General Launch Update

Here is a general update for the week.

For the time being, our staffing issues are resolved. We have three new very competent guys (Norm, Ray, and Atle) on board with the goal of taking us into launch on the technical side.

We'll make some specific announcements about them later and get them involved on the forums. All 3 have experience with building and maintaining large VoIP networks.

They are currently cleaning things up a little, finishing any remaining items, and making sure we are set in terms of redundancy and disaster recovery.


We are continuing to aggressively pursue potential employees and intend to hire as many as we can find.

We have deployed a new group of servers and will be creating beta and production environments in the next week or so. We are also launching a more organized bug tracking system for the BETA and will be laying out some specifics in terms of what we'd really like help with in terms of testing things.

Our CDR engine is being redone from scratch and the new version will be included in the new environments. It should be close to instant again.

With the new environment, we also have some VM changes coming including MWI and a fix for the issue Fisamo reported. I know MWI has been a requested feature for a while.

Once we've cleaned things up and are ready, we plan to launch to the public with a very enticing offer in what we'll call a "Public Beta" launch. We'll be offering the service at or below cost primarily just for marketing purposes. This will allow us to launch in a semi controlled manner in terms of signups and provides a hefty discount to cover any occasional minor issues that may come up. Our first priority will be keeping the actual phone service online and available at all times. This public beta will only happen when we are 100% confident we won't be seeing any minor outages. We expect any minor issues that crop up to be related to features...not service.

We're getting very very close. Shouldn't be too much longer.

Things are getting exciting :)

Awesome! I'm so glad I got in on this beta adventure :)

Sounds great. Are you still planning on using Asterisk voicemail, or something else? (It seems to be a bit late in the game for home-growing a new platform, but I do hope to see something a bit more friendly than the Asterisk VM system.)

I may even bite the bullet and port my VT number over.

Have they been easy to port from?

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Originally Posted by NY Tel Guy

I may even bite the bullet and port my VT number over.

Have they been easy to port from?

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My port was painless. Took about a couple weeks to complete and my Voipo line started ringing without any service interruptions.

My VT line still works for outbound calls, but I'm paid up for a few more months anyways.

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Originally Posted by Montano

My port was painless. Took about a couple weeks to complete and my Voipo line started ringing without any service interruptions.

My VT line still works for outbound calls, but I'm paid up for a few more months anyways.

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I stopped using my VT line because of un-reliabilty. I have a CallVantage line now (paid for by employer) and might be enticed into porting especially with the 80% for life beta discount.....lol

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Originally Posted by Montano

My port was painless. Took about a couple weeks to complete and my Voipo line started ringing without any service interruptions.

My VT line still works for outbound calls, but I'm paid up for a few more months anyways.

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Did you opt for VOIPo modem and do you have both it and your VT adapter both hooked up together?

I have my main voipo line on a PAP2T, alongside my VT PAP2. I have had no issues with calls longer than 15 minutes. Or any issues with calls for that matter :)

I have another voipo line on my Grandstream GXP-2000, and I've had no issues there either. I've been using voipo for about a year (roughly ?) on various devices and they have all worked fine.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Montano

My port was painless. Took about a couple weeks to complete and my Voipo line started ringing without any service interruptions.

My VT line still works for outbound calls, but I'm paid up for a few more months anyways.

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Thanks, me too as far as VT is concerned. I already have the entire unit packed up with ALL parts and wires. I'll probably ship it back as soon as my line ports.
I have the PaP2 from them, even have the twist ties the unit came with.....lol

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Originally Posted by NY Tel Guy

Thanks, me too as far as VT is concerned. I already have the entire unit packed up with ALL parts and wires. I'll probably ship it back as soon as my line ports.
I have the PaP2 from them, even have the twist ties the unit came with.....lol

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The good thing is that with porting, Level3 does NOT notify the actual customer (like VT). Most Tier1's are like this. That's why with VoIP providers you typically need to cancel your service AFTER the port whereas with traditional landlines, the cancellation would be automatic.

While this is traditionally a pain, it can be used to your advantage because VT won't know when the port completes and you can form a strategy as to how to time your cancellation to avoid the ridiculous cancellation fee hoops (IMO) they've recently added.

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Originally Posted by VOIPoTim

The good thing is that with porting, Level3 does NOT notify the actual customer (like VT). Most Tier1's are like this. That's why with VoIP providers you typically need to cancel your service AFTER the port whereas with traditional landlines, the cancellation would be automatic.

While this is traditionally a pain, it can be used to your advantage because VT won't know when the port completes and you can form a strategy as to how to time your cancellation to avoid the ridiculous cancellation fee hoops (IMO) they've recently added.

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When they started the nonsense with the 2.50 a month extra fee, I never updated my credit card and stopped using the account. I will send them back their TA (I'll need a Grandstream from you) after I cancel them.

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Originally Posted by NY Tel Guy

When they started the nonsense with the 2.50 a month extra fee, I never updated my credit card and stopped using the account. I will send them back their TA (I'll need a Grandstream from you) after I cancel them.

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My biggest problem with those fees is that they're not even in the FCC database and don't have an ID number to even be able to remit any USF contributions or regulatory taxes/fees on the federal level.

There is a hard cost associated with E911 service, and the fees are starting to add up more so I expect to see more "all inclusive" providers adding things. So I don't have a problem with the fees themselves, but it's kind of hard to remit any governmental taxes/fees when you're not even registered to do so. BTW I haven't checked this in a few weeks so they could have registered between now and then, but I doubt it. The dates are listed if they did. Ironically, the last document filed with the FCC for VT/HR was by me and I left there in early 2006.

This along with a list of issues I have will be addressed with the appropriate agencies at the appropriate time.

The other issue is just that I didn't agree with how the situation with prepaids was handled in terms of taxes. Waiving it for people who complained was a nice gesture, but that shouldn't be necessary. If a provider accepts a prepayment, they're taking on some liability that costs can increase during that period. With VoIP, we know it's likely to. Raising them at renewal is one thing, but doing it while someone is in term shouldn't even be a question.

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Originally Posted by VOIPoTim

My biggest problem is that they're not even in the FCC database and don't have an ID number to even be able to remit any USF contributions or regulatory taxes/fees on the federal level.

There is a hard cost associated with E911 service, but it's kind of hard to remit any governmental taxes/fees when you're not even registered to remit.

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I'm beginning to think they are located in a trailer by the Thruway, poised and ready to "hit the road".
BTW, I sent you an e-mail.

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Originally Posted by NY Tel Guy

BTW, I sent you an e-mail.

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Got it, replied.

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Originally Posted by Montano

My port was painless. Took about a couple weeks to complete and my Voipo line started ringing without any service interruptions.

My VT line still works for outbound calls, but I'm paid up for a few more months anyways.

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After you ported your VT line away, did you ask or did they give you another temp number that would continue to work for inbound?
You mention outbound, but this would also require some number to relate to..

I'm playing the 'don't ask, don't tell' game with VT right now. I did not 'ask' for a temporary number, as I'm not interested in paying the monthly garbage fees they are now charging. And I'm not going to 'tell' them I have already ported my number until It's time to cancel my account.

Oddly, I did receive a call from someone named Michael from VT yesterday. He said it was a 'customer service fallow up' call, but I have not called or submitted any tickets in over a year.

Outbound continues to work fine.

Speaking of VT, very frustrating thread over on dslreports in the VT forum. Apparently they use some 3rd party platform to send out their invoices now. Brendan does not seem to understand why it is not good practice to send mail supposedly from billing@viatalk.com but have the email say foobar@somerandomthirdpartycompany.com. We've been trying to point out that this is indistinguishable from the plethora of phishing mails people get, so some non-trivial percentage of customers will delete them (or they will be in their spam folders). He got all huffy and sarcastic. Sigh...

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Originally Posted by Montano

I'm playing the 'don't ask, don't tell' game with VT right now. I did not 'ask' for a temporary number, as I'm not interested in paying the monthly garbage fees they are now charging. And I'm not going to 'tell' them I have already ported my number until It's time to cancel my account.

Oddly, I did receive a call from someone named Michael from VT yesterday. He said it was a 'customer service fallow up' call, but I have not called or submitted any tickets in over a year.

Outbound continues to work fine.

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Interesting...makes sense, but I don't understand how you can make an outbound call without a number behind it. What shows up in your recipients CID when you make that call?

I suppose I should handle it the same way. Then I will have use of an outbound line during my 'free' year. I wonder if I could spoof the CID from that line so my friends and family and subscription services that pick up the CID would be able to recognize it.

The other curiosity would come about, if/when VT begins to realize what is happening and wants to accrue the fees. I wonder how that would fit into the scheme of things?

Now I need to figure out how to utilize that line for inbound if it doesn't have a number assigned.

burris

Whether the ATA or VT's server provides the CID info, I don't see how they would know they don't own the number anymore, so spoofing it at that level is not unbelievable. Or am I misunderstanding?

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Originally Posted by dswartz

Whether the ATA or VT's server provides the CID info, I don't see how they would know they don't own the number anymore, so spoofing it at that level is not unbelievable. Or am I misunderstanding?

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I suppose the short answer would be to ask the person or better yet the persons being called, what they see on their screen.

Typically, the outbound call will dip into one of the national CID tanks and send that on to the receiving end...if the number resides in the tank.

When I get a chance, I will make a few calls to try for an answer on this.

When I had a ViaTalk trunk set up on my Asterisk/Trixbox server, I found that VT's system would override the CID setting I had indicated in the FreePBX trunk setup. I'm fairly certain that calls from your VT line will send the VT-assigned number for CID purposes. One thing that seemed to work for CallVantage (but does come at a price): Consider getting a virtual number for your VT line after you port your primary number away. That way, outbound numbers would still show your (now-ported-away) number, but anyone dialing the virtual number would still ring through to your VT line.

It still shows my VT number. Which is fine with me :)

I'm paid up through August, then I'll be done with VT.

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Originally Posted by Montano

It still shows my VT number. Which is fine with me :)

I'm paid up through August, then I'll be done with VT.

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When you say your VT number, do you mean your real number that was ported away?

If so, that's the route I am going to take.

Thanks again....

burris

Yes, my real number that I ported away. It's been my home number for almost 10 years :)

Again, I thank you for the suggestion.

burris

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Originally Posted by burris

Interesting...makes sense, but I don't understand how you can make an outbound call without a number behind it. What shows up in your recipients CID when you make that call?

I suppose I should handle it the same way. Then I will have use of an outbound line during my 'free' year. I wonder if I could spoof the CID from that line so my friends and family and subscription services that pick up the CID would be able to recognize it.

The other curiosity would come about, if/when VT begins to realize what is happening and wants to accrue the fees. I wonder how that would fit into the scheme of things?

Now I need to figure out how to utilize that line for inbound if it doesn't have a number assigned.

burris

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Your inbound is automatically sent to the carrier who hosts your phone number. Your outbound simply originates from any number of carriers you may have used and it is possible for you to place 2 outgoing calls simultaneously:
1 from VT
the 2nd from the new provider
and both would say your current phone number. If those 2 separate people tried to return your call, the incoming would be routed ONLY to the new provider.
Just the way the phone network works.

Incoming calls to your old ported out line will not be possible with one exception: Most probably, VT subs will still reach you on your old line since their database does not know any better. Everyone else who calls you will get you at your new ported location.

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Originally Posted by NY Tel Guy

Incoming calls to your old ported out line will not be possible with one exception: Most probably, VT subs will still reach you on your old line since their database does not know any better. Everyone else who calls you will get you at your new ported location.

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Funny you should mention that, if I call my ported number from my VT line it goes directly to my VT voicemail. I thought that was odd. So as long as no VT customer is calling, there should be no issues.

If the call originates of VT's network and they "still think" you're a customer, the call will be routed to your VT adapter. With VT-to-VT calls, the call never makes it to the PSTN to receive the routing instruction to your new provider.

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Originally Posted by fisamo

If the call originates of VT's network and they "still think" you're a customer, the call will be routed to your VT adapter. With VT-to-VT calls, the call never makes it to the PSTN to receive the routing instruction to your new provider.

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Fortunately, I'm not aware that I know any VT customers. I was always afraid to recommend them to my friends and relatives.:p

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Originally Posted by burris

Fortunately, I'm not aware that I know any VT customers. I was always afraid to recommend them to my friends and relatives.:p

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Post your number and those of us still with a VT line will call you at 3 am to test my theory....;)


Just kidding....don't post the number.