Outage in NY due to fiber cut and storm????

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 16, 2007 Posts: 3

At this time I can't receive any incoming calls from non-Vonage phones. All you get is a busy signal. I called Vonage a couple times to see if I would get the same "story". They said there were service issues due to the storm and a fiber cut in NY and they have technicians on it now. Service should be restored after the storm subsides. I can make outgoing calls to non-Vonage phones...so this "story" doesn't seem to make much sense.

Anyone have any additional information?

Thanks.

Posts: 208 · Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:51 am Post subject:

Your inbound and outbound calls are routed differently, believe it or not. If someone calls you inbound, the call goes to the nearby ratecenter that the phone number is tied to, then goes to the Vonage database to route. When you make an outbound call, it just goes from the Vonage gateway.

It's weird, I know, but possible if there's an issue with the incoming. I haven't noticed any issues with Vonage at anytime yet... I'll have to check my web account now.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 16, 2007 Posts: 3

Thanks noct. I guess I shouldn't have tied my ability to make outgoing calls with my inability to receive incoming calls.

I'm just uncertain I'm being told the straight scoop considering Vonage's precarious position and the latest news that they can't find a workaround to Verizon's patents. I'm feeling like a Titanic passenger being told everything's ok, don't worry.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 05, 2005 Posts: 3

ccplus1 wrote:

Thanks noct. I guess I shouldn't have tied my ability to make outgoing calls with my inability to receive incoming calls.

I'm just uncertain I'm being told the straight scoop considering Vonage's precarious position and the latest news that they can't find a workaround to Verizon's patents. I'm feeling like a Titanic passenger being told everything's ok, don't worry.

This is not the first time this has happened. I rely on my phone to be able to take incoming calls. I have 4 kids and they need to be able to reach us should there be an emergency. My neighbor has Vonage and Time Warner Voip service and only Vonage is not working properly. Aargh!

Posts: 208 · Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:18 am Post subject:

On the contrary, I think all these outages over the last week or two are tied to them making little changes to their network so they aren't reliant upon Verizon's patents.

I think we're fine here from now. DConnor (the site admin) posted an interesting read a few days/weeks ago about the whole fiasco with Verizon, and the judge that tried the case had little experience with patent cases.

Worst casescenario, if Vonage has to increase billing by 5% because of the lawsuit, it's only going to be like 1.25 more per month.

I'll gladly pay that. 26.24/mo is cheaper than 85 with Verizon.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 12, 2007 Posts: 5

Posters shadowduck & KlownKilla in ftopic19215.html reported similar problems in North and South Carolina several days ago (4/11). I now have the same problem in Albany NY. Quite a span in time & geography for similar events.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 02, 2007 Posts: 1

This outage put us over the edge... we canceled Vonage and are going over to Time Warner. our neighbors never have any service outage issues with them. Perhaps they put more effort into the backup infrastructure than Vonage does?

Posts: 208 · Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 12:52 pm Post subject:

Could be. I know most ISP based Voip providers have a private sector of their internet that they delegate specifically for Voip. For instance, say Comcast has IP ranges from

2.0.0.1 to 50.0.0.0 (this isn't accurate, just and example)
Instead of assigning all of them, randomly to each customer for internet, they now assign 2.0.0.1-9.255.255.255 to Voip devices, and all successive hops to their gateway to the landline network, and the rest is for the regular ISP people.

The biggest thing Vonage has to face today is simply the fact that they have to rely on other ISP's for access to their product. And the marketing of ISP's, too... For instance, the Double and Triple packages that ISPs offer for a year or more at a pretty steep discount, often which the cost of Cable or FIOS TV + Internet + Telephone is cheaper than just having TV + Internet and the cost of Vonage, which is a shame.