could not dial an emergeny # on vonage tonight.

Posts: 168 · Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 7:43 am Post subject:

JoeO wrote:

Hey thanks again.

I really wish the whole vonage thing would have worked out. I could have used the price break from my land-line..my phone company actually offered me a low-use land-line and my dsl for the price of my dsl...so vonage basically would have been a 2nd line..

Sad...but after going through this I am glad I didn't cancel after the 30 days...or wish I did..I can't tell.

I just really don't understand why they charged me a cancelation fee after knowing I was never shipped a device and knowing I was under the 10 days of being activated...it just doesn't add up.

Why are you even bringing this up on this thread? What the heck does this have to do with a problem dialing emergency numbers?

Your posts are indeed a violation of the rules of this forum. Vonage is not hell, it works wonderfully for me and many others. YOU didn't even give it a try. You ordered something without investigating what you were getting into.

I have no sympathy. Oh, and I'm not a Vonage employee, just a satisfied customer of two months.

And please post on topic in the future, or don't post at all.

Posts: 30 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 25, 2006 Posts: 30

Sorry to have offended you hook bill..it sounds like you don't want me in the forum at all?? Why would you reply to a post in a thread that doesn't belong with information that has nothing to do with the thread?

2 months really doesn't seem like that long of time..most people I've talked to cancel at the 4th or 5th month and then go through the same thing I am.

Posts: 168 · Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 8:13 am Post subject:

JoeO wrote:

Sorry to have offended you hook bill..it sounds like you don't want me in the forum at all??

There's enough negativity in this place anyway, and how would you have any idea how long it takes for someone to start having problems?

Yes, I think you should not post here anymore. And the reason I posted in response was to point out you were violating forum rules.

A response is not necessary from you, but ofcourse you'll make one anyway. I'll let you know upfront I won't reply again.

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 16, 2006 Posts: 27

Back to the issue at hand. There are National and Local toll free numbers.

If you are calling from a Vonage phone and the call goes to the Vonage server in New York and then to a Rate Center in New York to be Routed.

If You are in Tennessee trying to call a local Toll Free number it just is not gonna happen because New York is not local to Tennessee. Only National 800 numbers can be accessed. But if you live in New York guess what your call will go through if you are dialing a Local Toll Number.

The solution is to have a server in every area and when a local toll number comes through it would need to be routed to the correct server. Lot of work involved in that though. basically your just plain out of luck.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 9:00 am Post subject:

Movado -

I agree, that would be difficult, but if Vonage wants to replace POTS, it's something they are going to have to address sometime. Sooner rather than later. And from a technical standpoint, it's not all that hard, or at least I don't think it would be.

Some phone numbers are sensitive to where you are calling from. Given that I have a local phone number to my area, I have to assume there is a contracted point of presence at least somewhere in my state, if not in my home town, based on the phone number I requested. Otherwise, Vonage is paying a crapload in long distance charges. Wink

Vonage could either:

1. Update their routing tables so 800#'s, 500#'s and other numbers that could potentially be "local toll free" or state toll free numbers get routed from the local point of presence your phone number is served from, or...

2. Route the 800# to a point of presence in the same state as you have registered for 911 in.

Seven-digit dialing already does this based on your locally issued number. 911 does this based on your registered address. I can't imagine it would be THAT hard to do it for toll free numbers. It's all in the dialer routing tables. And Vonage has the capacity to do it either by Local # or 911 registered address - they've demonstrated that in the two features I mentioned.

I suspect it's not being done because Vonage doesn't want to overload their local points of presence, and their New Jersey office (being on the corporate HQ) probably has FAR more capacity. This also explains why 800#'s and regular numbers sometimes have different levels of quality. When I dial a local number, I get whatever point of presence is local to that number. When I dial an 800#, it goes to "Joisey" Smile

If that's the case, then for those numbers that Vonage knows are national, they could enter as many of them as possible in the routing tables to go to the national grid, or try to figure out all the local numbers and enter them in the local routing tables. Both of those options, obviously, would be high-maintenance, though 800#'s tend to be issued in large blocks, so it may be possible to find these local numbers (or national numbers) that way and route the whole block.

Alternatively, Vonage could give a prefix dialing code that requests routing through a local gateway (again local to either the phone number issued, or the user's 911 preferences). This would allow them to route most calls through their national grid, but allow users to request local handling of state-specific numbers on an as-needed basis. If the local routing costs more money, fine, I'll pay for it. Place a nickel-a-call or penny-a-minute fee on the "override" to recoup any costs.

I'd love to test my mother's ISP connection from here, for example, but it uses a "500" number, and Vonage doesn't recognize those. Her ISP doesn't give out local numbers, they cover the entire state of Maine using the "500" number system. It's probably got some pretty sophisticated routing of its own, but Vonage just needs to dump the call to ANY POP in Maine, and it would work.

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 01, 2006 Posts: 10

I am new to this forum so don't shoot me but it seems like it would be really helpful if there was a FAQ for known issues or quirks with this service. Each could have a listed workaround or "no known workaround". Seems it would save a lot of duplicate posts and would be a great running list for Vonage to see. This whole 800 number dialing would be a perfect start. -Matt