Incoming ring still US style not UK

Posts: 110 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 30, 2005 Posts: 110

Thanks Kerry that's nice to know you're listening and I'm sure we all look forward to improvements.

Wouldn't it be fairly easy to do a systematic analysis of what BT provide (for example) and then see if they're good features for Vonage?

I guess what we voice in here are the things we care most about - but the people using this forum are likely to be people with a technical bent who are a bit "bleeding edge". Not what will get you a mass customer set in the UK.

I really hope I can connect my sky boxes. Part of my business case for moving from NTL was Sky+vonage is cheaper than NTL.

If I can't allow Sky to dial in then I can't have sky ... and all of a sudden the case for Vonage is diminished.

ah well.

Posts: 67 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jul 14, 2005 Posts: 67

Great news that you will be changing *67 to 141 in the near future and hopefully removing "pound" and replacing it with "hash.

On the voicemail side how about changing the answerphone retrieval number to "1571" instead of "*123" I think that BT and NTL use this number as a UK standard. I have on occasions dialled 1571 forgetting that it's *123, the change to 1571 would help some of us.

Any update as to when this "unavailable" "call" "0441xxx xxxxxx" caller display problem will be fixed?

Also number allocation: Would it not be possible to offer a selection of numbers to choose from when choosing the service, perhaps 5 or 10 random numbers from your avaialble selection? Maybe for gold numbers a small charge. ie a number such as 01xxx 306306
or 01xxx 306666. could be classed as gold, whereas when signing up or adding an additional line or fax when choosing your area code you could be given a small selection to choose from ie
"Please choose a number from the following list"
Area Code 01xxx
306352 306239
306000 Gold (eg £9.99) 306278
306915 306025
306174 306711
306630 306808

I was told by Vonage CS that the numbers are allocated 1 by one and not randomly ie. 306201,306202,306203 as opposed to 306779, 306421,306801, 306573 etc

Using 306xxx is random as I assume all Vonage exchange numbers are based on the first 3 digits for identification on area codes beginning 01xxx. 306xxx is used on a Vonage exchange area code that I know.

It's just a thought that could increase signups if this option is made avaialble.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 08, 2005 Posts: 1

VonageTPA wrote:

My Vonage Linksys RT31P2 box acts just like a real BT line, and I have a Vonage USA account. Here's what you need to do...

So, now here in the USA, my Vonage USA linksys box has a proper double-ring tone, as it should be. Smile

and now I know if it's my Verizon land line or Vonage box. It does confuse my friends a bit though, as they're not used to the UK tones. Personally, I think BT's UK specs are much better than the US specs, especially when it comes to dial tones. In the US, we only get one dial tone, regardless of if you're transferring a call or trying to do a 3-way call. With the BT tones, you get a different pitch dialtone for each of these, making it very clear as to what function you're initiating.

Do these changes also affect the ring tone heard by the calling party?

Posts: 67 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jul 14, 2005 Posts: 67

Below is a copy of what i've sent to Vonage today. There seemed to be a universal update sent out to all uk adapters to set the tones etc to the same as bt. I phoned today because since the weekend the dial tone last about 2 seconds before it cuts out, by ringing tech support, they've messed up all my settings and now my phones ring like they're on their last legs. it's just problem after problem if it weren't for the fact that I've give the number out to everyone now it'd be serious thinking time as to whether to keep Vonage, as it's problem after problem. There needs to be more adaptation and similaritites to the uk telephone system with regards to tones and access codes if they want to persuade the masses to take it up as an alternative to BT,NTL,TELEWEST etc.

Phone Adapter:
Linksys RT31P2

ISP:
BT

Router Make and Model:
ZYXEL P2602HW

Telephone Make and Model:
BT

Description of Network:

Description of Problem:
PLEASE UPDATE MY ROUTER TO THE CORRECT BRITISH TELECOM TONES AND SETTINGS FOR THE UK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE,SOMEONE HAS MESSED THESE UP AND NOW MY PHONES RING IN THE WRONG WAY AND SKIP RINGS.VOLTAGES,PITCHES,CADENCES AND FREQUENCIES ARE ALL IN ACCURATE AND I WOULD LIKE THIS RESOLVED TODAY IF POSSIBLE,AS I'VE SPENT OVER 3 HOURS TODAY ONTO TECH SUPPORT.
MY ORIGINAL CALL AT AROUND 11AM (uk) TIME TODAY WAS BECAUSE MY DIAL TONE ONLY LASTS 2 SECS,SINCE THEN THE WHOLE SET UP HAS GONE WRONG. I WANT STANDARD UK PROGRESS,ENGAGED,DIAL AND RINGING TONES RESTORED TO MY PHONE.AND A PROPER DIAL TONE LENGTH.THIS IS GETTING TO BE NOTHING MORE THAN A JOKE AND I CANNOT AFFORD TO KEEP SPENDING HOURS ON THE PHONE TRYING TO RECTIFY THESE PROBLEMS. PLEASE ESCALATE THIS TO THE HIGHEST TECH SUPPORT ENGINEERS LEVEL SO THAT IT CAN BE DONE PROPERLY,AND FINALLY PLEASE PLEASE SORT THIS CALLER DISPLAY PROPLEM OUT, IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE FOR MY NUMBER TO KEEP APPEARING AS 044XXXXXXXXX, 441XXXXXXXXX OR WITHHELD,CALL,INTERNATIONAL ETC ETC. WHEN I RING OUT UNLESS I WITHHOLD MY NUMBER THE PRESENTATION SHOULD BE: 01XXX XXXXXX NOTHING MORE OR NOTHING LESS. I WOULD APPRECIATE A PROMPT RESPONSE BECAUSE I CANNOT HAVE MY PHONE RINGING IN THIS RIDICULOUS WAY EACH TIME I RECEIVE A CALL. IT IS GOING SOMETHING ALONG THE LINES OF : BR-B-----BRR-BRR----BRBR-BR-BR-----BR-------BR-BRR

THE CORRECT UK WAY IS : BRR-BRR-PAUSE-PAUSE-BRR-BRR-PAUSE-PAUSE-BRR-BRR-PAUSE-PAUSE-BRR-BRR-PAUSE-PAUSE-BRR-BRR ETC. WITH THE SAME CADENCE,VOLTAGE OR FREQUENCIES AS USED BY BRITISH TELECOM AND OTHER UK PHONE COMPANIES

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 12:37 am Post subject: Re: UK ring tone

sandyk wrote:

VonageTPA wrote:

My Vonage Linksys RT31P2 box acts just like a real BT line, and I have a Vonage USA account. Here's what you need to do...

So, now here in the USA, my Vonage USA linksys box has a proper double-ring tone, as it should be. Smile

and now I know if it's my Verizon land line or Vonage box. It does confuse my friends a bit though, as they're not used to the UK tones. Personally, I think BT's UK specs are much better than the US specs, especially when it comes to dial tones. In the US, we only get one dial tone, regardless of if you're transferring a call or trying to do a 3-way call. With the BT tones, you get a different pitch dialtone for each of these, making it very clear as to what function you're initiating.

Do these changes also affect the ring tone heard by the calling party?

Nope, the calling party hears whatever the equipment at their end (or in this case, the PSTN <--> Voip gateway at the Vonage switch) is doing. The call progress tones & ring tones generated by the RT31P2 are strictly for your enjoyment only. Smile

Posts: 67 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jul 14, 2005 Posts: 67

When they 1st changed everything to the Sipura settings as in a previous thread a few weeks back, eveything seemed to be ok. Then a week or so ago they must've updated something again because everything worked even better (apart from the caller display of course) Confused

The dial tone lasted a good 10seconds or so before cutting out, and most tones were as you find on an ordinary uk landline. The voicemail alert was a broken dial tone, and unobtainable tone was a long steady tone as you'd expect.

Since the weekend the dial tone lasts only 2 secs before cutting out to a kind of fast busy tone,and since Tuesday when they said they'd restored the uk settings the dial tones still the same,only 2 secs.

Voicemail tone is back to the US (de de de de de de derrrrr)
instead of a broken dial tone that was present before

Unobtainable is now a sort of fast broken dial tone instead of a continuous tone, again the usual continuous tone was present before.

About every 10 - 20 mins the phone just goes "ding" as though it's about to ring but it doesn't and if you pick up the handset when it does this there's no dial tone just the tone similar to fast busy.

So if the tones generated by the router are there for "enjoyment" they must be able to put back the proper ones that I had before because they were there until Tueday,now it seems like a mixed bag of uk/us and others.

I noticed that the firmware version is now 1:29:00 so whether that's got something to do with it I don't know

Somewhere along the line something's happened to alter this as one day all was fine and the next day it's not. Ringing in and out tones are ok, it's the other tones, and a dial tone should last for more than 2 secs.

The techs are looking into it so we'll have to see what happens.

If they can sort this and of course the caller ID then all should be ok...

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 26, 2005 Posts: 10

All my tones are still US tones, aside of course from the ring tone itself. I might ask them tomorrow if they're willing to change the rest over to the UK style ones, as per the Sipura page. As an aside, my dialtone only lasts for say 10 seconds, then cuts to a fast busy. It's always been that way, so is it normal for the phone adaptor? I realise that BT does the same thing, but their cut-off time is longer. Can it be changed to make it longer, as 10 seconds isn't a long time, especially when you lose your place in your phonebook. Not a pressing issue I know, but just curious as to what can be done.

Posts: 67 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jul 14, 2005 Posts: 67

The dial tone should last on average 15-20 secs. Mine did do this on the Vonage line until the weekend, but now it's 2 secs if any at all.

They should be able to change all settings for you to uk but are reluctant at moment to use sipura ons as they say they have a specific set of themfor uk adapters.

After over 85 mins on the phone to them this aft, it turns out that the short dial tone is now a "known issue" that they are working on but no indication of the time scale for it to be fixed.

They did however manage to change the voicemail message waiting alert back to a broken dial tone instead of the US one.

about an hour ago i picked up the phone and there was nothing at all, so unplugged linksys and plugged in again, but so far still 2 sec dial tone, so can't dial out properly unless very very quick.

Posts: 67 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jul 14, 2005 Posts: 67

also it's interesting to notice that the "vonage service status" never mentions any UK issues only US ones

Posts: 67 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jul 14, 2005 Posts: 67

Dial tone seems to have been restored now to about 10 seconds before time out.

Thanks Vonage.

Hope caller display is fixed soon too.