The issue of old 087 numbers being blocked on PBX'es is one big red herring that got a whole lot of press a while back when ECN was trying to use it as a means of garnering support for a campaign to push ICASA to issue geographic numbers to VoIP providers.
Didn't you ever find it odd that the media articles all quoted the ECN CEO and in every one his quotes focused on the need for geographic numbers over the alleged 087 issue? Or that he used such obviously charged and unsubstantiated wording as "absolutely useless" (in reference to 087 numbers)? I doubt that Vox would have secured thousands of users for its ADSL phone if ECN's comment was true. What a storm in a tea-cup!
Unfortunately, the media wouldn't have bought into a story of just demands for geographic numbers, so ECN had to find something to spice up the message they wanted to get out. Hence the angle of the old sex lines, describing the numbers as dirty, etc. PR, PR! And nothing sells like sex.
It worked a treat for ECN because their business was almost entirely outbound calling and wasn't likely to be negatively impacted by the bad publicity element, unlike the likes of Vox, TelFree, Switch, etc, all of whom place emphasis on both INBOUND and OUTBOUND service.
Only Switch actually issued a follow-up press release setting the record straight. Of course, since that press release wasn't sexed up with sex lines, it didn't get anywhere near as much coverage. Finweek was one publication that wrote a balanced story based on both the ECN and Switch releases. MyBroadband also re-published the FinWeek story.
That being said, some good did come out of the whole fiasco. The 087 numbers got a lot of attention among people who'd never heard of them before, raising awareness of them. Awareness (particulary among affected companies and their PBX vendors who now had an opportunity to make money fixing the issue) ultimately led to what was already a small issue being virtually eradicated.
Regarding 087 numbers for business, there are providers other than Vox that do offer this. In fact, there are some that offer both SIP and IAX2 trunks and even support ranges of 087 numbers over those trunks. For example:
http://www.switchtel.co.za/index.php?nav=line_services
E.g. You can have 10 incoming numbers hunting accross an 8-line trunk. Or 100 incoming numbers hunting accross accross a 30-line trunk. Or, in fact, almost any combination from a small office system to a multi-PRI replacement. For redundancy, this service can be carried over ADSL, WiMax, iBurst, Telkom 3G/W-CDMA, Diginet, etc.
