Op-Xfer: Op-Xfer is a technical process that was created by Steve Muoio, Founder and CEO of Touchtone Technologies, Inc. (TTI) www.ttiorg.com, a NY based technology company. The first Op-Xfer customer went live in 1992 while Muoio was employed at MCI-Worldcom. The customer was a small, privately held IXC based out of Northern California. This process was created before the use of IP services when most telecom carriers did not have IP capability so dedicated facilities such as T-1’s were installed between carrier switches. This process is now much easier, efficient and more cost effective with the use of servers and IP connectivity.

Op-Xfer is short for Operator Transfer and was initially created to process off net calls for operator services providers. Later the service was used for end of pin options in the prepaid calling card markets, “0” and “00” options for ILEC’s and CLEC’s and to process reverse charged calls to mobile phones in the US and Canada. Off-Net calls included international collect, calls billed to credit cards and calls billed to small independent CLEC’s throughout the United States and Canada. Most OSP’s and IXC’s did not have billing and collection agreements with these smaller independent local providers so calls could not be processed to any of their customers. In 1998, TTI began to aggregate Zero Plus services and B&C agreements with tier one carriers, and brokered services through the Op-Xfer platform.

Op-Xfer is not offered as a retail or consumer based service although plans for a discounted offering in 2018 are under way. It’s primarily used as a complementary option in the wholesale carrier environments. Retail services such as 1800-COLLECT and 1800-CALLATT are available to the public in the United States and TTI is providing the Collect2Cell or Collect-To-Mobile component of these calls. TTI’s direct service, 1888-TTI2Cell, is available in the US and Canada.

The number of collect attempts to mobile phones increased substantially over the years as mobile phone usage grows. In 2006, Muoio processed the first collect to mobile call that was transferred from Verizon. Although the direct collect calling markets to landlines has decreased, the reverse billed calls to mobile phones are on the rise and TTI currently offers Collect2Cell calls from Cuba, Germany, Peru and Mexico. According to a government study in 2016, more than 50% of US households had only mobile phones, no landline service. This coupled with the fact that no mobile providers offer or allow collect calls, positions the TTI Collect2Cell for substantial growth.