Gizmo Backdoor Free Calls to 11% of US phones

[cliff]

Does anyone know how they do this? Is this an internal database or something we can access?



Backdoor Dialing


Approximately 11% of US telephones, including mobile numbers and land lines from carriers such as Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc., are connected via VoIP. Working with telecom partners we are now making it possible to dial these numbers without going through the traditional phone system.


This means you can call certain mobile and land line numbers from any computer connected to the net and talk for free. Because these calls are bypassing the traditional phone network entirely there is no per minute fee or other charge for the caller regardless of where they call from.

http://gizmo5.com/pc/backdoor/

5. Why isn't my number part of the program?

Backdoor dialing is a new program. It is not available for every phone. Our estimates are that our connections give us coverage on approximately 11% of all phones in the US at launch. This includes landlines and mobile numbers from many carriers including Access One, Airadigm, Allegiance, Alltel, Cablevision Lightpath, Cat Communications, Cbeyond, Cellcom, Cellular Properties, Centennial Wireless, Choice One, Cincinnati Bell Wireless, Cinergy Communications, Cingular, CityNet, Cleveland Unlimited, Comcast Digital Voice, Commpartners, Conversent Communications, Cox Communications, CP Telecom, CTC Communications, Dobson Cell, Eureka, Globalcom, Heartland Communications, Illinois Valley, ITC Deltacom, LDMI, McLeod, Metro PCS, Mpower, Nationsline, Nextel, Nextera Communications, Paetec, RCN, Sprint PCS, Talk America, Telnet Worldwide, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon Wireless, XO. The program is constantly being expanded.

 

[jroper]

Hi

Its done with peering. I'm assuming they make a charge for it.

There is another way.

Signup to an account here - http://www.e164.org/

Activate your telephone number, along with IP address or hostname of your box.

After a few minutes, e164.org will call you back with a number, which you have type into the website to prove that the number belongs to you.

Then:-

Add an enum trunk in FreePBX

Make it the first trunk selected on your outbound routes.

Each call that you make will check the enum database to see if the number is registered.

If the number is one of the 39,866,416 registered, then it will return the IP address or URL of the PBX you are calling.

Your PBX will then make a call directly over the internet to the called party, rather than going via the PSTN and actually paying for it.

If the other end is offline or unavailable, or simply not registered, the call will go out via your normal carrier, and you pay.


So if everyone with an PiaF registered their number along with their hostname - It will be free calls between all PiaF users

Now that's powerful.

Joe

 

[cliff]

Thanks for the response.

I registered with e164.org over a year ago and got ENUM working. It works well and e164.org will complete toll free numbers even if not in their database. I recommend every Asterisk user sign up. As a practical matter, so few numbers I call are currently in any ENUM database it isn’t of much value.

I tested Gizmo’s database and many numbers I regularly call are listed. Outgoing calls sent are free. It looks like a valuable database to me. I wanted to let others know about this service and was wondering if anyone knew a way to do an automatic lookup like ENUM. If not, I would need to lookup each number prior to calling or set up custom calling for every number.

 

[jmullinix]

We are starting to do the same thing with the Dundi e164 cloud. Dundi is peer-to-peer with no centralized database of numbers. It really works pretty well.

 

[cliff]

This database appears to have all numbers from each of the below providers. It does not include Verizon or Verizon Wireless but include numbers ported to Comcast and T-Mobile in the past 20 days.

I've had a gizmo trunk I use for inbound GrandCentral calls. I set this trunk as the first outbound in the appropriate routes and added the 0101+ in the trunk dial plan. Calls to numbers found in the database completed but disconnected after a few seconds. I'll figure that out later. I get a recording for numbers not listed so it won't go to the next trunk.

I need to do some reading on gizmo, but this looks good. Even if I'm only able to use it for known numbers I call frequently.

Our estimates are that our connections give us coverage on approximately 11% of all phones in the US at launch. This includes landlines and mobile numbers from many carriers including Access One, Airadigm, Allegiance, Alltel, Cablevision Lightpath, Cat Communications, Cbeyond, Cellcom, Cellular Properties, Centennial Wireless, Choice One, Cincinnati Bell Wireless, Cinergy Communications, Cingular, CityNet, Cleveland Unlimited, Comcast Digital Voice, Commpartners, Conversent Communications, Cox Communications, CP Telecom, CTC Communications, Dobson Cell, Eureka, Globalcom, Heartland Communications, Illinois Valley, ITC Deltacom, LDMI, McLeod, Metro PCS, Mpower, Nationsline, Nextel, Nextera Communications, Paetec, RCN, Sprint PCS, Talk America, Telnet Worldwide, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon Wireless, XO. The program is constantly being expanded.

 

[jehowe]

I'll have to give enum another shot. I have several numbers registered, but haven't used an enum trunk in a few years due to the delay it added to completing non-listed numbers falling through to the next trunk.

John's web conference on using Dundi has peaked my interest using that as well.

 

[wardmundy]

Cliff: Could you post your settings for your Gizmo trunk?

 

[cliff]

Gizmo Project/SipPhone trunk settings

The following are the Gizmo/sipphone trunk settings I've used for the past year. I have 4 sipphone.com trunks used primarily for incoming GrandCentral calls.

http://pbxinaflash.com/community/threads/www-grandcentral-com.35/?t=35

[Gizmo]
username=number
fromuser=number
type=peer
secret=password
insecure=very
host=proxy01.sipphone.com
fromdomain=proxy01.sipphone.com
dtmfmode=INFO
context=ext-did
canreinvite=no
disallow=all
allow=ulaw&alaw&gsm&ilbc

number: [email protected]/number

The disconnect issue I spoke of above is probably because I haven't purchased outgoing minutes. I was able to call 800 numbers and maintain the connection. Gizmo sends a recording when an outgoing call fails, so the call won't pass to the next trunk. The below settings are possible options I found reading Gizmo forums.

authuser=number
type=friend
qualify=yes

 

[wardmundy]

Gizmo Settings for PBX in a Flash

Here are the trunk settings that we got to work. Just plug all of this into Outgoing Settings->Peer Details. Remember, for all the free calls, the dial string is 0101NXXNXXXXXX. A recording will tell you if it's not a free call and then hang up. Sprint, T-Mobile, Comcast, Nextel, Verizon, etc all seem to be free calls. Very cool, indeed.

Trunk: proxy01.sipphone.com

disallow=all
allow=ulaw
auth=md5
authuser=[COLOR=Red]youracctnameNOTyourphonenumber[/COLOR]
canreinvite=no
context=from-trunk
dtmfmode=auto
fromdomain=proxy01.sipphone.com
fromuser=[COLOR=Red]youracctnameNOTyourphonenumber[/COLOR]
host=proxy01.sipphone.com
insecure=very
nat=yes
qualify=yes
secret=[COLOR=Red]yourpassword[/COLOR]
type=peer
username=[COLOR=Red]youracctnameNOTyourphonenumber[/COLOR]

If it doesn't work, you may need to buy $10 worth of phone credits just to have a positive balance. Gizmo claims you don't have to although you can't make a call with their softphone without a credit balance above $0. I already had some credit so I can't test it.

Here's a post from their forum:

I manage some Gizmo accounts for friends and family. Two accounts with $0 were not able to call backdoor, although one account with $0 was able to use backdoor (this account has only recently become $0).

Today I called Gizmo at 858-625-0466 in San Diego, asked for 10 cents to be put on each account that was not working with backdoor. First the woman mentioned that I should handle this through a support ticket. I explained that I had opened a ticket but thought the ticket system was not working as some weeks have passed since then. She said the ticket system is working but they are rather backlogged.

She also said that backdoor is supposed to work without any funds on account, nevertheless she added 10 cents to each of the 2 accounts. Immediately thereafter I was able to use backdoor from both accounts which previously would not allow backdoor dialing.

 

[cliff]

...

Trunk: proxy01.sipphone.com

authuser=[COLOR=Red]youracctnameNOTyourphonenumber[/COLOR]
fromuser=[COLOR=Red]youracctnameNOTyourphonenumber[/COLOR]
username=[COLOR=Red]youracctnameNOTyourphonenumber[/COLOR]

If it doesn't work, you may need to buy $10 worth of phone credits just to have a positive balance. Gizmo claims you don't have to although you can't make a call with their softphone without a credit balance above $0. I already had some credit so I can't test it.

Apparently they use different authorization schemes for some accounts. I substituted my acctname for number and couldn't register. I do need to prepend my number with a "1" in each use. I wonder if this corresponds with users able to make back door calls with a $0 balance?

Any idea how to automate a lookup with fail to next trunk?

 

[wardmundy]

We're workin' on it. In the meantime...

Free Asterisk Calls to Zillions of Phones with ENUM and Gizmo5’s Backdoor Dialing

 

[krzykat]

Wow - I'd love to know how they did that. If they had to actually sign contracts and get interconnects with the carriers, or if perhaps those carriers are signing up with an E.164 type service that one could access.

 

[dad311]

Got the Gizmo thing working, but have a few ?s.

Can I stop the Gizmo recording "This is a free call....."

Can I pass caller id to reflect my Vitelity number and not the Gizmos number?

 

[wardmundy]

You can't turn off the "Free Call from Gizmo5" message. I've read somewhere that you can pay Gizmo5 to adjust your outbound CallerID for a "modest annual fee." It's $4 a year if you follow Cliff's link below.

 

[cliff]

Looks like the answer is yes for setting outbound CID.

http://support.gizmoproject.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=231

 

[dad311]

After paying $4.00 for the year I was able to set the CID. Seems to work ok, but I don't care for the "This is a free call ...." message at the beginning of each call. However, free is free!

 

[troycarpenter]

Yeah, I have a problem with the free call announcement. I probably will only use this for calling my cell phones...I don't know anyone who would enjoy hearing that message at the beginning of the call. It makes me sound even more cheap than I already am!

Oh, you can talk over the message, though...speech path does seem to be established while it is playing.

Also, it's not mentioned by anyone, but Gizmo is giving 10 cents of CallOut credit for each new account...enough to get you calling for free right away without paying $10 and waiting for it to hit your account. I've made quite a few free calls from both my PC and PiaF box to my cell...they all show up in my call log online as $0.

 

[cliff]

Yeah, I have a problem with the free call announcement. ... It makes me sound even more cheap than I already am!
...

I prefer thrifty.

I’ll never remember what numbers to dial with 14 or 10 digits. Until you pros figure a method more like ENUM, I’m going to try something on an individual number basis.

I plan to list each number I’ve determined will go backdoor, and I won’t mind the “free call” notice, into “extensions_custom.conf” in 10 and 11 digit formats. I’ll set up an “outrt” for 10 digit numbers that will send the call to “Outbound Routes – BackDoor.” I can add just the Gizmo5 trunk or others. I’ll add the 1010 at the trunk dial plan. I’ll send the same number with 11 digits to my regular outbound routing.

If it works, I can dial the number normally. If the number is listed it will be sent to “Outbound Routes – BackDoor” then to the Gizmo5 trunk to add the 1010, then attempt the call. If the call completely fails the second trunk will be attempted. If I get the recording from Gizmo5, I’ll redial the same number with 11 digits -1NXXNXXXXXX and it will bypass backdoor and use my regular outbound plan.

I’ll post how it works, probably next week.

[extensions_custom.conf]
exten => _3012345678,1,Goto(outrt-007-BackDoor,${EXTEN},1)
exten => _13012345678,1,Goto(custom-voicepulseflexrate,\${EXTEN},1)
or
exten => _13012345678,1,Goto(outrt-006-OutCall,${EXTEN},1)

New idea ... Is there a way to press a key(like *) as we get the Gizmo5 recording to force the call to the next trunk?

 

[dad311]

I also set-up an out route just for my "family mobiles". If any one of my family mobile numbers are dialed, the 1010 is prefixed along with the area code. Seems to work well as long as all the mobiles are in the same area code. I do feel some what cheap, when the "Free call" message is played.

 

[cliff]

Apparently they use different authorization schemes for some accounts. I substituted my acctname for number and couldn't register. I do need to prepend my number with a "1" in each use. I wonder if this corresponds with users able to make back door calls with a $0 balance?

I changed phone number to account name on a second account. It registered and worked. I again tested the first account and could not register.

I have 1 account that works with either account name or phone number, 1 requires phone number and Ward's account requires account name.