Can't make a call to India

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: May 26, 2004 Posts: 3

I use Vonage primarily to call India from NC,USA.
Since Friday, its not working. When I try to make a call, it just keeps ringing at Vonage centre...
I called customer service(which ****) and they keep telling me that their engineers are working on fixing the problem and it should work after couple of hours. Its over 4 days and it still doesn't work.
Has anyone experienced same problem? Should I continue using Vonage or just get rid of it after this experience?(I had been using it for over a month and it worked fine till now.)

Posts: 18 · Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 7:18 am Post subject:

I use Vonage to call India regularly. I call more during the week since it is easier to get thru. I also use a Calling Card when I am not able to get thru using Vonage. There are times when it is frustrating, but as long as you have some backup, shouldnt be a problem. I have had problems with other LD carriers in the past as well, so there is no reason to dump Vonage because of that. You should actually try calling cell-phones in India, I have had almost a 100% success rate and very clear calls when I call Cell phones in India.

Posts: 40 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 24, 2004 Posts: 40

I have had problems calling Pakistan but recently there has been some improvement. What we need to do is report problems so they can fix them. It is very cheap phone service and we must be patient. Probably Vonage is the best Voip right now. The only odd factor maybe Skype but they have yet to come out of beta. (www.skype.com)
What I miss most from POTS is the ability to make calls 10-10-987. I could call cellular phones in West Europe at 3 cents a minute (+39 C connection fee and small tax on total calls). Vonage does not allow to use 10-10-987. Does anybody know a cheap comparable way to call cellular phones from Vonage.

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 01, 2004 Posts: 10

I use www.bigzoo.com

Posts: 104 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 31, 2004 Posts: 104

Vonage uses various long distance termination partners (meaning they actually hand your call off to another party). This works well for calls to the U.S. and most developed countries.

Calls to 3rd world countries which may have a combination of poor infrastructure and excessive gov't interferences (regulation/taxes) have resulted in the creation of "telecom pirates".

These pirates have figured out sometimes legal but often grey or even illegal ways to get calls into a particular country. There are many such pirates operating in the world often specializing in particular markets. This has created a 'spot' commodity marketplace for int'l rate terminations.

Thus your call to India -- may initially be handled by Vonage, but is quickly routed to Global Crossing who in turns hands it to another partner who has the 'best' day route to your particular city code. This partner may in effect hand the calls off to yet another friend who has a leaky PBX at a local Holiday Inn (whose manager is getting a small cut for having some basic equipment in the hotel) where you call is dumped into the public network.

Thus call quality can vary by day and even by hour depending upon what termination partner is being used.

You'll see this sort of behaviour in India, Laos, Vietnam, most of the African countries and parts of the former Eastern bloc countries.

Years ago it was much more illicit than today, but some parts of the world change slowly.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: May 26, 2004 Posts: 3

ckoehncke wrote:

Vonage uses various long distance termination partners (meaning they actually hand your call off to another party). This works well for calls to the U.S. and most developed countries.

Calls to 3rd world countries which may have a combination of poor infrastructure and excessive gov't interferences (regulation/taxes) have resulted in the creation of "telecom pirates".

These pirates have figured out sometimes legal but often grey or even illegal ways to get calls into a particular country. There are many such pirates operating in the world often specializing in particular markets. This has created a 'spot' commodity marketplace for int'l rate terminations.

Thus your call to India -- may initially be handled by Vonage, but is quickly routed to Global Crossing who in turns hands it to another partner who has the 'best' day route to your particular city code. This partner may in effect hand the calls off to yet another friend who has a leaky PBX at a local Holiday Inn (whose manager is getting a small cut for having some basic equipment in the hotel) where you call is dumped into the public network.

Thus call quality can vary by day and even by hour depending upon what termination partner is being used.

You'll see this sort of behaviour in India, Laos, Vietnam, most of the African countries and parts of the former Eastern bloc countries.

Years ago it was much more illicit than today, but some parts of the world change slowly.

Thanks. This provides great insight into the cause of issue.
I used to call land numbers and cell phones in Meghalaya and Gujrat using Vonage. And I never faced any connectivity issues for the first month. Now I am not able to do make a single call at any of the numbers - cell/land numbers.
No one at Vonage customer service is telling me, when they are going to rectify this(by changing partners in India or fixing the problems we are reporting).
I am calling Vonage everyday and they say they are working on fixing the issue. Am I ever going to be able to use Vonage the way I was using it before Friday? No one is answering that. Sad

Posts: 104 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 31, 2004 Posts: 104

Glad to have been of some assistance.

Normally, if the originating operator (Vonage, in this case) get's a lot of compliants -- they scream at their termination partner to ensure better connectivity.

In the case of Vonage, they're more concerned with price (not dissimilar to prepaid calling cards from no-name folks you might see at a 7-11), thus they're willing to tolerate some element of "unhappy" customer.

If you want high voice quality for int'l terminations to outer band foreign countries, my advice -- stick with a name brand telephone company whose reputation is at stake.

Vonage has done a super job of lowering rates (I anticipate that calling the UK will be included in the basic unlimited rate plan by early next year). Flattening the world isn't such a bad idea.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: May 26, 2004 Posts: 3

ckoehncke wrote:

Glad to have been of some assistance.

Normally, if the originating operator (Vonage, in this case) get's a lot of compliants -- they scream at their termination partner to ensure better connectivity.

In the case of Vonage, they're more concerned with price (not dissimilar to prepaid calling cards from no-name folks you might see at a 7-11), thus they're willing to tolerate some element of "unhappy" customer.

If you want high voice quality for int'l terminations to outer band foreign countries, my advice -- stick with a name brand telephone company whose reputation is at stake.

Vonage has done a super job of lowering rates (I anticipate that calling the UK will be included in the basic unlimited rate plan by early next year). Flattening the world isn't such a bad idea.

You are right. I never had any complains except this. I do use Sprint phone as primary line in case my highspeed internet is off or Vonage has problems. I was really satisfied with the quality of my Vonage international calls/signles. So this sudden interruption in the service is frustrating.

I will keep checking with customer service for few more days and see if they get it back on track. Thank you so much for your input.
---------
Thanks all of you too for really helpful information.