Outbound SIP calling is now available to all organizations

Posted by arbayi 4 hours ago

Comments

Comment by opengrass 41 minutes ago

Cancer. You won't talk to a human being anymore, and everyone will block numbers not in contacts.

Comment by seanp2k2 34 minutes ago

The FCC and Verizon / ATT / T-Mobile allowed the phone system to be ruined in this country by continuing to route calls for spammers and scammers for decades. It's handfuls of people and organized crime causing the vast majority of the problems. Instead of actually investigating this stuff and shutting it down systemically and throwing these people in prison, they let it get so bad that we're just deciding as a society that we'd rather not have real-time voice communications because the few companies that run them haven't been good stewards of the technology.

Comment by pvab3 7 minutes ago

isn't there some application for hardware attestation for calling? Like if I get an iMessage text I know its a real person with an iphone, but no similar system has been applied for phone calls. It can't be that hard for carriers to provide some kind of indication whether a number is an actual phone or not.

Comment by Arubis 2 hours ago

This is how we get AI regulations.

Comment by transitorykris 1 hour ago

It's time to just stop using the telephone, it's only for scams and mother's day

Comment by EA-3167 1 hour ago

Elections are how we get that, but imagine the nonsense we’re all going to have to endure between now and January.

Comment by ocd 3 hours ago

More than a few places won't even recognize VoIP numbers as legitimate primary numbers, and this will only make it worse. I'm not surprised an organization tied to Microsoft is going to ruin another thing I like.

Comment by viraptor 3 hours ago

VoIP numbers are not really a thing. I mean there are pools usually assigned from that other companies are aware of, but it's not enforced. You can buy a custom number and use it if you want. For example I had a residential landline number from my home town assigned and routed to a mobile in another country for better billing when my family wants to call.

Comment by ocd 2 hours ago

I'm well aware. I've been using VoIP for a long time, but as I said, some services refuse to recognize VoIP numbers as they can query and check. It doesn't matter if the number was ported and originated from a mobile service or landline telephony provider.

Netflix is an example of a company that takes a hardline stance not allowing a VoIP number on an account, even while banks don't seem to care since it's the customer's choice.

Comment by viraptor 41 minutes ago

> It doesn't matter if the number was ported and originated from a mobile service or landline telephony provider.

It still depends on public databases with hopefully-accurate data. I'm registered on Netflix on a number which can make and receive VoIP calls. It's just not a usual VoIP-specific provider. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50401117

Comment by UqWBcuFx6NV4r 2 hours ago

The comparison with / deferral to banks is not really relevant. Apples and oranges.

Comment by LoganDark 1 hour ago

I'd be curious to hear your justification for why it's so much more important for Netflix to ensure there's a "real" phone number behind the account compared to banks.

(Note: I don't agree with any equivalency or even correlation between phone numbers and legal persons)

Comment by cartoonworld 2 hours ago

Yeah but you can easily use an api for HLR lookup and see where it is ported to

Comment by viraptor 48 minutes ago

It's not fully reliable. For example you can have local residential lines that in practice go over VoIP and the provider allows you to use the same account to call out. They'll be classified as just normal landlines. It will vary wildly from place to place, but I think soon the type field in HLR will mostly lose its meaning.

(Just checked my company number, running on a hosted PBX, and it's marked as landline with no extra porting info that would contradict it)

Comment by noman-land 1 hour ago

What's HLR? Can you explain?

Comment by bennettnate5 1 hour ago

The Home Location Register (HLR) is the telephone-provider-specific database that routes calls coming from other providers; while originally a 2G term (it's HSS in LTE and UDM in 5G), people still just call it a HLR lookup. The actual HLR lookup itself goes to a separate country-wide database that maps phone numbers to the cellular or SIP provider. So, when you place a call, your provider can use that database to then lookup the HLR database and reach out to it to further route your call to that person's specific location.

Comment by jordemort 2 hours ago

Is this why I've gotten 7+ spam robocalls in the past 2 days?

Comment by UqWBcuFx6NV4r 2 hours ago

Oh, Jesus Christ.

Comment by dqv 2 hours ago

That's kind of cool. I hope more companies do this. If I understand it correctly, I can provide my own SIP server, so ChatGPT can join conferences or answer incoming calls.

Comment by belzebub 8 minutes ago

This might be the worst idea in history.

Comment by kyleee 2 hours ago

Hopefully it’ll be possible to use this to dispatch faxes over SIP as well

Comment by iAMkenough 2 hours ago

Is that why I’m suddenly getting fax spam this year?

Every few weeks, it’s either a fake invoice or investment pitch.

Since I receive them as a PDF in an email, I wonder if prompt injection via fax has been done.

Comment by Arubis 1 hour ago

If you’re stateside, anti fax spam laws have more teeth than anti-email spam laws.

Comment by iAMkenough 19 minutes ago

That’s honestly more frustrating, given call and SMS spam is more prevalent than fax or email spam for me. Those systems just have better (but not infallible) consumer-side protections.

Get with the times, Congress.

Comment by sunir 1 hour ago

I predict by 2030 humans are back to paper and personal messengers just so we can get some peace from slam.

I look forward to iMessage latest revolution from Apple. It takes a revolutionary to bring human connection back in the feel of your hands. Send incredibly beautiful textured linen paper, folded to perfect, tucked in a pocket of starched paper, sealed with the latest in molecular bond technology. Upgrade with iCut Pro, a shimmering blade in silver, gold, rose gold, and matte black that pairs incredibly with iMessage to open each embodiment of human connection with a swift, crisp cut.

Comment by dofm 1 hour ago

Remember they literally had, and cancelled, Steve Jobs's real-postcard-from your-photos passion project.

Comment by seanp2k2 32 minutes ago

is THAT what MobileMe was supposed to do???? Holy...

Comment by sscaryterry 1 hour ago

They 100% added this because they want to be regulated, sued, blamed.

Comment by joecool1029 3 hours ago

Anyone else eagerly awaiting a deluge of ChatGPT scam calls?

Comment by viraptor 2 hours ago

Call your representative and bother them about punishing the callers and telcos. It can be regulated. Just needs people to care.

Comment by dofm 1 hour ago

Better yet, prompt ChatGPT to do it.

Comment by seanp2k2 33 minutes ago

This. Call their offices a hundred times per day to reinforce the point. Leave voicemails each time. Use different personalities and names and numbers on each. They might not get each literal message, but they're get the figurative message.

Comment by edoceo 2 hours ago

the number of spam calls I get on a well published number has gone way up since 2024. Like dozens per day. Twilio filters don't work, support doesn't "get it". I recently ported in an old-persons number and holy CRAP! Calls starting at 7am their time and lasting through dinner!

Comment by jordanb 3 hours ago

This honestly feels like the use case...

Comment by runnr_az 3 hours ago

what could possibly go wrong?

Comment by RicoElectrico 2 hours ago

Just tell it you're hard of hearing and need it to say "Albuquerque, New Mexico" after every word containing letter "a".

Comment by UqWBcuFx6NV4r 2 hours ago

Cringing at myself for referencing Rick and Morty, but it’s too apt.

https://youtu.be/qVpqaac4mZ0

Comment by bcrl 1 hour ago

Lowering the barriers to AI executed fraud, 1 SIP trunk at a time!

This screams for regulation. I don't see how OpenAI can claim to avoid liability using regulations originally meant for telecommunications carriers and now used to cover ISPs and Big Tech while also claiming their services are intelligent.

Comment by seanp2k2 30 minutes ago

Don't worry, they'll self-regulate. I'm sure they'll successfully ban anyone trying to use this for legit business purposes or for handling personal matters while allowing spammers who are even remotely clever to operate thousands of simultaneous accounts and place billions of calls without getting caught.

Then a month later they'll reinstate your account with zero explanation. Any attempt to contact customer service will be met with AI responses saying they got your message but are upholding your ban.

Comment by dofm 1 hour ago

They really went to a lot of trouble to do this when none of us answer the phone to unknown numbers anymore.

Comment by Insimwytim 1 hour ago

They can combine it with the info they have on ChatGPT users and sell readymade call scripts for ..."marketing" purposes to the highest bidder.