What happens if I take my ATA to location outside city list?

[rickm]

I recently ordered Fongo Home Phone but it hasn't arrived yet.

I have a cottage outside the Fongo cities list (central Alberta), but I have internet access there. What happens if I take my Fongo ATA to that location?
Can I phone out?
If so, are calls to the free calling city list still free?
What happens if people call me? Does it work? Do I get charged 2 cents/min?

[Jake]

It will work just as if you were still at home. You will be able to call all the same free areas.

You number will stay the same no matter where you are in the world, and so what is 'local' for other people calling you will also stay the same. So for example if you have an Ottawa number people in Ottawa will still be able to call you free (local). But although you will be in Alberta in your cottage, people will be dialling an Ottawa number to get you so your neighbour will be charged a long distance call for calling you next door in your cottage. You will never be charged for incoming calls from Fongo.

Edit**
Think more along the lines that you are taking your cottage to your Home Phone, rather than taking your Home Phone to your cottage, and consider who can call you for free. VOIP is not location based like a landline or mobile.

[FONGO_mike]

It will work just as if you were still at home. You will be able to call all the same free areas.

You number will stay the same no matter where you are in the world, and so what is 'local' for other people calling you will also stay the same. So for example if you have an Ottawa number people in Ottawa will still be able to call you free (local). But although you will be in Alberta in your cottage, people will be dialling an Ottawa number to get you so your neighbour will be charged a long distance call for calling you next door in your cottage. You will never be charged for incoming calls from Fongo.

....and the free calling areas you can call do not change based on where your ATA is connected.

[rickm]

OK, that makes sense. I guess you could say that functionally, using your ATA outside of the cities or even the country is the same as using your Fongo mobile app (with WiFi) in those same places, as far as what's free and what is charged is concerned.

[Jake]

OK, that makes sense. I guess you could say that functionally, using your ATA outside of the cities or even the country is the same as using your Fongo mobile app (with WiFi) in those same places, as far as what's free and what is charged is concerned.

Yes precisely. To give you a real world example - my wife was in New Zealand end of last year and she had DellVoice installed on her iPod. When she called me, she would just call our house number even though she was over there. And for me to get hold of her, I would just call her number, which of course is local even if I called from a pay phone.

[godot2012]

There are some other issues to consider while you are traveling with your ATA.
1. There is a chance that your ATA will not register using an unknown router. Some routers are not ATA friendly.
2. While your ATA is in your suitcase or pocket your incoming calls will be responded to with a long silence followed by a busy signal. They WILL NOT be forwarded to voice mail or to the set follow me number. Basically all your incoming calls will be lost.

[Jake]

There are some other issues to consider while you are traveling with your ATA.
1. There is a chance that your ATA will not register using an unknown router. Some routers are not ATA friendly.
2. While your ATA is in your suitcase or pocket your incoming calls will be responded to with a long silence followed by a busy signal. They WIIL NOT be forwarded to voice mail or to the set follow me number. Basically all your incoming calls will be lost.

#2 is not quite correct. It is in as far as while the FPL server 'thinks' the ATA is registered it could display this behavior but once it knows the ATA is no longer registered to the server calls will be directed to voicemail.

[godot2012]

Funny you say that. My phone certainly does not work that way. If I disconnect my ATA or the registration is lost, incoming calls to my number will not go to voice mail. This is my biggest problem with FONGO.

[rickm]

I haven't tested it yet, but I read if you forward your phone to itself before disconnecting the ATA, calls will go directly to voicemail. I did this while the ATA was still connected, and can confirm that calls do go to voicemail without ringing the phone set. I haven't tried removing the ATA yet.

Set it up with: *72[10-digit-phone-number]

Cancel it with *73

These "*" codes are standard and not Fongo specific.

[godot2012]

Why do you have to go through the exercise your describe?

Here is a bit of Telephony 101. When a call comes into the FONGO server and it can not be completed - for any reason - that call should be forwarded to voice mail or to the follow me number. The system should know from a missing response to the outgoing signaling message, addressed to the ATA, that the call can not be completed.

I have tried to disconnect my ATA from the router and made calls to my FONGO number from my cell, Bell land line and from my ePhone on my PlayBook. All calls ended up with a very long 'dead line' -lasting for several seconds - followed by a busy signal. I suspect people will just hang up before they get the busy. And the busy is not the correct signal either. Your number is NOT BUSY, it can not be reached! Look at your cell phone network. It will respond with a voice message to the caller if your phone is off that "the called party is not available" or some similar message. It does not send out a busy signal, because your phone is not busy, rather it can not be reached.

I wish someone would respond to this issue, as I raised it over and over since I joined.

[rickm]

You can do what I described as a work-around to the problem that you described. Clearly, it should work properly as you describe but at least there is a work-around (assuming it does work!) until Fongo improves the system.

[godot2012]

What upsets me is that nobody even responds. This is all software. Tell me it will take some time or something.

[Fongo Support]

What upsets me is that nobody even responds. This is all software. Tell me it will take some time or something.

Hello there,

As I have mentioned in my PM, this is being under review. Thanks for all the information provided.

We will let you know.

Thanks,

[godot2012]

I haven't tested it yet, but I read if you forward your phone to itself before disconnecting the ATA, calls will go directly to voicemail. I did this while the ATA was still connected, and can confirm that calls do go to voicemail without ringing the phone set. I haven't tried removing the ATA yet.

Set it up with: *72[10-digit-phone-number]

Cancel it with *73

These "*" codes are standard and not Fongo specific.

When I dial *72+ my 10 digit FONGO number - ATA connected - I get a message that "this call is not covered by you tariff plan". Ditto when I dial *73 etc. This trick does not work for me. Incoming calls still ring. As a matter of fact dialing these * codes messed up my phone. The other party in both Incoming and outgoing calls could not hear me. I could hear them. To fix this problem I had to power Off/On my entire system.

[rickm]

Strange, it worked for me a week ago but now it doesn't. I wonder if they broke it trying to fix the problem many people have where calls go straight to voicemail when they shouldn't?

I got the idea from these threads:

http://forum.fongo.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... ail#p41842
http://forum.fongo.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... ail#p41064

[Jake]

I haven't tested it yet, but I read if you forward your phone to itself before disconnecting the ATA, calls will go directly to voicemail. I did this while the ATA was still connected, and can confirm that calls do go to voicemail without ringing the phone set. I haven't tried removing the ATA yet.

Set it up with: *72[10-digit-phone-number]

Cancel it with *73

These "*" codes are standard and not Fongo specific.

When I dial *72+ my 10 digit FONGO number - ATA connected - I get a message that "this call is not covered by you tariff plan". Ditto when I dial *73 etc. This trick does not work for me. Incoming calls still ring. As a matter of fact dialing these * codes messed up my phone. The other party in both Incoming and outgoing calls could not hear me. I could hear them. To fix this problem I had to power Off/On my entire system.

I think his instructions were for lynksys ATAs. Your grandstream one is similar but you have to dial a # key also.

*72
Unconditional Call Forward:
Dial “*72” and then the forwarding number followed by “#”. Wait for
dial tone and hang up. (dial tone indicates successful forward)
*73
Cancel Unconditional Call Forward.
To cancel “Unconditional Call Forward”, dial “*73”, wait for
dial tone, then hang up.

[Jake]

Funny you say that. My phone certainly does not work that way. If I disconnect my ATA or the registration is lost, incoming calls to my number will not go to voice mail. This is my biggest problem with FONGO.

I just tested this with one of my accounts.

I disconnected my end and waited until it showed disconnected on my FPL online admin page (this took about 15 minutes). I then called my number and it went straight to voicemail.

This account was connected to the voip2 server which 'might' make a difference.

Call forwarding is disabled, and calls to voicemail is set at 5, although it went to voicemail after 1 ring because the account was not registered.

Do you have any call forwarding set up at all? or simultaneous ring maybe?

[rickm]

I have Follow Me disabled. I tried adding the # at the end but still get the "not covered" message.

[godot2012]

Funny you say that. My phone certainly does not work that way. If I disconnect my ATA or the registration is lost, incoming calls to my number will not go to voice mail. This is my biggest problem with FONGO.

I just tested this with one of my accounts.

I disconnected my end and waited until it showed disconnected on my FPL online admin page (this took about 15 minutes). I then called my number and it went straight to voicemail.

This account was connected to the voip2 server which 'might' make a difference.

Call forwarding is disabled, and calls to voicemail is set at 5, although it went to voicemail after 1 ring because the account was not registered.

Do you have any call forwarding set up at all? or simultaneous ring maybe?

Wow! Lot of information flying around here. I have call forwarding (follow me) disabled, rings before voice mail is set to 4. I have never waited for 15 minutes. I will try this. But even if forwarding works after this long delay, it does not make sense to wait that long. The call handler should should figure out that the call can not be completed and activate "Plan B" and forward the call to voice mail or to the follow me number. I never tried it but I bet the "follow me" feature has the same problem if the ATA is disconnected. Someone should try it.

[godot2012]

I have Follow Me disabled. I tried adding the # at the end but still get the "not covered" message.

Same here.

[rickm]

I got *72 working (no # required) with the help of the original poster of the threads I quoted earlier. He said:

You will need to activate this feature in your ATA advanced configuration panel before using it in your home phone set. I have a Grandstream HT-286 and this is what needs to be checked:

Enable Call Features: Yes
(if yes, call features using star codes will be supported locally)

On my Goldstream HT701, this option is in the FXS Port tab.

However, when I call the number I get a long silence (almost 20 seconds I think) followed my a busy signal.

[Jake]

Ive been informed that when an ATA is not registered to a FPL server then incoming calls from FPL/Fongo numbers will be sent to voicemail, but calls not from a FPL/Fongo number will get the busy tone.

I tested it earlier from another FPL number which is why I got the voicemail. Sorry if this was misleading.

On a side note, I have locked this thread as it has gone a little off topic and now really warrants it own thread.