Numbering Plan

Telephone numbers in the Philippines follow an open telephone numbering plan and an open dial plan. Both plans are regulated by the National Telecommunications Commission, a body under the Department of Transportation and Communications as an attached agency.

Telephone numbers are fixed at seven digits. When making long-distance calls in the Philippines, append 0 for domestic calls and 00 for international calls.

IonTEL will be using the following numbering plan:

For domestic calls, the subscribers have to dial:

0 + Area Code (44) + Phone number

For international calls:

00 + Country Code + Area Code + Phone number

The subscriber can reach the CO with the hotline number:      044-0466-835 (044-0ion-TEL)

The subscriber will bear the number:  044-xxxx-xxx

Signaling Plan

As a telephone company who offers the latest technology, ionTEL uses Signaling System 7 (SS7).Signaling System 7 (SS7) is a packet-switched data networkthat forms the backbone of the telecommunicationsnetwork.

SS7 plays an important role in both wireline and wirelessnetworks. It was designed to improve network operation andto provide enhanced services. Unlike earlier in-bandsignalingsystems, SS7 is a separate, fully redundant network, workingwithin the existing voice network to control it.Moreover, SS7 has the following advantages:

◗Faster call set up

◗More efficient use of network resources

◗A tested and reliable signaling protocol with global acceptance

◗Support for network convergence

◗Support for large, high-density, high-reliability systems

◗Scalable architecture

◗More cost-effective than Integrated Services Digital Network

(ISDN) and Channel Associated Signaling (CAS)

ionTEL Switching Plan

In the early days, phone calls traveled as analog signals across copper wire. Every phone call needed its own dedicated copper wire connecting the two phones. That's why you needed operators' assistance in making calls. The operators sat at a switchboard, literally connecting one piece of copper wire to another so that the call could travel across town or across the country. Long-distance calls were comparatively expensive, because you were renting the use of a very long piece of copper wire every time you made a call.
Beginning in the 1960s, voice calls began to be digitized and manual switching was replaced by automated electronic switching. Digital voice signals can share the same wire with many other phone calls. The advent of fiber-optic cables now allows thousands of calls to share the same line. But fiber-optic and other high-bandwidth cables haven't changed the basic nature of circuit switching, which still requires a connection -- or circuit -- to remain open for the length of the phone call.
This chapter will cover the switching methods and equipment that ionTEL will utilize in whole design.