Service Great, But Ph # Not Local...

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

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).

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 1:30 pm Post subject:

Depending on your cell phone provider and plan you could choose to forward your cell phone to your Vonage line when the cell is off or out of range.

When/if Vonage becomes available in your area you could then choose to port your cell number to Vonage.

Posts: 163 · Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 1:54 pm Post subject:

Does vonage have service in your local service area? as in NPA-NPX
area code+prefix - or very close. I say this because vonage does list the area codes and prefixes they serve on their home page. Click on availability then type in area code.

If they do and you didnt get a local number call CS and politely complain. IT has been for at least one other person on this forum.

If vonage does not have a local number to you then shame on you for not checking it out before ordering.

What you could have done, and still can, is get a local POTS number for a month or so then port it over, if you can. You then have a local vonage number.

Posts: 70 · Full Forum Member Joined: Nov 28, 2005 Posts: 70

As the last poster said, there are situations in which Vonage truly may not have a carrier presence in your local ares - BUT you can still possibly get a 'quickie' local # from another carrier and LNP it.

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

bg4 wrote:

If vonage does not have a local number to you then shame on you for not checking it out before ordering.

Exactly.

I really, REALLY want to get rid of my POTS ($65/month w/o long distance). The question to me: Can I manage local in-coming calls through my cell phones?

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

clave665 wrote:

As the last poster said, there are situations in which Vonage truly may not have a carrier presence in your local ares - BUT you can still possibly get a 'quickie' local # from another carrier and LNP it.

I can't think of a practical way of doing this, except as scerruti suggested, forwarding one of my cell phones to the Vontage number. That may work, so long as the family remembers to keep the in-coming local calls short (absolutely crazy solution).

Posts: 4751 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4751

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.

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

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

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:

1. Give the cell number out to local people
2. Always keep the cell phone on, and forwarded to Vontage
3. Limit the incoming cell call duration (calling people back on Vontage if say 5 minutes or more).

As you can tell, I can't wait to cancel my POTS and disconnect those nasty wires outside my house. Twisted Evil

On a more recent note, my wife just threw the Vontage-connected phone at me, as her first Vontage call went dead in the middle of talking to her mother. As it turned out, the Comcast internet went out for a couple of minutes.

Hmmm, it looks like this may not be a slam-dunk sell to the family.

Embarassed

Posts: 4751 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4751

Yup, a disadvantage of VoIP is that it's utterly dependent on a solid internet service. Without that, the VoIP provider can do nothing.

On the subject of porting the cell phone number, what I had in mind was actually transferring the number to Vonage, if that's possible. It's a local number that you already have assigned to you (sorta).

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

Comcast internet is absolutely crazy tonight. According to the Comcast web site, this "scheduled maintainence" (during prime time) may last all night.

A revelation on this issue. I called Vontage to investigate whether any of their exchanges in my area code might be considered local, and was told I could get an 800 number for only $5 more per month! This sounds almost too good to be true, and will be calling CS tommorrow to confirm. I have no problem paying an extra $5/month until they get local exchanges here.