TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Number Portability: POTS, VoIP, and Cellular

Re: Number Portability: POTS, VoIP, and Cellular

Fred Atkinson (fatkinson@mishmash.com)
Sat, 22 Apr 2006 15:28:03 -0400

> Some VoIP service is offered by companies that are information service
> providers, not telecommunications carriers, such as Vonage. Since
> they aren't telecom carriers, they generally don't interconnect
> directly with the PSTN and don't get numbers directly from the
> numbering administrator (or the pooling administrator). So Vonage et
> al don't have numbers of their own in any rate centers. Instead,
> Vonage et al. buy numbers from telecom carriers, presumably CLECs, who
> obtain numbers from the numbering adminstrator (or the pooling
> administrator) in various rate centers. If Vonage has a deal with a
> CLEC such as Covad (just using Covad as an illustration; I don't know
> whether they have such a deal) to get numbers in a particular rate
> center, then numbers in that rate center would be portable to and from
> Vonage via Covad; this should be true of wireline and wireless numbers
> in that rate center.

I recently ported my Vonage SC issued number over to Carolina Net.
There was no problem with it. It now works fine on my Carolina Net
provided router (on line 2).

On the other hand, Voicepulse is fighting my porting request for my NC
number. They say that because their policy is that you can't port
your number away from them (unless you brought the number to them in
the first place), that they don't have to release your number. In
addition to that, they say that if they are forced by legal means to
release your number, that their policy says that you have to pay them
a fee for that release.

I have a great deal of trouble understanding how their policy
overrules FCC number portability regulations. I've got a complaint
filed with the FCC. I never got a copy of the letter that the FCC
sent to Voicepulse, but I did get a copy of Voicepulse's reply. They
are saying that their policy makes them exempt from having to re-port
my number. I haven't heard from the FCC on that yet. I emailed the
FCC asking about the status of my complaint a few days ago. The reply
was that they haven't read the reply from Voicepulse as yet.

I've had problems with Voicepulse service. They seem unwilling to
resolve them. The problems have included quality of transmission,
some problems with my voicemail, my phone ringing one time and
stopping at some odd hour of the morning (which they admit they were
having a technical problem but it went on for quite some time before
they got it resolved), and a general lack of interest in getting these
problems fixed. I was awakened prematurely on a number of occasions
because of this issue.

One of my students is using Voicepulse at home. He called and left a
message on my office voicemail and I couldn't even tell it was him
because it was so garbled. I thought it was a wrong number until he
said his name at the end of the message. When I spoke to him in
person later, he confirmed that it was a Voicepulse call to my Verizon
phone at the office.

Basically, they are retaining customers because they won't release the
numbers. I've got my number published in Verizon directory assistance
here in the area. If I drop it, that number will simply be dead and
people who are trying to reach me will not be able to. VOIP providers
don't put up a 'the number you have reached ... has been changed to
...' recording when you cancel. What does that do to a business that
is using their service and becomes dis-satisfied with the service [as
I have been] and their numbers are published and their customers
wouldn't know how to reach them? Put up with quality problems?
Sheesh.

Regards,

Fred Atkinson

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: John Stahl: "Re: New Technology Will Force TV Ad Viewing"
Go to Previous message: John Levine: "Re: Podcasting Not For Most People"
May be in reply to: xx-google@telefog.com: "Number Portability: POTS, VoIP, and Cellular"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page