Vonange Fix Our caller ID/ANI, Toll Free/310 Issue[ADMIN ED]

Posts: 281 · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 5:56 pm Post subject:

When then that's who is doing the termination and such...

Posts: 336 · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 6:02 pm Post subject:

It is my understanding that Vonage purchases Canadian numbers from GT Group Telecom. They have a bunch of telephone exchanges across Canada, and they sell phone numbers to more than just Vonage. They sell them to long distance providers as well. For instance, you might setup a long distance company where people have to dial a local access number to reach your dialtone. CT Group Telecom provides the number. I'm not sure if it is a sale or a rental. I really do not know much more about it. However, I suspect it is a fairly cheap deal, and this is part of the reason why we are not allowed to keep our numbers in Canada. I gave up my phone number to switch to Vonage. They will not allow you to retain your phone number, and it is likely because they are going through GT Group Telecom and they only have access to certain numbers. I know that Primus, Sprint and Videotron are able to port your phone number. There may be some agreement set for that, and Vonage has something in the way. I don't know what that something is.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 17, 2006 Posts: 2

I simply CANNOT believe that these posts were made so long ago and that the problem still hasn't been resolved. Vonage is of course bullsh**** me when they say that the 800 numbers reaching US companies instead of Canadian companies is a bug that all VOip companies have.

It's of course not true.

So what's the solution? Is this american company going to continue to treat us like a bunch of freak americans or will they realize one day that we are intelligent canadians? I'm really fedup to reach a Fedex dude who speaks like a cowboy and says zee instead of ZED.

Regards,
Melkiades

Posts: 120 · Member of the Week Joined: Aug 30, 2006 Posts: 120

Nope, there is no solution to the problem other then finding a local/direct number for the company you wish to contact. There's a whole bunch of posts on this issue and so far no official response from Vonage that is worth reprinting.

Send an email to Vonage about it, maybe several, and if enough of us cunucks do the same, maybe they'll eventually setup that proxy in canada so we can use canadian national toll free numbers (toll free numbers which are restricted to Canada only). Regarding Canadian 'regional' toll free, like a toll free number that works, let's say, only in Quebec. Well forget that, cause they would need to setup a proxy in each province, and that ain't ever going to happen Smile

Send them an email, push the topic, and they'll eventually submit.. as to when, could be years Sad

Posts: 120 · Member of the Week Joined: Aug 30, 2006 Posts: 120

Oh, and you're right. Not *every* voip company will have this issue, just the ones which base their proxies in the USA. A canadian voip company, with servers in Canada, should not have this problem with canadian national toll free numbers.

However, *all* voip companies will have the regional toll free issue, unless they have dozens of servers/proxies spread out across the country, and that just won't happen for logistical reasons. It would be a nightmare to administer multiple servers in multiple datacenters across the country.

Posts: 281 · Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 7:08 am Post subject:

webfors wrote:

Oh, and you're right. Not *every* voip company will have this issue, just the ones which base their proxies in the USA. A canadian voip company, with servers in Canada, should not have this problem with canadian national toll free numbers.

However, *all* voip companies will have the regional toll free issue, unless they have dozens of servers/proxies spread out across the country, and that just won't happen for logistical reasons. It would be a nightmare to administer multiple servers in multiple datacenters across the country.

I don't know about that... my understanding is the 800 numbers look for the ANI of the outbound call and route the call appropriately. I'm not sure why Vonage is having such an issue. I work for a smaller VoIP provider, and we have no issues setting the ANI for 800 numbers, 911, etc. I can set ANI and CALLER-ID, and they both set and route fine.

Posts: 120 · Member of the Week Joined: Aug 30, 2006 Posts: 120

matth wrote:

webfors wrote:

Oh, and you're right. Not *every* voip company will have this issue, just the ones which base their proxies in the USA. A canadian voip company, with servers in Canada, should not have this problem with canadian national toll free numbers.

However, *all* voip companies will have the regional toll free issue, unless they have dozens of servers/proxies spread out across the country, and that just won't happen for logistical reasons. It would be a nightmare to administer multiple servers in multiple datacenters across the country.

I don't know about that... my understanding is the 800 numbers look for the ANI of the outbound call and route the call appropriately. I'm not sure why Vonage is having such an issue. I work for a smaller VoIP provider, and we have no issues setting the ANI for 800 numbers, 911, etc. I can set ANI and CALLER-ID, and they both set and route fine.

Is this something that needs to be set for each and every toll free number manually?

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Oct 17, 2006 Posts: 18

Hi,

I've realized the same thing this night.
We couldn't even reach "Tele-Care" .. which is a 1-800 number only.

I'm going to write to Vonage about it ... I'm new with the service and my phone # is going to be transfered today.

Suggestion : Why don't we set up a forum topic for translating 1-800 number to local number ? Or we could also build a web page for translating thoses numbers... and a quick search would lead us to the local number to be call ???

Matt

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 17, 2006 Posts: 2

Good idea, but some companies simply don't have a local number. For example, UPS does not have a local number (well, they didn't last time I checked) so I had to use my cell phone each time I wanted to call them...how pleasant.

I think we should boycott Vonage, quite simply.
A company that doesn't respect a whole damn country and treats us like a minor US state should be slapped in the face and boo'ed until the end of eternity.

May I add that if you are with Videotron, chances are your line quality will be HORRIBLE. This is because of Videotron's "hi-speed" cable network has latency problems AND Vonage routers are all in the US, making the combination extremely difficult for clients of videotron...

Cheers,
Alain

Posts: 120 · Member of the Week Joined: Aug 30, 2006 Posts: 120

melkiades wrote:

Good idea, but some companies simply don't have a local number. For example, UPS does not have a local number (well, they didn't last time I checked) so I had to use my cell phone each time I wanted to call them...how pleasant.

I think we should boycott Vonage, quite simply.
A company that doesn't respect a whole damn country and treats us like a minor US state should be slapped in the face and boo'ed until the end of eternity.

May I add that if you are with Videotron, chances are your line quality will be HORRIBLE. This is because of Videotron's "hi-speed" cable network has latency problems AND Vonage routers are all in the US, making the combination extremely difficult for clients of videotron...

Cheers,
Alain

I'm with videotron and vonage works great. I monitor my high speed connection regularly and rarely notice any latency problems, no more then the periodic latencies I would expect from any provider/isp.

However, I am indeed interested on how to resolve this toll free issue, assuming it's as easy as the solution provided by matth above. If it is that easy, then I just don't get why vonage doesn't fix it. There must be more to the problem then meets the eye.