Service Great, But Ph # Not Local...

Posts: 57 · Full Forum Member Joined: Feb 23, 2005 Posts: 57

RJL46580 wrote:

Hence my dilemma...

Just got Vonage today, installed in a breeze, phone quality is great.

The telephone number I was assigned is about 25 miles away, making anybody local subject to toll charges (no local numbers available). I have 2 cell phones (local numbers), and 2 high school kids.

I would love to keep Vonage and get rid of my land line, but the inconvienence to local callers potentially having to pay toll charges concerns me. Has anybody worked around this problem? I can keep one of the cell phones on all the time for local calls and voice-mail, but I am concerned that this may not be practical.

Anybody else have this situation?

FYI Enhanced 911 was not included with the Vonage service. 911 forwards to a non-emergency number at the county sherrif's office (not that it's a problem).

Yes, I have this situation.

I'm located in Chicago suburbs and have a home that is further west. Most of Illinois has AT&T (formerly SBC) as an ILEC, but where I am Verizon (formerly GTE) is the ILEC.

Vonage's closest area was about 30 miles north of me. I have the same area code as others, but not the same prefix and I'm not local.

It's even more of a problem here because when people try to call me here, they get a recording telling them to dial the area code plus number even though they don't have to dial the area code for others that are in this town. The reason? I'm not local.

LNPing a number in is NOT always possible, ESPECIALLY in these situations. In order for a CLEC or provider to LNP a number in, they must have a presence that is either in that rate center OR local to that rate center. In other words, Vonage cannot port a number that is in my town.

It is frustrating, but Verizon is upping the rates in this area, since they don't control much in northern Illinois, making it expensive for CLECs or their equivalents, i.e. Vonage to purchase DIDs (blocks of numbers) in this region.

I'm anxious to see what will happen first - if the FCC will force everyone to dial area codes no matter where they are or if Vonage will get a number here eventually.

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 15

Concerning the 800 number option- I called Vontage CS and the plan only includes 100 minutes per month. I had a feeling that it was too good to be true.

Sad

Posts: 98

RJL46580 wrote:

Steve48 wrote:

Can you port one of the cell phone numbers to Vonage?

Yes, I can call-forward the cell phone to Vontage. Discussing this approach with the family, this should be a workable plan:

Not exactly what Steve meant. What he was referring to was Local Number Portability (thus the term "port" your number). In other words, switching your cell number to your house phone.

BTW, from what I've read, the issues you're having with Comcast are not unusual and occur all too often.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 4:10 pm Post subject:

RJL46580 wrote:

Concerning the 800 number option- I called Vontage CS and the plan only includes 100 minutes per month. I had a feeling that it was too good to be true.

Sad

Think of it this way, though...

Yes, it includes "only" 100 minutes a month, but it's 5 cents a minute after that. You are paying $65 a month for your POTS line today. You would pay Vonage $25 a month, plus some taxes, call it $30, plus $5 a month for the 800# brings you to $35.

So, you would save $30 a month. Spend 5 cents a minute after the 100 minute inclusion, and you have 600 MORE minutes you'd have to pay for before it becomes break even. Do you spend 700 minutes a month (a half hour a day, almost) on the phone from these local people calling you?

Plus, who says they have to call you then have the whole conversation on the 800#? They call you, you say "hi", you both hang up, you call them back, then you use your unlimited Vonage outbound long distance to talk forever. You could do 100 calls like that a month, or about 3 per day, within your allowance.

And that trick would work with anyone in the country, not just people who are local to you.

Sure, it's not as good as having a local number. But you're still saving serious money. Plus, as you said, the $65 doesn't include long distance. Vonage does.

As to your reliability drop (phone being thrown at you) mentioned earlier, well, there's one of the downsides of Voip. You gotta ask whether it's worth saving the dough. For me, it is - absolutely. But as they say, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary). Wink

EDIT: Another workaround - Vonage includes Caller ID (well, they would if it works, but that's another story). If it works reliably for you, tell your callers to call your number, let it ring twice, and hang up. Your caller ID will tell you who you need to call back. No 800#, no long distance charges for them, no nothing. A bit of a hassle for them to do it, of course, but what free things in life are easy? Wink