How Call-Back Works

Call-Back services are often used in countries where the cost of making an international call is very expensive, and the customer can save money by launching a call from another country, and then being presented with secondary dial-tone so that they can make an onwards call.

How Call-Back Works

A2Billing supports a number of ways of triggering a call-back. A call is triggered to the customer, this is called the A leg, and then the customer can make an onwards call. This is called the B Leg.
The customer calls an access number or trigger number on the A2Billing platform, the call is never answered, so the customer is not charged for this call, even if the trigger number is an international number.

ANI Call-Back

The A2Billing platform captures the caller ID of the caller, and a few seconds later, giving the customer time to hang up their phone after triggering the call-back, a call is launched back to the customer. The customer is then prompted for a PIN number to identify the customer, alternatively, their caller ID is recognized, and secondary dial tone is presented, prompting the customer to dial their desired destination.

DID Call-Back

DID based call-back is used in circumstances where the caller ID is not always delivered reliably, often in an effort to block call-back services by the incumbent operator. The customer calls their own personal DID, which in turn triggers a call-back to a previously defined number. This is expensive on DID usage, but may be the only reliable methodology.

Web Based Call-Back

As standard with A2Billing, there is a Customer Portal, and one of the options with the portal is to be able to launch a call-back. The customer types in the number they want to receive the call-back on, and the telephone number of the person they want to call. The call-back is launched with a call to the customer first, and then as soon as they pick up the phone, the second leg of the call is launched to the person they want to call.

IVR Call-Back

IVR call-back is a system developed where tone clamping takes place. The customer rings the trigger number, and via an IVR, is prompted for the number to call, and the number to call-back on. The cost to the customer is a brief call to the access number charged by their operator, then the call-back and subsequent conversation is then charged via A2Billing.