Identifying forwarded calls on my cell phone

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 15, 2008 Posts: 3

I am rarely in my office so I have my vonage calls forwarded to my cell phone. The problem is I cannot identify the call as one being forwarded from vonage.

I need help in finding a way to identify these calls so that rather than simply answering the phone, "Hello?" I can answer using my business name.

ANY help would be greatly appreciated.

Posts: 411 · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 4:30 pm Post subject:

Not at this time. The only way is after the fact, when you checked your activity on the VONAGE website.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 15, 2008 Posts: 3

Not at this time doesn't really help me. Is there anything that CAN be done? It doesn't seem to be that difficult a thing to accomplish. The fact of the matter is that the call initially comes into Vonage and then Vonage forwards the call. A simple tag line from within the Vonage site would be all that is needed. You know, something like the "reply to" tag when setting up e-mail so that the replies come to the PROPER inbox, not necessarily the one that it was sent from.

Posts: 4635 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4635

True, but keep in mind that no one here has any official standing with Vonage. This is strictly a user's group. You'd have to make your suggestion to someone at Vonage to get any action. The "contact support" option on the Vonage speed dial menu might be a good way to go. It goes to Vonage and we've been told that it gets special attention.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 15, 2008 Posts: 3

Thanks Steve, that is a productive reply. Though I have spoken with a representative -- though it took several attempts before they were able to comprehend what I was trying to accomplish -- both online through chat as well as on the phone, all I ever get is a no we don't do that. I appreciate your input, I really don't see it as a difficult thing to accomplish and I don't think I am alone in thinking it might be a helpful feature that would cost vonage nothing.

Posts: 16 · Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:06 pm Post subject: Not so easy

chiammaya wrote:

I really don't see it as a difficult thing to accomplish and I don't think I am alone in thinking it might be a helpful feature that would cost vonage nothing.

When the calling number is passed to your cell phone carrier from Vonage (or from any other interexchange carrier) the message is passed in a format that is specified as part of the "signaling system 7" (SS7) protocol. Appending extra text to this message would be helpful, but would probably require a protocol change. Changing SS7 would affect software running in every telephone switch, toll carrier, and lots of other network components. It's a lot of software to modify. Vonage could not do this without the cooperation of the rest of the telephne industry, and the cost would likely be far more than nothing.

Posts: 24

chiammaya wrote:

I am rarely in my office so I have my vonage calls forwarded to my cell phone. The problem is I cannot identify the call as one being forwarded from vonage.

I need help in finding a way to identify these calls so that rather than simply answering the phone, "Hello?" I can answer using my business name.

ANY help would be greatly appreciated.

The only thing I can think of is that most new cell phones offer a distinctive ring feature. Maybe you could set up your cell phone with a different ring tone for friends and family, and another ring tone for all other calls.

Don