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"preferred" dial plan for the FPL phone service

PostPosted: 12/09/2014
by sncbhle18
Hey folks,

I'm planning to get my own ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) complete with a VoIP unlock key in the future and I wanted to know - what is the "preferred" dial plan for the FPL (FreePhoneLine) service? As I live in Ontario, I wanted to access the Ontario 511 Road Information service, complete with accessing the 211 and 311 services (where available).

I've used the FreePhoneLine service for almost 3 years now and the service is not bad (well for the softphone version).

I'm planning to get either one of the Grandstream ATAs or one of the Cisco ATAs that also supports Attended/Blind Call Transfers (a feature that I've been actively looking for - even though FPL/Fongo doesn't necessarily supports it in my opinion).

My question is, what particular (and preferred) dial plan would you suggest for the FPL service?

Re: "preferred" dial plan for the FPL phone service

PostPosted: 12/09/2014
by bridonca
Stay away from Cisco VOIP gear, it is old, ill tempered dreck. (works fine when configured properly, but getting there is a beast!) Grandstream is OK, But, you should put your money into Obi gear. Newegg usually sells it for a decent price.

The Obi device supposedly also supports Blind Call Transfer, but since I am not 100% on what Blind Call Transfer is, or if Freephoneline supports it, I am will give no more details on the subject.

As for a dial plan, most just work. You need to modify it to fit your needs though. I think obi used the cisco dial plan rules.

Re: "preferred" dial plan for the FPL phone service

PostPosted: 12/09/2014
by sncbhle18
bridonca wrote:Stay away from Cisco VOIP gear, it is old, ill tempered dreck. (works fine when configured properly, but getting there is a beast!) Grandstream is OK, But, you should put your money into Obi gear. Newegg usually sells it for a decent price.

The Obi device supposedly also supports Blind Call Transfer, but since I am not 100% on what Blind Call Transfer is, or if Freephoneline supports it, I am will give no more details on the subject.

As for a dial plan, most just work. You need to modify it to fit your needs though. I think obi used the cisco dial plan rules.


Thanks for your response. I also wanted to point out if the Obi devices supports T.38 Fax? I understand that FPL does not provide any support for faxing in any way, but when I get an ATA plus the unlock key for the ATA, how will you determine if my settings complies with your rules set up "governing" the FPL service? In my opinion, I would personally send you a private message and provide my FPL number along with the information I had given to you in regards to my VOIP settings - to make sure if "actually" complies with your policies/guidelines.

Any suggestions?

Re: "preferred" dial plan for the FPL phone service

PostPosted: 12/09/2014
by bridonca
The quality of your internet connection determines whether you can successfully fax or not. Lowering the fax speed usually helps also. Obi device apparently supports T.38 Fax, but it is not like T.38 is much of a solution. Freephoneline does nothing to prevent faxing, but are certainly wise enough not to support it either.

I will state again, successful faxing via VOIP has more to do with the quality of your internet connection, than with the VOIP provider or gear.

Re: "preferred" dial plan for the FPL phone service

PostPosted: 12/09/2014
by Jake
The best way to receive faxes is to let them go to your voicemail. The FPL system will then convert them into a nice PDF for you, which you can either set to forward to your email (via your voicemail settings), or pick up in your online mailbox in your admin area.

When I REALLY have to send faxes, I keep the faxes very simple (no full page pictures) if I can. This helps with sending them out. It's still a bit hit and miss, but we probably only send a couple of faxes a year. Recently we have started to use the free fax service that our HP printer provides. It lets us send a couple of free pages now and again, which is perfect for our needs. I would not rely on VOIP for sending faxes and if I had to use it a lot I would either put in a landline or use an online service full time.

As Bridonca said, lower the fax speed as much as possible, and even try cranking the scan quality right up as this may help slow things down also.

Re: "preferred" dial plan for the FPL phone service

PostPosted: 02/04/2015
by Liptonbrisk
sncbhle18 wrote:I'm planning to get my own ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) complete with a VoIP unlock key in the future and I wanted to know - what is the "preferred" dial plan for the FPL (FreePhoneLine) service? As I live in Ontario, I wanted to access the Ontario 511 Road Information service, complete with accessing the 211 and 311 services (where available).


You need to find out what those phone numbers actually are in your area because simply dialing "211", for example, won't work.

So, with an OBi ATA, you'll want to add |211|311|411|511|611|811|310xxxx somewhere in your Physical Interfaces-->phone port-->digitmap

And then in Service Providers--> ITSP Profile (Freephoneline) General-->digitmap, you'll want to add something like
|<211:4163974636>|<311:4163922489>|<511:4162354686>|<611:4164772010>|<811:8667970000>|<:416>310xxxx

Now, I've used examples for Toronto because I was actually just working on this for someone in Toronto. So, dialing 211 is going to dial 4163974636 automatically.
Otherwise, dialing 211 isn't going to work properly.

"<:416>" adds 416 before 310 phone numbers. You'll need to change "416" to whatever area code you're in.

You'll need to lookup what the actual phone numbers are for where you live and change those phone numbers accordingly.

I'm planning to get either one of the Grandstream ATAs or one of the Cisco ATAs


As others have mentioned, get an OBi ATA.

that also supports Attended/Blind Call Transfers (a feature that I've been actively looking for - even though FPL/Fongo doesn't necessarily supports it in my opinion)


FPL does support the feature. I don't see how any VoIP provider that supports 3 way calling can't support blind transfer, actually.

http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=3039.0

Here is the procedure (as copied from RonR):

- Have a call already in progress

- Press the FLASH button on your phone

- Wait for a new dialtone

- Dial *blindtransfer code

- Wait for a new dialtone

- Dial the number that the call is to be transferred to

- Wait for a confirmation tone

- Hang up the phone

Re: "preferred" dial plan for the FPL phone service

PostPosted: 02/04/2015
by Liptonbrisk
Jake wrote:and even try cranking the scan quality right up as this may help slow things


What that will do (besides improving the resolution or quality of the fax output) is increase the amount of data that needs to be sent and, in turn, fax transmission time, which, logically, doesn't help. The reason transmitting a 20 page fax may fail more frequently than sending a 1 page fax is because there's a greater chance for something wrong to happen during the increased time to transmit the fax.