Question 1

Are FirstNet business voice minutes suitable for small and medium businesses?

Accepted Answer

Yes. SMBs can start on low-commitment plans, such as pay-as-you-go minutes, and scale usage as the business grows without changing their infrastructure. FirstNet's voice platform supports five users or five thousand without architectural changes.

Why it works for smaller businesses:
- No long-term commitment is needed for pay-as-you-go minutes.
- Minutes work with cloud PBX systems, softphones and hybrid teams, for both inbound and outbound calls.
- Per-second billing means short calls are not rounded up to full minutes.
- SIP channels are sized to peak concurrent calls, not headcount, so a 50-person business may need only a fraction of that in simultaneous calls.
- Fraud controls, including anomaly detection, destination blocking and spending controls, protect against unexpected charges.

For a single-site business, one SIP trunk suits non-critical voice where moderate downtime is acceptable. If you also take FirstNet connectivity, a free backup SIP trunk adds automatic failover.

Businesses that would rather not run a phone system at all can choose FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX instead, which combines the PBX, numbers, softphones and calling into one managed service on one bill.

Question 2

Can FirstNet AI Receptionist book appointments or update our CRM?

Accepted Answer

Not as standard, but it can be scoped. Out of the box, FirstNet AI Receptionist answers, routes, escalates, transcribes and triggers voicemail-to-email or callback flows. Deeper actions such as calendar bookings or CRM updates are scoped per customer during setup.

What it does out of the box:
- Answers calls 24/7 in natural language, using your own knowledge base.
- Routes calls by intent to menus, queues or extensions.
- Escalates complex or sensitive calls to a human agent in Linkus.
- Captures callbacks and triggers voicemail-to-email.
- Produces a transcript and AI summary for every call.

Separately, FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX offers CRM integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce and similar systems as add-ons. With AI Transcription, the call summary can sit alongside the call record for follow-up, which covers many follow-up needs without the AI Receptionist writing to the CRM itself.

If you need the AI Receptionist to act inside another system, such as booking a slot or updating a customer record, FirstNet's voice engineers scope it during design, together with routing, escalation rules and the knowledge base. Custom call flows and integrations are handled as separately scoped change requests, so you know exactly what is included before you commit.

Question 3

Can FirstNet Apex BI Clarity allocate telecom costs to departments?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Clarity supports chargeback models with flexible tagging and reporting, so telecom spend can be allocated by department, cost centre, project, site or extension and recharged fairly to business units.

How chargeback is set up:
- You agree your cost-centre model with FirstNet at the start.
- Call data flows in from your PBX CDR feed and, for Teams, the Microsoft Graph API.
- Dashboards are built and chargeback rules calibrated with a pilot team or department.
- Reporting is tuned over 2 to 4 weeks after data starts flowing.
- Supervisors and finance are trained, then the service is rolled out fully.

The same chargeback model applies wherever a call is made, across FirstNet Hosted PBX, legacy PBXs and Microsoft Teams, which keeps recharges consistent during a PBX-to-Teams migration. Scheduled reports keep budget holders informed, and threshold alerts and exception reports help prevent bill shock before month-end.

The result is a chargeback process that finance can audit. If you also want mobile voice and data costs in the same allocation, the adjacent Clarity for Mobile module covers them, and Clarity for IoT gives visibility of the costs assigned to sensors and trackers.

Question 4

Can FirstNet Apex BI Clarity report on Microsoft Teams calls?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Clarity for MS Teams uses the Microsoft Graph API to report on inbound and outbound PSTN calls, call duration, abandonment, agent activity and cost-centre chargeback, going deeper than Teams' built-in call reporting. It works whether you call through Operator Connect, Direct Routing or Microsoft Calling Plans.

What it adds beyond Teams' native reports:
- Chargeback of Teams call costs by department, cost centre, project or site.
- Inbound and outbound PSTN volumes, duration and abandonment patterns.
- Agent activity and queue statistics for customer-facing teams.
- Live wallboards for supervisors.
- Audit-grade reporting for POPIA, FSCA, healthcare and education programmes.

Microsoft's built-in Teams reporting focuses on basic call quality and per-user volumes, so on its own it does not produce cost-centre chargeback or contact-centre wallboards.

Set-up is light: your Microsoft 365 Global Admin grants Graph API permissions once during onboarding, and reports are tuned over 2 to 4 weeks after data starts flowing. Clarity for MS Teams is licensed per user. If part of your business still runs a PBX, Clarity combines both data sources in one tenant.

Question 5

Can FirstNet Apex BI Clarity show PBX and Teams calls in one report?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Where you run a PBX at some sites and Microsoft Teams at others, Clarity combines PBX call records and Teams Graph API data in a single Apex BI tenant. You get one view, one chargeback model and the same dashboards wherever a call was made or answered.

Why a single view matters:
- Vendor portals usually report per PBX and per site, and do not normalise data across a mixed estate.
- Finance gets one recharge process instead of reconciling separate reports.
- Reporting stays consistent while users move from a PBX to Teams in phases.
- Managers compare sites and teams on the same measures, whatever platform they use.

Supported sources include FirstNet Hosted PBX (native feed), legacy PBXs where CDR or SMDR data is available, and Microsoft Teams on Operator Connect, Direct Routing or Calling Plans. A mixed estate needs both the PBX feed and Graph API access, and FirstNet's voice engineers scope both before you commit.

This suits multi-site retail, professional services and logistics businesses, and any organisation partway through a PBX-to-Teams migration. FirstNet can also deliver the voice on both sides, with Managed Cloud PBX, SIP trunks or Teams calling, so the analytics and the voice sit on one contract.

Question 6

Can FirstNet Compliance Recording remove card or health data from call recordings?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Conversation Analytics tier of FirstNet Compliance Recording includes automated redaction of PCI card data, personal information (PII) and health information (PHI) from both the audio and the transcripts.

Redaction is automatic, so sensitive details such as card numbers read out during a payment are removed or masked without someone having to listen to and edit each call. This matters because PCI-DSS applies wherever cardholder data is handled, including over recorded phone lines, and because POPIA and health privacy rules limit how personal and health information is kept and who sees it.

Conversation Analytics builds on Advanced Recording and also adds multilingual transcription, summarisation, sentiment and voice analysis, automated QA scorecards and dashboards. Core and Advanced Recording do not include redaction, so the tier should match a clear redaction or analytics need. Different parts of your business can sit on different tiers, for example Conversation Analytics for a contact centre that takes card payments and Core for office users.

Redaction suits contact centres that take payments, financial services firms and healthcare contact centres. FirstNet enables it during onboarding, after capture has been connected and tested end to end on every platform in scope.

Question 7

Can FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX integrate with our CRM?

Accepted Answer

Yes. CRM integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce and similar systems are available as add-ons to FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX, alongside contact-centre reporting and wallboards. Custom integrations are scoped by FirstNet's voice engineers during design.

How CRM integration fits with the other features:
- Standard CRM integrations connect your phone system and CRM as an add-on to the core service.
- With AI Transcription, the call summary of topics, decisions and action items can sit alongside the call record for follow-up.
- AI Receptionist actions inside a CRM, such as updating records or booking calendar slots, are scoped for each business rather than offered as standard.
- Custom call flows, integrations and report development are handled as separately scoped change requests.

If you need analytics beyond standard reporting, FirstNet Apex BI Clarity adds near real-time call analytics, wallboards, leaderboards and scheduled reports on top of the Managed Cloud PBX.

To scope an integration quickly, note which CRM and version you use, which teams need it and what should happen in the CRM when a call starts or ends. FirstNet's voice engineers use this to confirm what is standard, what needs a change request and what is included before you commit.

Question 8

Can FirstNet Teams Operator Connect handle lift lines, paging or fax?

Accepted Answer

Not currently. Operator Connect does not support analogue devices through ATAs, which covers most lift lines, paging and fax, and it does not yet support common area phones or meeting room devices. FirstNet adds Direct Routing alongside Operator Connect in the same Teams tenant for these.

How the mixed design works:
- Most users stay on Operator Connect, with numbers managed in the Teams Admin Center and no SBC to run.
- Analogue devices such as lift lines, paging and fax connect through FirstNet's Direct Routing SBCs, which handle them with SBC-side routing.
- Common area phones in reception, lobbies or warehouses, and meeting room devices, also use Direct Routing.
- Both run in the same Teams tenant, on FirstNet's ICASA-licensed network, with one support path.

These limits come from Microsoft's published Operator Connect roadmap, so FirstNet identifies them during discovery rather than after go-live. FirstNet's voice engineers scope your analogue inventory, including each lift, paging zone and fax line, in the design phase so every device has a planned path.

Direct Routing can also coexist with an on-premises PBX, so some legacy endpoints can stay on the existing system during migration.

Question 9

Can FirstNet Truecaller for Business manage hundreds of business numbers?

Accepted Answer

Yes. One verified brand profile applies consistently across all your authorised numbers, and FirstNet handles additions and changes as part of the managed service, so large estates do not need a separate set-up per number.

How large number estates are handled:
- One brand profile, with name, logo, category tag and business page, is applied to every authorised outbound number.
- Call reasons can be mapped per number or use case, for example collections lines and delivery lines.
- Dynamic reasons can be passed per call from your CRM or dialler through the Truecaller API.
- Large estates across regions or business units, especially with dynamic reasons, start with a technical workshop before timelines are committed.
- New numbers, branding updates and call-reason changes go through FirstNet's change control.

To get started, FirstNet confirms the caller IDs in scope, your priority numbers and key contacts, then verifies ownership and business registration. A pilot on one or two priority numbers comes first, followed by rollout across the rest of the estate and a review after 30 to 90 days.

Proof of ownership is needed for every number you want verified, so an up-to-date list of numbers, and the entity that holds each one, speeds up onboarding.

Question 10

Can FirstNet migrate our contact centre from Genesys, Avaya or Mitel to Zoom?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet captures your current queues, IVR, CRM integration and recording set-up, designs the Zoom Contact Centre equivalent, pilots a representative agent group in parallel and cuts over with a rollback plan.

How a migration runs:
- Discover: current platform, agent count, sites, channel mix, CRM and compliance requirements.
- Design: queue and IVR workshops covering call flows, after-hours handling, overflow, call-back, language routing and priorities, plus CRM integration and porting scope.
- Provision: FirstNet is enabled on your Zoom tenant through the Provider Exchange, numbers are provisioned, queues and IVR are built and CRM connectors configured.
- Pilot and parallel run: a pilot agent group runs alongside your current platform, with end-to-end test calls, CRM screen-pop checks and recording and reporting validated.
- Cutover and hyper-care: numbers port across, remaining agents move, training is delivered and FirstNet monitors the first 30 days.

The same approach applies to in-house IVRs and other legacy platforms. Typical implementations take 6 to 12 weeks, depending on agent count, channels, integrations and porting.

Agents and supervisors are trained before go-live, with a train-the-trainer option. If you already use Zoom for meetings, back-office staff can move to Zoom Phone on the same platform, with warm transfers between the two.

Question 11

Can FirstNet migrate recordings from our old on-premises call recorder?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet offers a once-off compliant migration of historical recordings from existing on-premises recorders, with chain of custody preserved. It can be added to any FirstNet Compliance Recording set-up.

How a migration is approached:
- Discovery captures the legacy recorder vendor, its contract end date, the recordings to move and any deadline.
- Large or complex migrations, such as several recorders, high data volumes or a regulator deadline, start with a technical workshop before timelines are committed.
- Recordings move with chain of custody preserved, so there is a record that they were not altered along the way.
- Migrated recordings join the same tamper-proof archive as new calls, under one retention policy, one search and one audit trail.

The migration is scoped as a once-off professional services engagement, sized per source recorder and data volume, separate from the recording subscription. In the standard onboarding sequence it follows the connection and testing of capture on your live platforms, so new calls are protected first.

Migrating helps businesses retire legacy recorders that face hardware end-of-life, offer no remote or mobile capture and carry expensive storage, while keeping their historical recordings retrievable for audits and disputes.

Question 12

Can FirstNet run Microsoft Teams calling for some users and a PBX or Zoom for others?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Hybrid voice designs are common with FirstNet. Operator Connect and Direct Routing can run in the same Microsoft Teams tenant, and FirstNet SIP Trunks can stay under an existing PBX while other users move to Teams or Zoom Phone.

Typical hybrid patterns:
- Most Teams users on Operator Connect, with Direct Routing alongside in the same tenant for devices Operator Connect does not support, such as common area phones, meeting room devices and analogue lift lines, paging or fax.
- An existing SIP-compliant PBX kept on FirstNet SIP Trunks while selected users move to Zoom Phone, with dial plans and emergency routing aligned.
- Microsoft Teams as the user interface, with FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX running queues, IVR and recording underneath.
- SIP trunks running under a legacy PBX while Teams calling rolls out, followed by a full transition later.

Because every option runs on FirstNet's own ICASA-licensed network, numbers, porting and support stay with one provider. Reporting can follow the same mix: Apex BI Clarity combines PBX call records and Teams calling data into one view and one chargeback model, which helps during a phased PBX-to-Teams move. A FirstNet voice specialist can design the coexistence plan for your sites.

Question 13

Can FirstNet run our call recording platform for us as a managed service?

Accepted Answer

Yes, through the optional FirstNet Managed Compliance Service. FirstNet operates the recording platform on your behalf, covering policy configuration, retention administration, legal hold, user provisioning and audit-evidence support, plus regular compliance reviews with your compliance or risk lead.

Who it suits:
- Organisations without the internal capacity to administer a recording platform.
- Businesses with high audit exposure, where evidence must be ready on request.
- Organisations that need strict separation of duties in how recordings are administered.

Without the service, standard support is still included. FirstNet handles onboarding, configuration and ongoing platform support, while your own admins operate the platform day to day. The Managed Compliance Service can be added to any tier, from Core Recording to Conversation Analytics, as a recurring subscription.

The service covers the recording archive itself. Administering your own PBX or identity provider is out of scope unless it is separately contracted.

You log tickets through FirstNet's support channels by email, phone or portal, and FirstNet owns escalation of underlying CallCabinet and Smarsh platform incidents through to closure, so you deal with one provider.

Question 14

Can I get SIP trunk redundancy from FirstNet without using FirstNet connectivity?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The free backup SIP trunk applies when you also take FirstNet connectivity, but standalone SIP customers can add a backup trunk as a separate line item. For the most critical sites, FirstNet can also design dual-carrier diversity with documented failover.

The three continuity levels:
- Single primary trunk: suits single-site or non-critical voice where moderate downtime is an accepted risk.
- Primary plus backup trunk: if the primary loses signalling, calls reroute to the backup automatically with no manual intervention. Free with FirstNet connectivity, chargeable without it.
- Dual-carrier diversity: for high-availability contact centres, treasury operations and mission-critical medical sites that genuinely need multi-vendor diversity.

Both primary and backup trunks run on FirstNet's dual PortaOne clusters with zero-downtime updates.

Bear in mind that a backup trunk protects against a trunk failure, not against an outage on your own internet link. If both trunks depend on one link, that link remains a single point of failure, which is why FirstNet pairs voice with diverse connectivity such as broadband or SD-WAN where uptime matters. FirstNet's voice engineers scope the right posture for each site.

Question 15

Can I keep my existing business phone numbers when I move to FirstNet voice?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet manages porting of your geographic and non-geographic numbers end to end, using a Letter of Authority (LoA) that you sign. A typical port takes 5 to 15 business days, depending on the losing carrier.

How a port works:
- FirstNet captures the numbers and ranges to move, your current operator and your caller ID presentation rules.
- You sign the LoA, which FirstNet prepares and submits to your current (losing) carrier.
- The losing carrier accepts, queries or rejects the request. Queries usually come from address or account holder mismatches, or numbers tied to other services.
- A low-traffic cutover window is agreed with a rollback option, and FirstNet provisions the numbers in parallel.
- After cutover, FirstNet monitors calls for the first 24 hours and confirms with you.

Large blocks, multi-site or multi-carrier consolidations usually take 3 to 6 weeks. FirstNet does not control how quickly the losing carrier responds, so it does not guarantee dates that depend on another operator. Accurate account details and a promptly signed LoA avoid most delays, and numbers can be ported out again later, so you are not locked in.

Question 16

Can I migrate from my legacy PBX to FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet manages the whole move from a legacy PBX, including number porting, configuration and a phased rollout to minimise disruption. Migration paths cover on-premises PBXs, 3CX, Mitel and similar systems.

The migration sequence:
- Design: FirstNet's voice engineers scope users, sites, numbers, integrations, any Teams use and the cutover approach.
- Port: geographic and non-geographic numbers are ported end to end by FirstNet, and the cutover plan is signed off with you.
- Deploy: Linkus apps are rolled out, IVR, queues and recording are configured, any AI add-ons are trained, and user acceptance testing is completed.
- Operate: handover to a named support team with documented runbooks.

You choose between two cutover styles. A side-by-side cutover runs old and new systems in parallel while users move in waves, which suits larger or more complex estates. A big-bang cutover moves everything in a single weekend or after-hours window, which suits smaller sites.

Before cutover you will need a finalised user list, a signed Letter of Authority for your numbers, an agreed change window and phones or softphones ready for day one. If your current PBX still has life in it, FirstNet SIP Trunks can connect it instead.

Question 17

Can I use my mobile phone as my office extension with FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Linkus mobile and desktop apps included with FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX let you make and receive calls on your business number from anywhere, whether you are in the office, on the road or working from home. Callers see the same office number.

How it works in practice:
- Install the Linkus app on your mobile phone or computer; softphone licences are included with each seat.
- Calls reach you through the same queues, IVR and routing as a desk phone.
- You call out on the business number rather than a personal mobile number.
- Complex calls handed over by the AI Receptionist also land in Linkus, with the transcript and summary.

This suits hybrid and distributed teams that no longer want phones tied to a desk, and multi-site businesses that want remote staff connected without complex VPNs.

Call quality on a softphone depends on the connection it uses. Voice needs low latency, jitter and packet loss, so a stable Wi-Fi or mobile data connection gives the best results, and office networks should prioritise voice traffic with QoS. FirstNet checks the office side of this, including bandwidth headroom and firewall settings, before go-live.

Question 18

Can Microsoft Teams be used as a business phone system with FirstNet?

Accepted Answer

Yes. With FirstNet Operator Connect or Direct Routing, Microsoft Teams becomes a complete business phone system: users make and receive external calls in Teams on desktop, mobile and web, with South African numbers and local support.

What you need:
- A Microsoft Teams Phone Standard or E5 licence for each user. FirstNet can supply Teams Phone licences as a Microsoft CSP.
- A tenant in Teams-Only mode.
- Someone with Global Admin access available for the integration window.
- A connection to the phone network, through Operator Connect (no SBC to buy) or Direct Routing (FirstNet-managed SBCs).

FirstNet adds local South African termination, number porting, local support and custom routing, and its services can coexist with Microsoft Calling Plans in one tenant. Deployment runs in five phases, prepare, plan, provision, pilot and production, with auto attendants, call queues and dial plans built before pilot users cut over.

If you want fuller call-centre features behind Teams, FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX can run queues, IVR and recording underneath while Teams stays the front end your users already know.

Question 19

Can Truecaller verified branding from FirstNet also be used on business SMS?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Verified Message ID extends your verified brand identity to SMS, for messages such as one-time PINs, payment alerts, delivery notices and appointment confirmations. It is available in the CX Solution subscription and is usually added once verified caller ID is live.

The wider engagement options:
- Verified Message ID: your verified identity on SMS, so customers can recognise genuine OTPs and alerts.
- Video Caller ID: a short branded video plays on the recipient's screen while the phone rings.
- Call Me Back: customers who miss your call can choose a callback slot.
- User Feedback: post-call ratings on missed, rejected and answered calls.

These are typically added after the core verified caller ID has shown value, around the 30 to 90-day review, so you build on measured results rather than switching everything on at once.

Using verified identity on both voice and SMS gives customers a consistent way to recognise you across channels. FirstNet scopes the SMS use cases with you, along with any integration needed, and manages the set-up as part of the same service, with changes and support handled by FirstNet rather than a separate vendor.

Question 20

Can resellers and service providers buy bulk voice minutes from FirstNet?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Resellers, MSPs and IT service providers can buy bulk voice minutes from FirstNet and build them into their own services, using white-label or API-based integration on FirstNet's carrier network.

What resellers get:
- Wholesale-grade minutes to build or expand their own SIP trunking, hosted PBX or UCaaS offering.
- A trunk partner for clients whose PBX layer the reseller owns and manages.
- API access to provision minutes, track usage and automate processes.
- Live dashboards and analytics on consumption, rate classes, call patterns and cost forecasts.
- Fraud controls, including anomaly detection, destination blocking and spending controls, to protect margins.

Commercially, resellers typically use committed monthly bundles, with pricing based on traffic volume, destination mix and routing requirements. Specialised international routes are available for global termination.

Calls terminate over FirstNet's ICASA-licensed network, with direct interconnects to Telkom, Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and other licensees, and multiple upstream interconnects for resilience and best-path routing. The platform scales from five users to five thousand without architectural changes. A FirstNet voice specialist can prepare a rate card based on your expected traffic profile.

Question 21

Can some users stay on our existing PBX while others move to Zoom Phone with FirstNet?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Hybrid set-ups are common: FirstNet SIP Trunks stay under your existing PBX while selected users move to Zoom Phone, with dial plans and emergency routing aligned across both.

How a hybrid design is scoped:
- Decide which users move to Zoom Phone and which stay on the PBX.
- Keep the PBX on FirstNet SIP Trunks, so both platforms run on FirstNet's ICASA-licensed network.
- Align dial plans so users on either platform can reach each other.
- Align emergency routing so emergency calls work correctly from both platforms.
- Plan which numbers stay with the PBX and which move to Zoom.

This works with PBXs such as Yeastar as well as other SIP-compliant systems. Users who stay on the PBX can move later in waves without changing the voice provider underneath.

FirstNet's voice engineers scope the boundary between the two platforms, how the SIP underlay is shared and the porting plan. A pilot group goes live on Zoom Phone first, with hyper-care during cutover, and the remaining users follow once the pilot is accepted. Legacy carrier traffic is then retired on a documented date, so nothing is left running by accident.

Question 22

Can the FirstNet Smartz contact centre work with Microsoft Teams?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Microsoft Teams Phone stays your dial tone, and Smartz connects over SIP or Direct Routing to add what Teams lacks for a contact centre: skills-based routing, a full dialler suite, messaging channels, QA, voice biometrics and live wallboards. A Teams calling licence is still required.

What the combination looks like:
- Teams Phone can run on FirstNet Operator Connect or Direct Routing, or on Microsoft Calling Plans.
- Smartz Commz adds the ACD, IVR, queues and outbound diallers, plus SMS, WhatsApp, web chat, email, Telegram and Meta Messenger in the Chatterbox agent desktop.
- Smartz Engage adds audit-grade QA, time and attendance and e-learning for the contact-centre team.
- Smartz Analyz adds near-real-time wallboards, more than 25 dashboards and CSAT, NPS and CES reporting.

Before go-live, FirstNet's Voice Solutions Engineering team confirms the Direct Routing or SIP path into Smartz and tests the Teams integration end to end. Your Global Admin grants Microsoft Graph consent during onboarding where Teams is in scope.

Teams Phone, the Smartz Suite and add-ons such as Apex BI Clarity call analytics or compliance recording can all sit on one FirstNet contract, with one escalation path.

Question 23

Can the Truecaller for Business call reason change for each call?

Accepted Answer

Yes. With FirstNet Truecaller for Business, static call reasons such as "Payment reminder" or "Delivery update" are set per number or use case at onboarding and suit most outbound teams. Dynamic call reasons are sent at dial time from your CRM, dialler or contact-centre platform, so each call can carry a customer-specific or campaign-specific reason.

How the two options compare:
- Static reasons: a small set mapped per number or use case, enough for most collections, delivery and appointment calls. FirstNet changes them on request.
- Dynamic reasons: your system passes a per-call reason through the Truecaller API or a webhook, with end-to-end authentication.
- Typical dynamic uses: personalised collections, claim-specific updates and campaign-specific messages.
- Integration: dynamic reasons are scoped as an integration project, with a technical workshop for complex or large deployments.

The recommended starting point is static reasons on one or two priority numbers, measured in a pilot, with dynamic reasons added where the business case is clear.

Keep reasons short and relevant, and consider whether a reason could reveal personal details on a recipient's screen, because call-reason content shapes POPIA outcomes. The analytics dashboard shows how answer rates change as reasons are refined.

Question 24

Can we port our numbers out of FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX if we leave?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Geographic and non-geographic numbers can be ported both in and out of FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX, and the service is built on standards-based SIP, so you are not locked in to FirstNet.

What protects you from lock-in:
- Full number porting in and out, handled through a Letter of Authority under South Africa's number portability regulations.
- Standards-based SIP underneath, rather than a proprietary calling protocol.
- Numbers held by an ICASA-licensed operator, because FirstNet holds ECNS and ECS licences.
- Contract terms of 12, 24 or 36 months, with per-user billing aligned to the users actually licensed each month.

When you move numbers to another provider, the request runs through a Letter of Authority with FirstNet as the losing carrier. Port timelines typically run 5 to 15 business days, depending on range size and whether the numbers are tied to other services, and larger multi-site ranges can take longer.

The same porting process works in the other direction, which is how most customers arrive: FirstNet ports existing numbers in end to end, monitors calls for 24 hours after cutover and keeps your callers dialling the numbers they already know.

Question 25

Can we record Zoom Phone calls for FSCA or POPIA compliance with FirstNet?

Accepted Answer

Yes, through FirstNet Compliance Recording, which integrates with Zoom using CallCabinet, powered by Smarsh. Recorded Zoom Phone users need the Zoom Phone Power Pack licence. The platform supports your compliance programme, but compliance itself depends on your own policies.

What compliance recording adds for Zoom:
- Capture of Zoom Phone, Zoom Meetings and Zoom Contact Center into one tamper-proof archive.
- AES-256 rotating encryption, MFA and granular, role-based permissions.
- Retention policies, legal hold, defensible deletion and audit logs.
- Optional QA workflows, transcription, sentiment and automated PCI, PII and PHI redaction.

During design, FirstNet scopes the recorded user list, retention period, search and supervisor access, and audit requirements. POPIA also expects a consent prompt on recorded lines, which is configured and tested during activation.

Native Zoom recording is useful day to day, but it lacks the tamper-proof storage, granular retention, legal hold and audit logs that audits and disputes rely on. Only users whose calls must be recorded need the Power Pack, not everyone. If your business also uses Teams or a PBX, the same archive and policy can cover those calls too.

Question 26

Can we test FirstNet SIP trunks before switching from our current voice carrier?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet can run a small SIP trunk in parallel into your existing PBX, so you can prove call quality before staging the full migration at your own pace. Your current carrier stays in place until you are ready to move.

How a parallel trial and migration usually run:
- Prepare: PBX firmware and SIP-compliance review, a firewall and NAT walkthrough and an IP whitelist plan.
- Plan: channel sizing, codecs, backup trunk sizing, porting scope and an agreed cutover and rollback plan.
- Provision: FirstNet sets up trunks, numbers and the voice plan, and your PBX is configured with FirstNet runbook support.
- Pilot: end-to-end test calls (inbound, outbound, transfer, hold and internal), caller ID checks, backup failover tests and a pilot group of users or sites.
- Production: number porting cutover, the remaining users, monitoring and tuning, then handover to ongoing support.

After cutover, FirstNet's service delivery team provides 30 days of post-cutover hyper-care. Part of your old estate can also keep running alongside during migration, which suits businesses moving off copper lines or legacy PBXs in stages.

Question 27

Can we use Teams calling with FirstNet while keeping our current voice carrier contract?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet Teams Direct Routing is carrier-agnostic, so FirstNet's managed SBCs can sit on top of your existing SIP environment while your carrier relationship stays in place. Users get Teams calling now, without waiting for the carrier contract to end.

How it works:
- FirstNet connects your Teams tenant to Microsoft-certified SBCs that it owns and manages, so there is no SBC to buy.
- The SBCs route calls out through your existing carrier's SIP trunk, or through FirstNet's own trunk if you choose.
- Signalling is encrypted with TLS 1.2 and media with SRTP.
- Custom routing, such as location-based rules and custom dial plans, is designed against your tenant.

When the carrier contract comes up for renewal, you can move the trunk to FirstNet SIP termination and port your numbers with a signed Letter of Authority, without changing how users call in Teams.

Keep in mind how support is split. FirstNet's SLA covers what it manages: the SBC platform, its own SIP trunk, number provisioning and support. A third-party carrier you keep sits outside that SLA. FirstNet still acts as the single point of escalation for the Teams calling service, including joint escalation with Microsoft.

Question 28

Do I need to change my firewall settings for VoIP calls with FirstNet?

Accepted Answer

Usually yes. For VoIP to work reliably, SIP ALG must be switched off on your firewall and the RTP media ports must be open. FirstNet checks both as part of its readiness review before any voice service goes live.

Why these settings matter:
- SIP ALG (Application Layer Gateway) is enabled on many small-business firewalls. It alters call signalling, which typically causes failed calls or one-way audio.
- RTP carries the voice itself. If the RTP port range is blocked or restricted, calls may connect but the audio is cut.
- Symmetric NAT can also disrupt calls, so FirstNet runs a NAT type test to flag it.

Before go-live, FirstNet records your firewall make, model and firmware, confirms SIP ALG is disabled and tests the NAT type. For SIP trunks, the plan also covers port and IP whitelisting, NAT traversal and whether a session border controller is needed for an older PBX. Where your PBX supports it, FirstNet SIP Trunks use SIP over TLS for signalling and SRTP for media encryption.

If your current firewall cannot be set up correctly, FirstNet can supply a managed firewall service from Sophos or Fortinet.

Question 29

Do we need to tell callers that calls are recorded under POPIA?

Accepted Answer

Yes. POPIA sets out consent and retention requirements, so recorded lines should play a consent or disclosure prompt before the conversation starts. With FirstNet Compliance Recording, the consent prompt is configured and tested as part of activation, and a sample of calls is checked in the first week after go-live.

Decisions to settle before go-live:
- Whether to record all calls, only some lines or call types, or none.
- How long each type of recording must be kept; five years is common for FSCA and FAIS advice calls.
- Who may access recordings and under what conditions.
- Whether sensitive data such as card numbers should be redacted.

The prompt is normally an IVR message that plays before the call connects. Recording without one can breach POPIA, and that liability sits with the business doing the recording. Integrations also support consent workflows, disclosure prompts and export of recordings for investigations or training.

The same applies to any recorded line, including the call recording built into FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX, not only compliance recording. FirstNet's services support your compliance programme, but your own policies and configuration decide the final outcome.

Question 30

Does FirstNet AI Receptionist replace our human receptionist?

Accepted Answer

No. FirstNet AI Receptionist is designed as the 24/7 layer behind your front desk, not a replacement for it. Use it for after-hours, overflow, holiday cover and high-volume routing, while your receptionist handles the relationship calls.

Where it adds the most value:
- After hours: calls are answered, understood and routed or captured instead of going straight to voicemail.
- Overflow: when the front desk is busy, the AI Receptionist picks up so callers are not left waiting.
- Holiday cover: the line stays answered when staff are on leave.
- High-volume routing: common requests go straight to the right queue or extension.
- Multilingual callers: it supports 34 languages with a customisable voice, tone and persona.

Complex or sensitive calls escalate to a human agent in Linkus, with the transcript and AI summary attached, so your team picks up with full context. The practical result is that you keep your receptionist and stop missing calls outside their hours.

It runs on FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX and is set up in four steps: create the AI Receptionist extension, customise the voice and persona, train it on your knowledge base, then test and publish.

Question 31

Does FirstNet Apex BI Clarity alert us to unusual telecom usage?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Clarity uses thresholds and anomaly detection to highlight unusual usage quickly, with threshold alerts and exception reports designed to prevent bill shock across your PBX and Microsoft Teams calling.

What the alerts and reports help you catch:
- Spend that crosses a threshold you set, by department, cost centre, site or extension.
- Out-of-policy usage, such as calls that break your telecom rules.
- Mis-billed extensions and under-used services or lines.
- Unusual trends in call activity, through trend visibility across PBX and Teams.

Alerts and dashboards keep stakeholders informed, and scheduled reports go to the people who need them. Policy enforcement rules help reduce misuse and risky behaviour, and role-based access keeps that governance auditable.

Customers commonly find recoverable spend this way, although FirstNet does not promise a fixed saving; the first month's report quantifies it for your estate. Where Clarity for Mobile is added, the same bill-shock controls extend to mobile voice and data.

Clarity works alongside the network-level fraud controls on FirstNet voice services, such as automated anomaly detection, destination blocking and spending controls, so unusual traffic is caught both in the network and in your reporting.

Question 32

Does FirstNet Truecaller for Business work with our existing phone system?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet Truecaller for Business works with your existing outbound numbers regardless of voice platform, and pairs natively with FirstNet hosted PBX and contact-centre solutions. It is a presentation and trust layer on top of your voice service, not a replacement for it.

How it fits different set-ups:
- Any PBX or carrier: verification is tied to your outbound numbers, so the underlying phone system does not need to change.
- FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX, SIP trunks and Teams calling: Truecaller can be added to the same voice contract.
- Contact centres and diallers: static call reasons work without integration, while dynamic reasons are passed per call from your CRM, dialler or contact-centre platform through the Truecaller API.
- FirstNet Smartz Contact Centre: pairing the predictive dialler with verified caller ID lets customers see who is calling.

What matters most is that you can prove ownership of the numbers you want verified, along with your business registration. FirstNet then applies one brand profile across all authorised numbers.

One practical point: your phone system must present the verified number as the caller ID on outbound calls, because the brand only appears for numbers that have been verified.

Question 33

Does FirstNet guarantee POPIA or FSCA compliance for business voice and call recording?

Accepted Answer

No. No provider can guarantee regulatory compliance on your behalf. FirstNet's recording and reporting services support your compliance programme for POPIA, FSCA and similar rules, but final compliance depends on your own policies, configuration and obligations.

What FirstNet provides to support compliance:
- FirstNet Compliance Recording captures Teams, Zoom, PBX and contact-centre calls into one tamper-proof archive with retention policies, legal hold and audit logs.
- The recording platform supports compliance programmes for POPIA, FAIS, FICA, PCI-DSS, GDPR and other frameworks.
- POPIA consent prompts on recorded lines are configured and tested as part of recording activation, with a sample of calls checked in the first week.
- Apex BI Clarity keeps an immutable call-activity record that supports POPIA, FSCA, healthcare and education audits.

What stays with you: deciding which calls to record, how long to keep them, who may access them and how consent is handled. Recording without a consent prompt, for example, can breach POPIA, and that liability sits with the business doing the recording. FirstNet's SLAs cover the components FirstNet manages, and a FirstNet specialist can help map your obligations to the right recording and reporting set-up.

Question 34

Does FirstNet supply desk phones for its Managed Cloud PBX?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet supplies Yealink and Polycom desk phones, and softphone licences are included with each Managed Cloud PBX seat if your team prefers to call from a computer or mobile phone.

Desk phones suit reception, switchboards and fixed desks. They work best on network switches that provide Power over Ethernet (PoE); without PoE, every phone needs its own power adapter, which is untidy and harder to keep running during load-shedding. Before deployment, FirstNet audits your switch ports and checks the PoE power budget against the planned number of handsets, and can refresh LAN switching where the current switches fall short.

Softphones are the Linkus mobile and desktop apps. They let staff make and receive calls on the business number from the office, on the road or at home, using the same queues and routing as a desk phone. This suits hybrid and distributed teams that no longer want phones tied to a desk.

Whichever you choose, devices must be ready for day one: FirstNet confirms either a signed handset order with a delivery date or the number of softphone licences as part of planning, because no phones on day one means no voice on day one.

Question 35

Does Teams Operator Connect support common area phones and meeting room devices?

Accepted Answer

Not yet. According to Microsoft's published roadmap, Operator Connect does not currently support common area phones, meeting room devices or analogue devices connected through ATAs. FirstNet uses Direct Routing for those devices, alongside Operator Connect in the same Teams tenant.

Which path each device takes:
- Named users on Teams desktop, mobile and web: Operator Connect, managed in the Teams Admin Center.
- Common area phones in reception, lobbies or warehouses: Direct Routing.
- Meeting room devices: Direct Routing.
- Analogue devices such as paging, fax and lift lines through ATAs: Direct Routing, using SBC-side routing.

This mixed design lets most users stay on the simpler Operator Connect service while the exceptions are handled properly. Both paths run over FirstNet's ICASA-licensed network, with FirstNet managing the SBCs and providing a single support channel for escalations, including joint escalations with Microsoft.

FirstNet identifies these devices in the Plan phase, when user and device design decisions are made, so nothing is left unconnected at cutover. Because Microsoft's roadmap can change, FirstNet confirms current Operator Connect support for your device types at the time of design.

Question 36

Does Zoom Contact Centre from FirstNet integrate with Salesforce, HubSpot or ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Zoom Contact Centre has native connectors for HubSpot, Salesforce and ServiceNow. FirstNet's implementation team configures the connector, screen pops, click-to-dial and outcome write-back to match your CRM.

What the integration typically covers:
- Screen pops that show the customer record when a contact arrives.
- Click-to-dial from the CRM.
- Outcome write-back, so call results are logged against the record.
- Ticket creation where your process needs it.
- Checks of screen-pop behaviour during the pilot, before cutover.

Integration requirements are covered in the design stage together with queue and IVR design, so routing and CRM behaviour are planned as one. Integrations beyond these connectors, such as heavily customised CTI or proprietary IVRs without documented integration, are scoped carefully before you commit, because they add complexity and time.

To scope quickly, share which CRM and ticketing systems you use, what supervisors expect to see, and whether API access is ready on the CRM side. If you need analytics beyond Zoom's native dashboards, Apex BI Clarity for Zoom Contact Centre adds queue, channel, agent and outcome reporting on the same FirstNet contract.

Question 37

Does Zoom Phone work in South Africa, and how does FirstNet provide it?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Zoom Phone works in South Africa through a Zoom Provider Exchange partner, because Zoom does not provide phone numbers in South Africa on its own. FirstNet is a certified Zoom Provider Exchange partner that supplies ICASA-licensed local numbers, porting, implementation and support for Zoom Phone and Zoom Contact Centre.

How it works:
- Zoom hosts the phone system and contact centre; your Zoom admin selects FirstNet as the voice provider, with no separate carrier portal.
- FirstNet issues new geographic, non-geographic and toll-free numbers, or ports your existing numbers in.
- Calls route over FirstNet's interconnects with Telkom, Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and other licensees.
- Premium-rate and exotic destinations are blocked by default, and a 24/7 network operations centre monitors for toll fraud.
- Zoom licences, voice and numbers come on one FirstNet invoice.

Most users need a Zoom Phone Pro licence, supervisors add the Power Pack, and shared reception or warehouse phones use a Common Area licence. Local support is available in English and Afrikaans. Some users can also stay on an existing PBX through FirstNet SIP Trunks while others move to Zoom Phone.

Question 38

Does the FirstNet Smartz contact centre cover regulated call recording?

Accepted Answer

Not on its own. Smartz records voice and agent desktops for quality and coaching. If you are regulated under FAIS, FSCA or similar regimes, FirstNet pairs Smartz with CallCabinet or Smarsh compliance recording on the same contract.

What each layer does:
- Smartz: voice recording with instant retrieval, the Smartz Desktop Recorder for agent screens, and QA evaluations with a dispute trail in Engage.
- Smartz Analyz: audit reports that log every export and recording playback.
- FirstNet Compliance Recording: tamper-proof storage with AES-256 rotating encryption, MFA, retention policies, legal hold, defensible deletion and audit logs.
- Conversation Analytics tier: transcription, sentiment and automated PCI, PII and PHI redaction for audio and transcripts.

This split keeps quality and coaching in the contact-centre platform, and puts the archive that audits and disputes rely on in a purpose-built recording platform. FirstNet Compliance Recording supports programmes for POPIA, FAIS, FICA, PCI-DSS and other frameworks, but final compliance depends on your own policies and configuration.

POPIA also expects a consent prompt on recorded lines, which can be built into your IVR welcome announcements. FirstNet can scope Smartz, the voice service and compliance recording together, so they arrive as one design.

Question 39

Does the FirstNet Smartz contact centre replace our phone system?

Accepted Answer

No. Smartz is the contact-centre layer that sits on top of your voice service, not the dial tone. FirstNet supplies the voice underneath on the same contract, whether that is Yeastar cloud PBX, FirstNet SIP trunks or Microsoft Teams calling, and Smartz can also sit over a third-party PBX via SIP.

How Smartz fits each voice set-up:
- Yeastar cloud PBX: the full Smartz overlay on a FirstNet-managed PBX.
- FirstNet SIP trunks only: Smartz becomes your call platform, with IVR, ACD queues, dialler, agent desktop and wallboards.
- Microsoft Teams calling: Teams stays the dial tone, and Smartz adds routing, dialler, messaging, QA and wallboards.
- Your existing PBX: Smartz sits over the top via SIP without replacing it, once interoperability has been tested.
- New contact centre: Smartz, FirstNet voice, call analytics and caller ID on one contract.

Telephony is not part of the Smartz licence itself. It is a separate service on the same FirstNet contract, so you still get one bill and one escalation path.

During onboarding, your phone numbers, SIP trunks and caller ID presentation are aligned to the Smartz tenant. FirstNet's Voice Solutions Engineering team wires the two together and checks your network and endpoints before go-live.

Question 40

How are FirstNet AI Receptionist and AI Transcription minutes billed?

Accepted Answer

FirstNet bills AI Receptionist and AI Transcription minutes on one of two models: On Demand, a once-off bucket of minutes used until it runs out, or Monthly Rolling, a monthly minute quota on a 12-month contract. Each add-on can use a different model.

How the two models compare:
- On Demand is a once-off purchase that sits on top of your Managed Cloud PBX contract. Minutes do not expire monthly; you use them until depleted, then top up.
- Monthly Rolling is a recurring monthly quota on a 12-month contract. The quota refreshes each month and unused minutes do not roll over.
- On Demand suits seasonal, campaign or after-hours-only use, as well as pilots and proofs of value.
- Monthly Rolling suits steady, always-on use, such as an AI Receptionist on your main inbound line or an ongoing coaching programme using AI Transcription.

For example, you could run AI Receptionist on Monthly Rolling for the main line and AI Transcription on On Demand while you trial it. The model is chosen with you at proposal stage, and FirstNet's voice engineers size the minute commitment from your expected call volumes. Quarterly service reviews then track AI minute consumption so the plan can be adjusted as usage grows.

Question 41

How are FirstNet Apex BI Clarity wallboards licensed?

Accepted Answer

Clarity wallboards are licensed per concurrent viewer, so it helps to confirm up front how many screens or supervisors need live views at the same time.

How Clarity licensing is structured:
- Wallboards: per concurrent viewer.
- Clarity for PBX: per extension.
- Clarity for MS Teams: per user.
- Contract terms: 12, 24 or 36 months.

When sizing, count every screen on the contact-centre floor and every supervisor or manager who needs a live view at the same time. The wallboard viewer count is agreed in the planning phase, together with the cost-centre model and chargeback rules, and the wallboards are staged during the pilot.

The wallboards themselves give contact-centre and customer-facing teams a real-time view of calls in the queue, the longest wait, agents available and calls in progress. They sit alongside Clarity's historical reporting on call duration, abandonment, agent performance and queue statistics.

Accurate extension, user and viewer counts matter for large estates, because they drive the quote. FirstNet's voice specialists confirm them with you before pricing.

Question 42

How are calls on FirstNet SIP trunks billed?

Accepted Answer

Calls on FirstNet SIP Trunks are billed on a voice plan, either Voice Bundles with a fixed number of inclusive minutes or Voice Rate Options with per-minute rates. Billing is per second, so you pay for the time used rather than rounded-up minutes.

How the commercial model is structured:
- Channels: licensed per concurrent call as a monthly operating cost, not a capital purchase.
- Voice Bundles: a fixed number of inclusive minutes.
- Voice Rate Options: per-minute rates, with a custom rate sheet available on request.
- Contract term: 12, 24 or 36 months.
- Once-off items such as installation and number porting are quoted separately.
- Backup trunk: free with FirstNet connectivity, otherwise a separate line item.

Per-second billing makes the biggest difference for businesses that make many short calls. Pricing depends on traffic volume, destination mix and routing requirements, so FirstNet quotes from your call profile rather than a generic price list.

Usage, rate classes and call patterns can be tracked on a dashboard, and fraud monitoring with destination blocking helps prevent unexpected spend. FirstNet's voice team can supply a rate sheet for the destinations you call most.

Question 43

How do I buy business voice minutes from FirstNet?

Accepted Answer

You choose a plan that fits your calling pattern, such as pay-as-you-go minutes, a monthly bundle or a committed volume, and FirstNet activates it on your PBX, VoIP platform or SIP trunk so you can start calling straight away.

Getting started takes three steps: connect your PBX, VoIP platform or SIP trunk to FirstNet, activate your preferred minute plan, then start calling with real-time monitoring and usage controls in place.

The plan options:
- Pay-as-you-go minutes, suited to SMBs that want a low commitment.
- Committed monthly bundles, suited to enterprises and resellers with steady volumes.
- Voice Bundles on FirstNet SIP Trunks, with a fixed number of inclusive minutes.
- Voice Rate Options, with per-minute rates and a custom rate sheet on request.
- Specialised international routes for calls to global destinations.

All calls are billed per second. On SIP trunks, channels are a monthly operating cost on 12, 24 or 36-month terms. Because pricing depends on traffic volume, destination mix and routing requirements, FirstNet prepares a customised rate card based on your call profile. If you are moving from another carrier, a FirstNet Voice Readiness Assessment can map out the migration phases and timelines.

Question 44

How does FirstNet Compliance Recording protect call recordings?

Accepted Answer

Recordings are kept in tamper-proof storage with rotating 256-bit AES encryption at rest and in transit. Admin and reviewer access requires multi-factor authentication, permissions can be limited by user, group, recording type and metadata, and every access is logged.

The layers of protection:
- Encryption: AES-256 with periodic key rotation, for stored recordings and recordings in transit.
- Tamper-proof storage: recordings cannot be altered or deleted outside policy, backed by immutable retention controls.
- Access control: MFA on admin and reviewer roles, plus granular role-based permissions.
- Audit logs: a chain-of-custody record of who accessed which recording, when and what they did.
- Controlled sharing: sharing outside the platform, for example with regulators or legal counsel, is controlled and logged.
- Defensible deletion: recordings are disposed of at the end of retention in a logged, policy-driven way.

Access can be tied to your existing identity provider through single sign-on, validated during design. For card and health data, the Conversation Analytics tier adds automated redaction from audio and transcripts.

FirstNet provisions encryption, MFA, roles and retention policies during onboarding, and owns escalation of any underlying platform incident through to closure.

Question 45

How does FirstNet protect Zoom Phone against toll fraud?

Accepted Answer

FirstNet monitors voice traffic for fraud around the clock. Its 24/7 network operations centre (NOC) uses real-time call records and traffic anomaly detection, and premium-rate and exotic destinations, such as satellite networks, are blocked by default.

The layers of protection:
- Real-time call detail records, so unusual activity is visible as it happens.
- Traffic anomaly detection on calls passing through FirstNet's network.
- Premium-rate and exotic destinations blocked by default.
- International calling sold as destination-specific bundles, rather than open access to every destination.

Toll fraud usually involves criminals pushing calls to expensive international or premium-rate numbers through a compromised phone system or account, leaving the business with the bill. Blocking risky destinations by default limits that exposure even if an account is compromised.

Local support is available in English and Afrikaans during South African business hours, with the NOC handling voice incidents at any time.

You also have a part to play: protect Zoom admin and user accounts with strong authentication, and raise any need to call unusual destinations with FirstNet in advance, so it can be reviewed before it is enabled rather than in the middle of a campaign.

Question 46

How does Truecaller verified caller ID stop people impersonating my business?

Accepted Answer

Once your brand profile is verified through FirstNet, it is locked. Community edits and impersonators cannot change the name, logo or category shown on the call screen, and only authorised changes made through FirstNet are accepted.

How brand protection works:
- Verification: FirstNet checks proof of number ownership and business registration before the profile goes live.
- Green badge: calls from your verified numbers carry the badge, which spoofed or community-suggested entries do not.
- Locked identity: community edits cannot alter the profile.
- Controlled changes: new numbers, branding updates and call-reason changes go through FirstNet's change control.

This makes it harder for fraudsters to pass themselves off as your brand, because genuine calls carry a verified name and badge that fake ones lack. It is especially relevant for teams making fraud verification, payment or collections calls.

Verification protects the calls you make from your authorised numbers. It cannot stop criminals calling your customers from other numbers, so pair it with clear customer communication, such as telling customers to look for your verified badge on genuine calls. Verified Message ID extends the same verified identity to SMS, including one-time PINs and payment alerts.

Question 47

How is the FirstNet AI Receptionist trained on my business?

Accepted Answer

You train FirstNet AI Receptionist on your own content: PDFs, documents, website URLs and FAQs. Setup follows a four-step wizard, and FirstNet's voice engineers work through it with you before the service goes live.

The four steps:
- Create: set up an AI Receptionist extension on your Managed Cloud PBX.
- Customise: choose the voice, tone, persona and languages callers will hear.
- Train: load your knowledge base of documents, website pages and FAQs.
- Test and publish: run sample calls, confirm escalation rules, then go live.

To prepare, list the top reasons people call you, decide which intents should always go to a person, and write five to ten test scenarios. FirstNet works from a knowledge-base checklist covering your documents, intent list, escalation rules and voice selection, and designs the routing for IVR, queues, after-hours and overflow at the same time.

Before sign-off, user acceptance testing confirms that the AI Receptionist is live and escalating correctly. After go-live, quarterly service reviews cover AI minute usage and any planned re-training of the knowledge base, so answers stay current as your business changes.

Question 48

How long before FirstNet Apex BI Clarity telecom reports are useful?

Accepted Answer

Dashboards and chargeback rules are typically tuned to your cost-centre model within 2 to 4 weeks after data starts flowing. Data begins arriving once the PBX feed or Teams Graph API connection is live, and the tuning period makes the reports accurate for your business.

The typical sequence:
- Prepare: your cost-centre model is agreed and your Global Admin is briefed on Graph API consent.
- Plan: modules are confirmed (PBX, Teams or both), along with the wallboard viewer count and chargeback rules.
- Provision: the Apex BI tenant is created, feeds are connected and data flow is validated.
- Pilot: initial dashboards are built and chargeback rules calibrated with a pilot team over 2 to 4 weeks, while wallboards are staged.
- Production: full rollout, plus training for supervisors and finance.

Because wallboards are staged during the pilot, supervisors can start using live queue views before full rollout. The first month's report is also where customers usually see recoverable spend, such as mis-billed extensions or under-used services, quantified for their own estate.

Legacy PBX integrations that need an adapter may add lead time before data starts flowing, so FirstNet scopes those early in planning.

Question 49

How long does FirstNet Compliance Recording store call recordings?

Accepted Answer

As long as your policy requires. Retention in FirstNet Compliance Recording is configurable per policy and can vary by call type or business unit, so each set of recordings is kept for the period your regulator, contracts or internal rules set.

How retention works:
- You confirm your retention policy in writing before onboarding, and FirstNet configures it during provisioning.
- Different rules can apply to different call types or business units, such as advice lines and general service lines.
- At the end of the retention period, recordings are disposed of through logged, defensible deletion.
- Legal hold preserves specific recordings beyond normal retention for litigation, disputes or regulatory inquiries.
- Storage is sized to the agreed retention period and your platform mix.

As a guide, FSCA and FAIS-regulated firms commonly keep advice-call recordings for five years, but the right period depends on your obligations. Edits to retention after go-live go through FirstNet's change control, so changes are deliberate and recorded.

Throughout the retention period, recordings stay in tamper-proof storage with AES-256 encryption, and audit logs show who accessed what and when. Historical recordings from an older recorder can be migrated in with chain of custody preserved, so one retention policy covers old and new calls.

Question 50

How long does a Zoom Contact Centre implementation take with FirstNet?

Accepted Answer

Typically 6 to 12 weeks end to end. Smaller voice-only Essential deployments can take 4 to 6 weeks, while omnichannel Elite deployments with several CRM integrations and complex IVR run 12 to 16 weeks.

What drives the timeline:
- Agent count and number of sites.
- Channel mix: voice only, or voice plus webchat, SMS, social and email.
- IVR complexity: languages, skills-based routing, after-hours, overflow and call-back.
- CRM integrations: HubSpot, Salesforce and ServiceNow have native connectors, while custom CTI takes longer.
- Number porting, which depends on the losing carrier and typically takes 5 to 15 business days.

The work runs in phases: discovery, design and quote, provisioning on your Zoom tenant, a pilot and parallel run with your current platform, then cutover with 30 days of hyper-care. FirstNet confirms a realistic timeline once your scope is designed, and does not promise dates that depend on customer-side dependencies or other carriers.

To stay on schedule, have your CRM owner, Zoom admin and a signed Letter of Authority for your numbers ready early, and agree the pilot agent group and cutover window up front.

Voice questions & answers