In message <telecom24.248.9@telecom-digest.org> Fred Atkinson
<fatkinson@mishmash.com> wrote:
>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Fred, I may be missing something here,
>> but regards the redirection of your personal 800 number, why wouldn't
>> you just do that yourself (to wherever you like) rather than pointing
>> it at still another 800 number from Vonage, so you will now get twice
>> the fees for your inbound calls? PAT]
> You did miss something, PAT.
> A personal (or business) 800 number can be pointed at whatever carrier
> that will take it and route your call. My first personal 800 was
> gotten for me by the folks at Sprint. When I moved on to another
> carrier, the new carrier arranged to repoint the number from Sprint to
> their service. And I moved a couple of more times. Each time, the
> new carrier repointed the number to go to them when I moved my
> service. I never had to do it myself.
> This carrier says I have to arrange for it to be pointed at them. But
> once it is pointed at them, they will arrange for it to be sent to my
> local phone number that they provide me.
> Vonage offers toll-free numbers (I say 800 because both of my
> toll-free numbers happen to be 800 numbers). But, they won't accept a
> toll-free number that you already have. They will get you a new one,
> but they won't transfer an existing toll-free number. I spoke to
> several people at Vonage (including those who do the number
> portability stuff) and they all said the same thing. They did say
> that if you wanted to use another carrier and point it at your Vonage
> number that you were free to do so. So, when you dial my personal 800
> number, it currently gets routed to Power Net Global who routes it to
> my Vonage number. Double whammy.
Unless I'm missing something obvious, there is only one whammy -- On
Vonage, inbound calls to a non-tollfree number are free calls. The
only thing you're paying for is to have your 800 number routed to
Vonage.
I'm among those with a personal tollfree number (It happens to match
my cellphone, but 888 instead of 403) -- I just pay my 5.9c/minute to
my tollfree provider to terminate the calls, no other fees involved.
Even if Vonage would let you transfer tollfree numbers, I wouldn't do
it, Vonage's monthly fee for the included minutes is more then I'm
spending now.
DevilsPGD (spamsucks@crazyhat.net)