Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

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sukasem
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Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by sukasem »

Hi,

I just got eamil from FreeCanadianCall (FCC) stated that they will no longer provide Voip service on Dec 1.
Since, FCC and FPL have very similar business model. It scare me if it would happen to FPL.

A few months back, I was about to sign up for FCC because I want outbound caller id blocking. Good thing, I didn't do it.

What they gonna do with their paid service customers? :evil:

Anyone here has service with them.

Cheers,
Sukasem
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by bridonca »

I had some Halifax numbers with them, they did not seem to be on the ball. I lost a $25 porting fee, which never did port, but considering I had 2 Halifax numbers for 9 months, I guess I have little to complain about. I lost my FCC service in August, but by this tome, I did not trust the connection, so no great loss.
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by kraza01 »

I was with FPL and after the discovery of more features I switched to FCC (Specially Cell phone add on was a loveable feature). With out any hesitation I must say their call quality was better than FPL but now they are going to be a part of past. My porting process from them to FPL is in process. I will request to Steve and Kris that please expedite the porting process of mine and many others like me from them to FPL as their dead line line to port out is Nov 30, 2011.
Thanks in advance.
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by FONGO_steve »

There's no need to fear of a similar fate for freephoneline - we have nothing but plans of large growth! In the coming months you'll hear a lot of very exciting news relating to the freephoneline service!
Steve
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by seagame2001 »

Well, I think FPL will be fine cause they have Internet service to support the company and spread FPL to your friends and family so they will say in business. Most of my friends and relative use FPL internet and phone
sukasem
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by sukasem »

FPL-steve wrote:There's no need to fear of a similar fate for freephoneline - we have nothing but plans of large growth! In the coming months you'll hear a lot of very exciting news relating to the freephoneline service!
Google's taking over ;)
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by FONGO_steve »

sukasem wrote:
FPL-steve wrote:There's no need to fear of a similar fate for freephoneline - we have nothing but plans of large growth! In the coming months you'll hear a lot of very exciting news relating to the freephoneline service!
Google's taking over ;)
Nope :)
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by Jake »

FPL-steve wrote: Nope :)
I have to agree. Although Google Voice is fun to play with, I can't see me using it as my main line.
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by lifeisfun »

Another victim of FCC,
started the porting # process to FPL and purchased SIP config file today
I hope there won't be more disappointments ;)
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by hinchesk »

FPL-steve wrote:There's no need to fear of a similar fate for freephoneline - we have nothing but plans of large growth! In the coming months you'll hear a lot of very exciting news relating to the freephoneline service!
Halifax numbers? Seems it's one of the more common cities requested in the forums.
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by dibsmft »

St. John's numbers as well. They were available from FCC but do not seem to be available from FPL.
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by lifeisfun »

Anyone got FCC number ported to FPL ?
How long it took?
Did you get notification from FPL when it was completed?


Thanks
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by dibsmft »

My problem is not that I need to port particularly. All I need is a St. John's number as I had from FreeCanadianCalls but FPL does not seem to offer them. Yes, free calling to St. John's number was not available on FCC and is not on FPL but St. John's DIDs were available on FCC.
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by kraza01 »

lifeisfun wrote:Anyone got FCC number ported to FPL ?
How long it took?
Did you get notification from FPL when it was completed?


Thanks
Hi there,
Yes, I got my number ported over from FCC to FPL with in a week. Thanks to FPL team for handling my porting process as a special case and I will request them again to handle all others cases like mine (porting from FCC to FPL) on expedited bases as the dead line to port over is approaching soon.
Thanks Again to the FPL entire Team.
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by lifeisfun »

good for you !
Did you get any confirmation email ?
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by dibsmft »

That is interesting. While FCC provided me with a DID for St. John's NL without any problem FPL cannot supply one. I guess I will have to look elsewhere for service as
there are not even free calls to St. John's. It is a shame that FCC does not give service to St. John's as I expect that it would be very popular as so many families here
are split between Newfoundland and Toronto (and a few other places).
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by bridonca »

dibsmft wrote:That is interesting. While FCC provided me with a DID for St. John's NL without any problem FPL cannot supply one. I guess I will have to look elsewhere for service as
there are not even free calls to St. John's. It is a shame that FCC does not give service to St. John's as I expect that it would be very popular as so many families here
are split between Newfoundland and Toronto (and a few other places).
I am sure Freephoneline would love to provide a DID for everywhere. The problem is, Freephoneline's parent company, Fibernetics, wants to own the whole exchange and not rent off another carrier, which is costly. I suspect there are currently no exchanges in Atlantic Canada available at a reasonable price. I know the phone numbers I got from freecanadiancall were not theirs. In the VOIP world, these little costs add up, and to thrive, a carrier has to nickle and dime, and make decisions on cost.
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by dibsmft »

As far as I know the "cost" of the numbers is quite small and they are given out in batches as needed/requested. The cost is in the servicing/termination of the numbers. You are correct, not many numbers were available in the provinces out here but more places are becoming available (or in the works) and I am currently aware of St. John's, Halifax, North Sydney, Charlottetown, Moncton , Saint John and Fredericton. The St. John's DIDs are priced about the same as others in Canada (commonly from $1 to $5 per month depending on how they are serviced). I will say that the number and service that I got from FCC was very good and I am sad to see them go (even though I never had free local calls).
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by Ice »

sukasem wrote:Google's taking over ;)
Isn't that true of... EVERYTHING? lol

Interesting news. I've always had issues with Free Canadian Calls... their quality of customer/administrative service seemed to miss the mark in several areas. They also got their DIDs from Fibernetics iirc, but either way, FPL is growing and it's been a solid service for me thus far! :)
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by lifeisfun »

Two weeks later and my porting is still not finished :(
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by dibsmft »

I have been working on replacing FCC calls. I wanted to use FPL but they don't offer St. John's NL phone numbers as did FCC. In case there are others with the same problem I am at present testing a St. John's DID number from spokn.com ($1 per month) and it seems OK but if that fails I will add one to my voip.ms account. I will continue to follow FPL and perhaps move to them if they get St. John's numbers or free calls to St. John's. Now, If only I had someone to call in mainland Canada :D .
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by Hellmuth »

You can call me in mainland Canada if it means purchasing an FPL SIP file :D
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by dibsmft »

Thanks for the kind offer! I think I will wait a while before paying another $50 on top of the $39 I paid to FCC. However, the FPL client really does not seem to get on well with Windows Vista which runs very slowly at the best of times and fairly quickly refused to load the FPL client at all. I have reinstalled and it is working OK again now. At my age (71) I can do without that and will stay with Linux Mint and gmail phone for now. I do have a Grandstream 286 or a SPA3102 that are doing nothing I could put FPL on.
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by Hellmuth »

Yeah there can be issues with the FPL software phone. You can try reinstalling Java on Vista but a free SIP software program which works well is XLite. You would need the SIP settings to use it though. The Grandstream 286 works awesome, not as big of a fan of the 3102.
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Re: Free Canadian Calls Going Out Of Business

Post by kraza01 »

FPL-steve wrote:There's no need to fear of a similar fate for freephoneline - we have nothing but plans of large growth! In the coming months you'll hear a lot of very exciting news relating to the freephoneline service!

I am excited to hear the good news. My guess is " Is Rogers is taking over ?" as they have announce some thing like One number service that could be offered easily by FPL (I guess so).
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