For global carriers like Telenor SA and Telenor Norway, terminating calls to challenging destinations such as Eritrea has long carried heavy risk of false answer supervision (FAS) – that is, billing starts before the call is actually answered. Traditional GSM-based Gold and Silver decks often generate substantial FAS charges, eroding margins and creating billing disputes. By partnering with Premier Networking Inc, doing business as Premier Voice Networks, Telenor Norway overcame this challenge with our Anti-FAS system, achieving reliable answer supervision and a 45 % reduction in per-call costs.
The FAS Challenge on Eritrea Routes
- False Answer Supervision (FAS) occurs when network switches report a call as “answered” (and billing begins) even though the far-end phone has not rung, or a network announcement is treated as an answer.
- On Eritrea routes, many GSM carriers enforce high per-minute rates once the network marks the call answered, often before actual ring or pickup.
- Under Gold and Silver deck agreements, Telenor Norway faced unexpectedly large invoices, poor quality of service, and customer complaints.
These issues made it impossible for Telenor SA to scale voice traffic profitably into Eritrea without risking revenue leakage and degraded user experience.
Premier Voice Networks’ Anti-FAS Solution
Premier Voice Networks designed an integrated platform combining:
- Advanced Voice Recognition to detect ringback tone, dial-tone, announcements, and connect signals.
- AI-driven Voicemail Detection to distinguish live answers from voicemail or answering machines.
- Asterisk-based Call Control for real-time media handling.
- Google Gemini for natural-language processing and pattern analysis.
- VOS (Voice Operating System) Core for centralized session logging, scorecards, and post-call verification.
By applying these technologies, our system replaces the error-prone hardware answer signals in legacy GSM decks with precise digital confirmation of actual call pick-up.
Technical Architecture Overview
| Component | Role |
|---|---|
| Asterisk PBX | Orchestrates SIP signaling, handles call setup, and records media streams. |
| Google Gemini | Analyzes audio in real time to identify ringback patterns and human voice signatures. |
| Voice Recognition | Uses trained models to spot voicemail greetings and bypass false “answer” announcements. |
| VOS Base | Stores per-call metadata, timestamps, and supervision decisions for audit and billing. |
| Post-Call Verifier | Re-runs analytics on recorded sessions to flag any remaining anomalies. |
- Call Flow
- Call arrives via SIP from Telenor Norway’s switch.
- Asterisk bridges media to the VOS engine and sends initial signaling to Gemini.
- Gemini tags each second of audio as “ringback,” “announcement,” “live speech,” or “silence.”
- When “live speech” is detected after ringback, the system sends an RFC 3325 SIP answer with a precise timestamp.
- Post-Supervision Audit
- Every call’s audio snippet and meta tags are stored in VOS.
- A nightly job revalidates a sample of calls against GSM-deck logs to ensure no FAS events slipped through.
- Any anomalies trigger alerts to the NOC and billing teams for manual review.
Results: 45 % Cost Savings and Revenue Assurance
| Metric | Before Anti-FAS | After Anti-FAS | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| FAS-related billing disputes | 12 % of invoices | < 1 % | 91 % reduction |
| Effective per-call cost (USD) | 0.0052 | 0.0028 | 45 % savings |
| End-user call success rate | 82 % | 96 % | +14 pp |
| Billing reconciliation effort | 3 days/month | 4 hours/month | 89 % reduction |
- Cost Savings: By eliminating phantom answer events, Telenor Norway reduced its Eritrea termination spend by 45 %, from an average of $0.0052 per call to $0.0028.
- Quality Gains: Actual answer rates rose to 96 %, ensuring customers connect almost every time.
- Operational Efficiency: Automated post-call audits slashed dispute resolution time by nearly 90 %.
These improvements translate to stronger margins for Telenor SA, fewer customer complaints, and enhanced transparency in international VoIP billing.
Why Premier Voice Networks Delivers Superior Anti-FAS
- Precision over Hardware Reliance
- Legacy decks rely on switch-side answer signals that misfire. Our software-first approach listens on the media path itself.
- Seamless Integration
- We plug into existing SIP trunks used by Telenor Norway – no forklift upgrade of hardware is needed.
- Cost-Effective Scalability
- The combined cost of Asterisk, Google Gemini, and VOS compute is under $0.002 per call, even on low-volume, high-latency routes.
- Continuous Improvement
- Machine-learning models are retrained monthly with new call data to adapt to changing ringback tones, network announcements, and voicemail variants.
- Full Audit Trail
- Every supervision event is logged with audio proof, making regulatory and financial audits straightforward for carriers like Telenor Norway.
Seamless Deployment & Support
- Project Kickoff: 1 week for network testing and parameter tuning.
- Go-Live: Within 30 days of contract signature.
- Ongoing Monitoring: 24/7 NOC staffed by Premier Voice Networks specialists.
- Reporting Dashboard: Real-time answer-rate and cost-per-call metrics accessible via a secure web portal.
Conclusion
By adopting Premier Voice Networks’ Anti-FAS system, Telenor SA and Telenor Norway have turned a historically loss-making route into a profitable, high-quality service offering. With 45 % cost savings, near-perfect answer supervision, and a transparent audit trail, this solution sets a new standard for international VoIP termination. Carriers worldwide facing FAS challenges can achieve similar results-automate your supervision, reclaim your margins, and deliver reliable voice services every time.
About Premier Networking Inc (DBA Premier Voice Networks)
Premier Networking Inc is a leading global VoIP solutions provider specializing in advanced call supervision, fraud prevention, and cost optimization. Our platform integrates open-source telephony, cutting-edge AI, and industry-standard tools to deliver exceptional voice quality and financial assurance for wholesale carriers.
Contact Us
- Website: premiervoicenetworks.com
- Sales: sales@premiervoicenetworks.com
- Support: billing@premiervoicenetworks.com
Keywords: Premier Networking Inc, Premier Voice Networks, Telenor SA, Telenor Norway, False Answer Supervision, Anti-FAS, Asterisk, Google Gemini, VOS, international VoIP termination, Eritrea voice routes.