Overview

Over the last year, Skyetel has been quietly deploying an extensive upgrade to its carrier infrastructure by launching our own SPID. Having our own SPID allows our network to exist closer to the actual gateways into the PSTN, and provide us with authoritative access to the the master phone number routing database. These improvements allow for smoother porting, more reliable service, and an overall better Skyetel experience. Due to the recent DDOS attacks impacting our industry, we have decided to accelerate the deployment of this upgrade so that we may utilize the additional tools this gives us should Skyetel become targeted. 
 
In summary, these extensive upgrades to our network accomplishes the following:

• Isolates our outbound calling from our inbound calling traffic for greater control and protection,
• Enhances our DDOS protection both by dramatically increasing our traffic volume capacities 
• Creates a series of "Emergency IP Addresses." These IPs allow our network to continue to operate under the most extreme circumstances with minimum disruption of service.

What's Changing

There a few changes we have made to our network that you need to know about. 

• We have added 4 new /27 blocks of IPs. This gives our network 120 new addresses to use to communicate with your PBX. These IPs are for inbound calls only; you can not send outbound calls to them. Inbound calling will begin originating from our /27 blocks on 12/15/2021.
• We have added additional "Emergency IPs." These are used in extraordinary circumstances where our primary network becomes available. We do not expect to ever use these IPs, but we prefer to be paranoid instead of unprepared.  
• We have added 4 new IPs for outbound calling. These IPs are not live yet, and we will update you when those IPs are ready to go. At a future date, not now, we will prevent outbound calling from our Primary 4 IPs. We will warn you well in advance of those changes. If you want to get a head start, please update your PBX to use out.skyetel.com for its primary outbound gateway. We will update that DNS record when the new IPs are live.

The New IPs

We have published our updated list of IPs here:
https://support.skyetel.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041173493

Who This Impacts

All customers who use IP Authentication.

When this is happening

• Inbound calling will begin originating from our new IPs on 12/15/2021.
• Our new Outbound IPs will be live in the next couple of weeks.
• We will prevent outbound calling on our current Primary IPs in Q2 or Q3 of 2022. Don't worry - we will give you a lot of warning beforehand.  

What do I need to do

• Update your PBX and Firewalls to add our new IPs for Inbound Calling
• Update your PBX to use out.skyetel.com for outbound calling (3CX users, please go here)
• Test & Deploy these changes to your infrastructure

Frequently Asked Questions

Are any actions required if I am only utilizing SIP Registration

No. SIP Registration relies fully on DNS, and we will update that silently behind the scenes.

What is a SPID?

A SPID stands for “Service Provider ID” and it’s what allows carriers to source calls from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Put simply, we can now source calls to Skyetel DIDs directly from the PSTN without having to go through intermediary providers. This allows us much better control of our network and helps us mitigate the fallout from a failure caused by an intermediary provider.

How much bigger is your network now?

A lot. Have a look at all of our switch locations.

Are the emergency IPs required for my PBX?

No, but we do recommend adding them to your equipment anyway.

Why are you adding all of these IPs?

The short answer is because we are processing many more calls than we used to, and we want extra capacity to insure our network always operates normally. Each of our IPs can support a maximum throughput of 50Gbps, and with 124 of them, we can support 6.2Tbps of traffic. That goes up to 7.7Tbps if we ever use our emergency IPs. This capacity insures we'll never need to add new IPs in the future, and that Skyetel's DDOS mitigation is robust.

Who should I contact if I have additional questions?

Please submit a support ticket and or reach out to your account representative.