Unable to be called from some users in old at&t

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 30, 2006 Posts: 5

After 3+ years of Vonage service we are having problems being called from At&t users in our local area. Vonage claims its not their problem and the users of AT&t called their help desk and are told its a Vonage problem. We are going round adn round and its getting very bad. My wives doctors can not reach us. Its only with in our area not out side. Its this sort of thing that will drive people away whether its Vonage's problem or not. I fear we will have no recourse if it keeps on but to switch. The FCC or someone should set up a cross company resolution center for people with these kinds of problems. Can anyone give me any ideas what to do ? The people calling just get the recording unable to complete the call due to network difficulities.

Posts: 350 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 350

That is absolutely the fault of the originating carrier. Basiclly, someone who cannot call your phone number needs to call their phone provider (AT&T) and tell them that they cannot call the number from their AT&T phone but can from a cell phone. Don't offer any other information other than that. The key is to be persistant. If they callers complain to the FCC or the state public utility board, the issue will likely get fixed in minutes because it would go to the people at AT&T who actually can repair the problem and not the "We're AT&T, it can't possiblity be our fault" folks who answer the phones.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 30, 2006 Posts: 5

I am pretty sure you are right about the fault with one possible exception. I am fairly sure Vonage uses different local carriers to interface with local telcos. Those carriers may or may not be the same in every locale and or in each of the telcos COs. If a carrier Vonage uses suddenly no longer services that area or if Vonage changes carriers then the routing from within the local to local may or may not be corrected. I am not completely 100% percent sure about this but I think this puts the routing in limbo but just for that local CO no longer served or routed. This is where the FCC should step in . I can not contact the local CO or company and they don't really care...nor should they. I am not sure anyone has the consumers back on a deal like that but I think the FCC should. I should be able to file some sort of complaint that would span the carriers.

Posts: 656 · Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:17 am Post subject:

Vonage does use different LEC's depending upon the market you live in. However, these carriers do not change. The Vonage carrier that services your number will remain the same throughout your time with Vonage.

There are few things that cause this issue and none of which are under Vonage's control since Vonage in theory only has your number on paper. The termination is performed at the LEC's switch who then routes to a Vonage trunk group to complete the call.

1) After porting number to Vonage(actually to Vonage's partner carrier) the local telephone company your ported away from does not update the LRN(Local Routing Number). This prevents calls from your local provider from leaving their network.

2) Switch technician on local carrier side updated LRN improperly causing a working number to no longer work.

3) Some sort of LEC contract agreement issue where one provider will not complete to another provider. This is a regulatory issue and can be addressed with the FCC.

4) Interconnecting trunks between one or more providers were taken down accidentally or purposely. Calls from AT&T may not route directly to Vonage's provider. They may need to route to a 3rd party and it is possible that the 3rd party may even route to a 4th party. This is how it works with completing calls between any carrier. But, if the trunks between any of these points are not in service, the calls will not complete.

If you PM me your acct #, I will reference any tickets you may have open and work with our carrier to find out why the calls do not complete. However, there is no guarantee it can be fixed from the Vonage carrier side if there is an internal issue to AT&T preventing calls to route to the correct LRN.

The best way to work this is from both sides. This requires a current customer of AT&T who cannot complete the call to contact their service department and open up a trouble ticket for calls not completing to a known working number that can complete form other providers. This ticket would have to go to their switch techs. It cannot be addressed by customer service.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 30, 2006 Posts: 5

thanks and I did pm u with the info. I really do appreciate this and I think its a problem that will be more prevalent over the years.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 30, 2006 Posts: 5

BTW I filed a complaint this morning with the FCC online. .. not sure what good it will do but I had to do somethingl....this is really getting out of hand.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 30, 2006 Posts: 5

Vonage and the partner carrier work way outside the norm box and fixed the problem. Thanks so much. Extraordinary service.!!! BTW the problem from my understanding was with AT&T and not routing my number from their users.