captured consists of the translated International Toll Free Service number and all call attempts. There is no information provided on the in-country free phone numbers. The Traffic Reports can provide summary statistics as well as call detail by country, date and service location (termination).
- Priced Reporting provides billing detail on any International Toll Free number that is billed via the Toll Free Billing system.
- Toll Free Network Manager is a Web-based Verizon Interact application that gives customers a view of their Inbound network as well as the ability to make quick changes to routing plans.
Originating information is available from Canada only. There is no ANI/CLI delivery from overseas countries.
Countries of Origin
Calls can be originated from the following countries below and terminated into the United States.
| American Samoa | Iceland |
| Antigua | India |
| Argentina | Indonesia |
| Armenia | Iran |
| Aruba | Ireland |
| Australia | Israel |
| Austria | Italy |
| Bahamas | Ivory Coast |
| Bahrain | Jamaica |
| Barbados | Japan |
| Belarus | Jordan |
| Belgium | Kazakhstan |
| Belize | Kenya |
| Bermuda | Korea (South) |
| Bolivia | Kuwait |
| Brazil | Latvia |
| British Virgin Islands | Lebanon |
| Brunei | Liechtenstein |
| Bulgaria | Lithuania |
| Canada | Luxembourg |
| Cayman Islands | Macao |
| Chile | Malaysia |
| China | Malta |
| Colombia | Marshall Islands |
| Costa Rica | Mexico |
| Croatia | Micronesia |
| Cyprus | Monaco |
| Czech Republic | Morocco |
| Denmark | Netherlands |
| Dominica | Netherlands Antilles |
| Dominican Republic | New Zealand |
| Ecuador | Nicaragua |
| Egypt | Norway |
| El Salvador | Palau |
| Fiji Islands | Panama |
| Finland | Papua New Guinea |
| France | Paraguay |
| French Antilles | Peru |
| French Guiana | Philippines |
| Gabon | Poland |
| Gambia | Portugal |
| Germany | Qatar |
| Greece | Romania |
| Grenada | Russia |
| Guatemala | San Marino |
| Guyana | Saudi Arabia |
| Haiti | Singapore |
| Honduras | Slovakia |
| Hong Kong | Slovenia |
| Hungary | South Africa |
| Spain | Trinidad/Tobago |
| Sri Lanka | Turkey |
| St. Kitts/Nevis | Turks and Caicos Islands |
| St. Lucia | Ukraine |
| St. Vincent and The Grenadines | United Arab Emirates |
| Sweden | United Kingdom |
| Switzerland | Uruguay |
| Syria | Venezuela |
| Taiwan | Vietnam |
| Thailand |
Verizon Business works hard to provide exceptional customer service and support. Our customer service representatives are available to you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. So no matter when you need us, we're here. Just call our toll-free number, 1-888-FTS-SVC1 (1-888-387-7821), and we'll provide the help you need. We provide support for billing inquiries, invoicing issues and other service related issues including centralized trouble-reporting and system administration, to efficiently respond to your government organization's needs.