Monitor When New Numbers are Released

[weslowsk]

Hi,

When I registered for Dell Voice, there were no numbers for where I live (Regina, Saskatchewan). So, I had to pick one from another area. I plan to delete that account and get a new one when numbers become available for Regina.
I'd like to be notified when Regina numbers do become available, but I don't know of the best way to do that? Any suggestions?
Thanks...

[s4lj]

I too would like this since I like to get a Halifax based number (902)

[FONGO_steve]

As we continue to expand the number of cities where we can offer free phone numbers we will be sure to announce it on our forums and website when available. We have a friendly customer support team who will gladly get you setup with a number in your own city. Alternatively, you may want to sign-up a second account if you wanted to keep your first number too.

[bylo]

you may want to sign-up a second account if you wanted to keep your first number too.

A bit of a digression, but is there a cost associated with phone numbers?

Let me elaborate. As with Internet domains there must be a central organization that issues new phone numbers to carriers. Otherwise two (or more) people might get the same number. There's been such a great demand for phone numbers that we've run out of them in several area codes. This has resulted in new overlay area codes and recently even overlays to the overlays (e.g. in Toronto.) Presumably phone numbers aren't free to FPL and Fongo. So how can you encourage people to sign-up for multiple phone numbers? Doesn't that cost you additional money with no additional revenue in return? Isn't that going to speed up the exhaustion of available numbers?

And instead of having people sign-up for multiple accounts why not instead allow people to request multiple numbers in different area codes all under one account? That would make it easier for you and for us to manage our numbers. For instance if I had numbers in K-W, GTA, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver, all forwarded to my cellphone then people in those cities could all call me without incurring LD charges. Better still they'd all think I had a local presence in their city. That seems like a good feature—assuming your cost of new phone numbers is low enough.

[Jake]

Fibernetics buys in all the numbers (who is FPL's parent - or used to be parent - company). Fibernetics is basically the business side of FPL and I think they would support FPL financially quite a bit. That being said, how many customers have Fibernetics got from FPL where business owners have thought "if I can get my residential call costs down to nothing, what can they do for my business?". A fair few I would have thought.

They have mentioned in the past that the reason why they don't allow you to register many numbers and forward them all to one phone is to stop people setting up call centers. I have no idea how big of a problem this is, but this is what they have said in the past. This is just a residential system, so why you need to make other people think you were somewhere you are not is not what most users will be looking for.

Fongo_Mike will no doubt come and encourage you to sign up all your friends

Maybe the reason why they don't mind you setting up new accounts is to make the numbers look good. If they went to Dell and said we have 100 registered accounts that we can advertise Dell to; Dell would have probably shown them the door fairly quickly. Going there and saying we have 500,000 accounts that we can all get using a DellVoice branded phone where they will all see your name every time they use their phone; probably seems a little more attractive. Don't know - just guessing.

[bylo]

This is just a residential system, so why you need to make other people think you were somewhere you are not is not what most users will be looking for.

Agreed. But because it's a residential service most people who want to call you will be individuals who presumably are more sensitive to paying LD charges than businesses.

Fongo_Mike will no doubt come and encourage you to sign up all your friends Maybe the reason why they don't mind you setting up new accounts is to make the numbers look good...

That makes sense. In this context the number of accounts is more valuable than the number of phone numbers.

But still, I'm curious, how much does it cost to "claim" a unique phone number?

[FONGO_kris]

When you ask the cost associated with claiming a unique phone number, do you mean signing up for an account and have it disassociated with Fongo and instead have it assigned to yourself?

Perhaps I'm misreading here, however as with all carriers, once you sign up with an account for all intensive purposes that phone number is yours for the lifetime of your account.

[Jake]

When you ask the cost associated with claiming a unique phone number, do you mean signing up for an account and have it disassociated with Fongo and instead have it assigned to yourself?

Perhaps I'm misreading here, however as with all carriers, once you sign up with an account for all intensive purposes that phone number is yours for the lifetime of your account.

I think he is asking how much it costs Fibernetics to buy a number. I know they buy them in big batches, but there must be a per number price somewhere. I don't think he is planning to go in competition with you , just more curious I think.

[bylo]

I think he is asking how much it costs Fibernetics to buy a number. I know they buy them in big batches, but there must be a per number price somewhere. I don't think he is planning to go in competition with you , just more curious I think.

Correct. There has to be some cost associated with assigning and maintaining a phone number. I'm just curious what that is, in round numbers, e.g. $1/number per year (or however it's charged.) I'm not trying to start up a business. To the contrary I really appreciate what you guys are doing and wish you every success. I just want to understand the economics of "free" phone numbers.

[FONGO_steve]

Unfortunately anything relating to cost wouldn't be known by those of us on the front-line, sorry!

[dibsmft]

I have a St. John's NL number from another provider because FPL does not offer them here. I pay $1 per month for the number. As far as I know the numbers are provided by a supervising agency in blocks to the DID providers but the exact mechanism varies from country to country. In Canada CLECs (like Fibrenetics) can order blocks of numbers and the cost is very low as these are just numbers. The real cost is in servicing the numbers in and out of the networks but even that is quite low per number and allows for them to be "sold" to users at very low prices and be used a "loss leaders" when recruiting customers. Supplying a particularly desirable number (choice numbers are often removed from the number blocks and sold a higher prices) needs more administration.

[FONGO_mike]

Fongo_Mike will no doubt come and encourage you to sign up all your friends

Of course i will!!! As we do not have 100% coverage of Canada yet, it is wise to get them onto our service. The more people who use the service, the faster we can grow and and improve on our services. As this is a free service, it is a little harder to devote the funds to expanding our overall coverage area.

Now imagine this, EVERYONE in Canada using this service and able to call each other for FREE. Then, signing up accounts for friends and relatives OUTSIDE of Canada who can now also call them for free.

Yes, there is oportunity for international service using Dell Voice!