threehappypenguins wrote:I just don't understand how Halifax isn't low cost. I have Anveo, which costs me $40 a year and I was able to port my Halifax number in (technically Dartmouth). Why is it that Anveo can and you can't? Anveo is pretty cheap. I just don't like their customer service, and I had to rig my Obi202 by putting in my in-law's secondary voipmuch account so I could use their 811 feature (which Anveo does not have). We like 811. Saves us trips to the emergency!
I know this one. Anveo leases their Halifax phone numbers from Iristel, so does Magicjack, Skype, and various other VOIP providers.
Fongo's parent company, Fibernetics, is a company that acts much like Iristel. Fibernetics owns exchanges, they do not lease from anyone, because leased numbers cost money, and severely restrict flexibility. Fongo/Freephoneline is not Fibernetic's core business. Fongo/Freephoneline came to be because Fibernetics had to figure out what to do with the excess phone numbers it had once they cherry picked the good ones like (xxx) xxx-taxi or (xxx) xxx-0000 or other desirable number businesses would pay a premium for.
So what does that have to do with no numbers in Halifax for Fibernetics? My guess is dirty politics. Here is an example, Inverness, Nova Scotia has 3 exchanges, the area might have 1000 people. So get this, there are 30000 numbers for 1000 people? All of them are Aliant exchanges, BTW. Talk about stacking the deck!
My guess is the incumbent telcos in Nova Scotia are running out of excuses not to let Fibernetics in, and eventually there will be a Halifax exchange for Fibernetics.