Information about Traffic Pumpers

Ooma has identified approximately 700 non-residential numbers in the USA which impose abnormally high termination fees to make calls to them. Often such numbers are maintained by profit-making organizations seeking to make income from each call. This practice is sometimes referred to in the industry as "traffic pumping." The Federal Communications Commission has characterized traffic pumping as "an arbitrage scheme employed to take advantage of intercarrier compensation rates by generating elevated traffic volumes to maximize revenues."

Traditionally in telecommunications, organizations of this type would set up 900 numbers and bill end customers for each call. In the case of these approximately 700 non-residential numbers, the organizations are charging Ooma an abnormally high fee to complete the call. The fees being charged can be up to 20 times higher than the normal termination fees Ooma pays to complete your call. As the Federal Communications Commission has explained, "[al]though the conferencing or adult chat lines may appear as 'free' to a consumer of these services, the significant costs of these arbitrage arrangements are in fact borne by the entire system as long distance carriers that are required to pay these access charges must recover these funds from their customers."

Some calling services block calls to these numbers. Here at Ooma we recommend you refrain from calling these deceptive numbers as much as possible. Please note that because of the costs resulting from calls to these numbers, additional usage charges may apply for calls of this type in some circumstances (see ooma.com/termsandconditions for more information).

When these calls involve conference calling services, we recommend you use a conference calling service that does not charge abnormally high fees, such as Rondee.

We appreciate your help to stop this deceptive practice of "traffic pumping." You can learn more about traffic pumping by reading the Federal Communications Commission’s recent Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.