International call problem

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 10, 2004 Posts: 4

Just got the Vonage box (Linksys RT31P2) 2 days ago. Have it setup and my first call was a teleconference in the US and my coworkers did not notice any difference. It was great until I tried to make internation call to Hong Kong.

When I call 2 numbers in Hong Kong, it just rang and rang (at least 30 seconds), then all of a sudden it *seemed" to be connected but no sound at all. All I can hear is my own echo. Both numbers I tried are land line number. Evil or Very Mad

Then, I tried to call a cell number in Hong Kong and it works. Then I tried again with another land line number and it succeeded.

My understanding is that the numbers that failed also have DSL connection. The land line number that succeeded does not have DSL but cable for broadband. In addition, my friend that has the failed number in Hong Kong called me and confirmed that he received the call but there was no sound when he picked it up.

Here is my theory: If the oversea land line number happens to be used as DSL, it may not work.

However, I call my friend here in US who has DSL and I don't have any problem.

I wonder if anyone out there having similar international call problem. If so, any idea how to fix it.

Posts: 79 · Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 11:55 am Post subject:

Good point voiplover. 90% of the service issues that come thru us r the result of a lack of needed bandwidth. The upload bandwidth of MOST residential grade DSL connections pose problems. The more nodes on the network utilizing bandwidth, causes problems. When placing ANY international call, I recommend not doing ANYTHING bandwidth related other than the international call itself.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 10, 2004 Posts: 4

I can see your argument that if I don't have enough bandwidth to make the call. But it seems that I can make the call. But it is the receiving end that *seems* to be a requirement as well. This is truly puzzles me 'cos it should not matter to the recieving end if the call coming is Voip or POTS. My friend's number is only a POTS line NOT Voip. So the bandwidth argurment should not matter to him.

Anyway, I gonna try tonight if all my PCs are turned off so that the only IP device is the RT31P2 to see if it helps..

Again, all I have is just a theory. I cannot truly prove it. I really want to see if other Voip users have similar problem. Better yet, if there is a remedy.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 10, 2004 Posts: 4

I took JScott's advice to try calling without any other devices utilizing the bandwidth and the results are even worse. No call to Hong Kong could be made except a call to a cell number in Hong Kong. It even failed to the land line number that I was able to call yesterday. All calls to land line in Hong Kong got me a "The number you call is not available" message. Gimme a break, my friend uses his number for more than 2 decades. I finally called him to his cellphone and he told me that the phone did not ring at all.

I also verified that the land line numbers I called are from 2 different local telephone companies. In other words, I can't believe that 2 different telephone companies experienced "technical problem" at the same time.

It really **** that I can't use it to make international call, specially to Asia. I have not tried Western Europe or Canada yet. I need to call my friend in Canada and Germany to see if Vonage has the same problem. I'm considering to cancel the service because most of my international call is to Asia..... Mad

Anyone knows how Vonage routes international call? I can't imagine that they have contracts with each country's local carrier. I would rather believe that Vonage gets lease lines from the larger carrier in US, says AT&T or MCI, to route the international calls. If so, Vonage may not be getting quality lines and very limited number of lines because of cost.

Posts: 79 · Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 12:55 pm Post subject:

Unfortunately we do use international carriers to route our international calls & not leased lines here in the US. Keep in mind that in addition to the issue of bandwidth is the issue of international traffic. In my experience with Vonage certain times of the day are not very condusive to international calling...times depending on what country u r calling.
Likewise for the distance. This is just a theory of mine (could b correct), but I think packet loss over such a distance & so many hops is inevitable over UDP...enuf packets to not even allow the SIP call flow (again, just a theory of mine). Calls to Canada should pose no problem at all, but I can't say the same for Germany. But I do believe it all comes down to bandwidth.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 12, 2004 Posts: 1

I'm seeing very similar problems as voiplover indicated. I'm a long time Vonage customer had service since Aug 2003 and this issue is fairly new. I have ATA phone adapter. We have noticed about couple weeks back that most of our calls to Turkey Land lines starts ringing pretty fast but then the phone will ring almost 10 times 30sec or so before it either changes ring back tone to the ones heard in Turkey or bam it would be conected. Like voiplover mentioned if I call to a cell phone in Turkey the call connects normally when it rings back at my ATA it is really ringing at the cell phone and call quality is very very good as usual.

However on the landlines once connected the call quality is decent but with severe delay up to 10-20 sec by the time what I say reaches to the other side and vice versa. This is unbearable and almost impossible to communicate. Noticing this I immediately check my internet connection to see if anything is overloaded. I have TWC RR with 3M down and 768K up so most the time bandwidth is not an issue. While the call is struggling with severe delay I look at where I'm connected to as far as Vonage's PSTN gateways are concerned and it appears to be connected to a gateway off of Level3's network (216.115.23.XX). I've repeated the problematic call a few times and noticed when I connect to a gateway off of WCG net (146.82.161.XX) these calls connect just fine and the voice quality is acceptable.

Anyone has any ideas on how to communicate this to Vonage..? I've been on the phone with two techs today but it seems their hands are pretty tight as far as troubleshooting international call problems as such.

Posts: 20 · Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 4:39 pm Post subject:

I had an issue a few weeks back trying to call a number in Paris, France where I would get the message ""The number you are calling is not available". The message was in English whihc makes me think it was being generated by Vonage and not by the local carrier in france where I would ahve expected the message to be in both french and english if it was in english at all. I called Vonage and the technician initially said there was probably a "routing problem". It sounded liek this kind of issue is farily common, anyone else had similar experiences?