Call forwarding to cell phone for free international calls

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 11, 2009 Posts: 3

I have an AT&T Cell Phone with a total of 7000 minutes after rollover and international calls blocked.

I am on the Vonage World plan.

What happens to a call when I forward it from Vonage to a phone on another service? Who is billing the call once it is forwarded?

What I want to do is call my brother in the UK from my Vonage line then forward the call to my cell and be able to talk to him and be able to leave the house at the same time.

So if I call and then forward, what would happen?

1. I get a free call as Vonage is handling the call to the UK & the call to the Cell.

2. The forward won't go through as my AT&T account won't allow international calling.

3. The forward goes ahead, by AT&T will sting me for a very expensive international call.

4. Something else that I haven't anticipated.

Posts: 655 · Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 9:16 pm Post subject:

Quote:

What happens to a call when I forward it from Vonage to a phone on another service? Who is billing the call once it is forwarded?

Any phone number that is reached by using call forwarding from Vonage is treated the same way if you dialed it directly. So if you call a number or call forward to this same number from Vonage, as long as the number your are contacting is included in your rate plan, you wont be charged any additional fees by Vonage. Remember if you forward to a cell phone, while your not being charged by Vonage, your still using your airtime minutes of your cell phone.

Also if the party calling you is being charged by their own provider for calling your phone number, they are being billed for the call to your Vonage number, not the forwarded call but still being charged none the less.

Quote:

What I want to do is call my brother in the UK from my Vonage line then forward the call to my cell and be able to talk to him and be able to leave the house at the same time.

So if I call and then forward, what would happen?

This is not Call Forwarding. Call Forwarding is for inbound calls to your Vonage number that are not answered and forwarded to another number. You would set this up in your web account and choose how long you would like your Vonage line to ring and if not answered, forward to another number.

What you are referring to is Call Transfer. Call Transfer would be either answering your phone or calling someone and once the call is connected, transfer that party to another phone number. Again, this is the same as a standard call so if the number is included in your rate plan, you wont be charged.

All you need to remember is that any phone call that is processed through Vonage and sent to another number is not going to be charged if they are included in your rate plan.

Also just keep in mind that while Vonage might be placing a call, forwarding a call, or transferring a call, if any of the other numbers being reached are cell phones or phones that do not include free incoming calls, the call to them would be like any other inbound call they receive so you would be using airtime against your cell phone minutes.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 11, 2009 Posts: 3

OK, can you dumb it down for this simpleton here.

If I transfer a call, who is the billing entity once the call is transferred?

Vonage or the telco who holds the phone number that I am transferring the call to?

Posts: 655 · Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 2:15 pm Post subject:

The transfer will be be against Vonage since it is initiated from Vonage but as I said, if the number your transferring to is included in your Vonage rate plan, you wont be charged.

The party that either you called or called you initially is transparent to what is done by the Vonage network so they would not see that they were being transferred and to the party you are transferring to, it would just look like an inbound call to them. Like I said before, if you transfer to a phone such as a cell, it would count as an inbound call so it would use up your cell minutes.

Both end points do not see any sort of signaling that indicates the call is being transferred. They only see the initial call that they were involved in.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 11, 2009 Posts: 3

Thanks, I have about 7,000 minutes on my cell after rollover, so the phone should die before I run out.

As I have read it, my cell phone should think that the call is from Vonage, the same as the person that I am calling.

Thank you.