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Area code 250 Vancouver Island

PostPosted: 11/18/2021
by Wally59
Hi - I am new to fongo home phone as I have had it for only a few days. Last night a family member called me from Vancouver Island with area code 250 and the the number did not display. I was wondering if this area code isn't recognized by fongo? And if I call a number with that area code will it be a long distance call?
Thanks

Re: Area code 250 Vancouver Island

PostPosted: 11/18/2021
by Liptonbrisk
Wally59 wrote:Hi - I am new to fongo home phone as I have had it for only a few days. Last night a family member called me from Vancouver Island with area code 250 and the the number did not display.


I don't have a Fongo Home Phone account to test (I use Freephoneline and Fongo Mobile).
However, I believe the process for retrieving call log information is similar.
Login at https://account.fongo.com/admin/reports/call-logs/ (account-->call logs).
Select your current month, and click "submit".
The call needs to have either been answered by you or reached voicemail in order for the call to be listed.
Is the call or number listed?
If so, the issue isn't with Fongo's service.

It's the job of the phone base to transmit CID (caller ID) information to the handset being used. If a cordless handset is being used, I would try rebooting the base and ensuring the handset is close to the base when an incoming call occurs. Possibly deregistering or unpairing a handset from the base and registering it again, may help.
If it's a Panasonic cordless phone, you may find some hints here: https://cordlessguy.com/caller-id-not-w ... ess-phones (the first, bolded paragraph may help, and the rest I would be inclined to ignore).



I was wondering if this area code isn't recognized by fongo?


The call is routed to you properly. Otherwise, your phone wouldn't ring. 250 is a well-known area code (and is not limited to Vancouver Island), which displays perfectly fine on calls to my Freephoneline and Fongo Mobile connected devices.

Fongo must first receive the call. If answered, the call will appear in Fongo's call logs.
The ATA being used must receive CID information from Fongo. Normally, this is easy to check (with Freephonline), but because Fongo's ATA is locked to Fongo Home Phone's provisioning server, I'm not sure whether it's possible to see if CID information populates properly in the ATA. I highly suspect that it does.

Then the ATA passes CID info to your phone base, which, in turn, is supposed to transmit it to connected handsets.
It would be odd for all other incoming calls to display CID information properly, and it would be useful to test numerous incoming calls from this family member to see whether you can consistently reproduce the issue, every single time. If you can't, then the issue lies between the phone base and the handsets being used.

And if I call a number with that area code will it be a long distance call?


No. All calls to destinations within Canadian provinces are free.

Re: Area code 250 Vancouver Island

PostPosted: 11/20/2021
by Wally59
Thanks for the reply and info. I checked the call log and that number was listed. This happened one other time with a 604 number and again it was listed in my call logs. I didn't think it would be my Panasonic cordless phone as I also have a hardwired set and same thing. It's not a big deal if this only happens once in a while. But what I have noticed is most calls there is no name displayed only the number, on both my cordless phones and hardwired ones. The name was displayed with my previous home phone provider ( Telus). I don't know much about ata's, but it may be possible it's a provisioning issue?

Re: Area code 250 Vancouver Island

PostPosted: 11/20/2021
by Liptonbrisk
You can try rebooting your ATA followed by your phones if CID numbers are randomly not appearing.
The issue lies somewhere from the ATA being used and the phones.
https://support.fongo.com/hc/en-us/arti ... Home-Phone
I do note that some older Grandstream ATA firmware did cause problems with CID under certain conditions.
Firmware can be found at http://www.grandstream.com/support/firmware, but I don't know what the firmware update process is for Fongo Home Phone.
You might want to contact them and ask: https://support.fongo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new.


This is not a provisioning issue.

Fongo doesn't do CNAM (CallerID Name) lookups. Unless CNAM is being sent by the call service provider, which sometimes is not the case with cellular calls, only the phone numbers are going to appear. CNAM lookups cost money, and Fongo Home Phone, which is a low-cost service, isn't going to provide CNAM lookups for the amount of money charged.

If the originating service provider sends CNAM info, Fongo Home phone will display it. You can test with Fongo Mobile (https://support.fongo.com/hc/en-us/arti ... -caller-ID) to Fongo Home Phone calls or Fongo Home Phone to Fongo Home Phone calls. CNAM will appear.

I'm using Freephoneline. I get Caller ID Name on my incoming calls from other VoIP services, provided Caller ID name is sent (it's not always sent, in particular for a lot of cell phone calls, which is normal). Fongo Home phone is the same. So if the provider sends caller ID name, then you'll see it. If the provider doesn't send it, then you won't. Fongo won't do CNAM lookups from a database in the event the provider doesn't send the information.

Refer to FONGO_mike's post from viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4868&p=25678&#p30526.