No more foreign virtual #s?

Posts: 20 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 26, 2004 Posts: 20

In the spring, Vonage added virtual numbers in the UK and in Mexico City..

since then, i haven't seen any new foreign virtual numbers show up... is there any reason for the stoppage?

i'd love to get a virtual number in Monterrey, Mexico so family can call me and in Lima, Peru for clients to call...

just hoping....

Posts: 605 · Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:56 am Post subject:

I never knew that Vonage had Lima, Peru phone numbers.

I will be happy with just the chunk in the upper right Smile

Posts: 20 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 26, 2004 Posts: 20

no numbers in Peru... but I wish they did...

Posts: 605 · Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:16 pm Post subject:

I remember there was some sorta problem with TeleMex and Voip. I wonder if it affected the virtual numbers if you have your router/ata in USA for instance. I wonder if people have problems dialing a mexico city number because it is associated with Vonage.

Posts: 60 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 21, 2005 Posts: 60

I've had a virtual number in Mexico City since April and have had no problems whatsoever. I too would like more coverage for virtual numbers including Guadalajara and Poza Rica Veracruz. I know from other threads that there is a demand for numbers in a great number of other countries but for reasons unknown, Vonage has not increased its coverage.

Other companies either have more numbers in many other parts of the world (Lingo) or have publicly announced coverage shortly (Skype, Yahoo and Microsoft/MCI)

Here are links in two other threads regarding the same topic.

More cities in Mexico for virtual numbers
Other Foreign Phone Numbers

Posts: 249 · Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 3:27 pm Post subject: Virtual numbers

Geeze, you gents are making me feel bad. All I want is a number in my own area code in the US! Vonage is in a flock of foreign countries now but still don't cover 2/3 of the US. It would appear they hi-grade the big city numbers but don't want to be bothered with the whole pie. (Sigh>

Posts: 277 · Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 3:29 pm Post subject:

dcongrav wrote:

I've had a virtual number in Mexico City since April and have had no problems whatsoever. I too would like more coverage for virtual numbers including Guadalajara and Poza Rica Veracruz. I know from other threads that there is a demand for numbers in a great number of other countries but for reasons unknown, Vonage has not increased its coverage.

It may be "for reasons unknown", but I'll hazard a guess as to what those reasons are. When Vonage adds a location for virtual numbers, or for local availability, they actually contract for a local connection into the phone system at that location. Its not a trivially cheap thing to do, I think I've heard costs in the 6 figure range mentioned here before. Just because there are a handful of people here participating in threads who would be willing to pay $5 per month for a virtual number in some small market, doesn't even begin to indicate there's enough demand to warrant Vonage spending the money to make that happen.

Posts: 60 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 21, 2005 Posts: 60

DallasFlier,

Your comments are well thought out. To have either virtual numbers in foreign lands or local availability in small towns, it has to be economically viable for Vonage or any other comparable company.

What bothers me is that there is no formal Vonage replies to some of these threads. We are forced to guess as to the motivations or lack of them from Vonage.

Given that a competitor of Vonage does offer virtual number service in the second and third largest cities of Mexico does make one wonder why Vonage doesn't as I assume that this other company is also looking at economical viability and there offer is not charitable.

You see, we are both assuming. What would it cost Vonage to actively participate on these threads and not force us to guess why Vonage doesn't do this or that. They have raised $millions which they use extensively (excessively) for publicity, I don't think the cost of answering questions and queries could really cost that much.

Posts: 277 · Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:18 pm Post subject:

dcongrav wrote:

You see, we are both assuming. What would it cost Vonage to actively participate on these threads and not force us to guess why Vonage doesn't do this or that. They have raised $millions which they use extensively (excessively) for publicity, I don't think the cost of answering questions and queries could really cost that much.

I submit that its not the cost that prevents Vonage from actively and officially participating in this or other independent forums. This forum is independent, not owned or operated by Vonage. Should they start directly and officially answering questions posed here, it would quickly become a de-facto Vonage customer support site, and that's probably not what the owner of the forum wants. If Vonage wished to answer questions in a public forum, I'd expect them to start their own, in-house, vs co-opting a 3rd party forum. I participate in 3rd party forums focused on Linksys, Tivo and Microsoft, to name a few. Nowhere in any of them will you find company reps officially participating. We're lucky to have a few Vonage folks here unofficially, and I'm sure that's as far as it will ever go.

dcongrav wrote:

Given that a competitor of Vonage does offer virtual number service in the second and third largest cities of Mexico does make one wonder why Vonage doesn't as I assume that this other company is also looking at economical viability and there offer is not charitable.

Simple - those other companies have different business models, different strategies, and may well be targeting different market segments. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I *think* Mexico City is the ONLY market that Vonage offers virtual numbers in, without offering local service within that same market.

Local service *within* the market is obviously a much larger revenue generator than offering only virtual numbers to those outside of the market. If I'm right about that being the only market where Vonage markets virtual numbers ONLY, then I'm going to speculate that one of two scenarios are in play.

First, Vonage may have decided they wished to market local service to that market, and established their point of presence and virtual number offering as an interim step, and have not been able to go any further with their plans due to the state of affairs within government or ISP's in Mexico. That's the scenario I'm putting my bets on, since there are no less than 4 different threads talking about Voip being blocked by the Mexico monopoly ISP:

http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic4213.html

http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic4184.html

http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic4133.html

http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic243.html

Second, Vonage may have chosen Mexico City as a test case for virtual number only offerings, and if that's the case, then whether or not they ever expand beyond this one single market may well be dependent upon whether that one shows any chance of profitability.

In summary, it may be more instructive to ask why Vonage DOES offer virtual number only service in Mexico City only, of any market anywhere in the world - then to ask why they DON'T offer it in other markets of your choice.

Posts: 60 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 21, 2005 Posts: 60

Again DallasFlier, well thought out replies. I'm taking the role of "Devil's Advocate" and you it seems as the Vonage apologist. Neither role should be necessary if Vonage and thousands of other companies took the time and effort to communicate with their customers (I'm saying here that Vonage is not alone). It's a sign of the times that we as consumers have little or no voice nor dialogue with the corporations (and governments) whom we're forced to doing business with. Although we can vote with our wallet and cancel or not purchase from a specific company, that turns out to be a no win situation. We lose because we have to start over again (with possibly worse results) and the company loses a customer who may never come back again (as long a competitor exists) and all this could be avoided if corporations "talked" to their customers. Whether Vonage takes advantage of an existing "impartial" forum or sets up their own corporate one.

In the case of Mexico. There is competition for broadband internet access but on a very small scale still. Telmex has the lion's share of the market. More important than this is globalization or better said, global thinking. Mexico is one of the US largest trading partners and in order to support America's ambitions, having the support of ancillary corporations would or could turn into a win win situation. In this case, being able to count on Vonage services where you do business would or should be beneficial.

Anything wrong with this type of thinking???