carlyle705 wrote:
Same here, lots of friends ask me to do the same thing, but I'm afraid to recommend FPL because I don't know when they will discontinue the service.
One might as well have the same speculation with any other VoIP provider then. I have no clue when VoIP.ms, for example, will discontinue its service. There's no evidence that VoIP.ms will shut down. There's no evidence that Freephoneline will shut down either.
But VoIP.ms isn't a CLEC. I would have greater concern about what happens to my VoIP.ms service, and in particular, my number instead:
https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32649 ... horization.
Again, VoIP.ms isn't a CLEC. They don't know what happened to this customer's number when it was ported out without that VoIP.ms customer's express permission:
"Please notice that since we're not a CLEC (competitive local exchange carrier) we don't have a way to know if a number is being ported out from our network to another provider unless the gaining provider let us know about this, which is the case we're talking. The gaining carrier did not inform us about this so we had no way to know it. Due to this situation we were not informed. The other provider contacted the CLEC and since the information provided by the person who initiated the port was correct, the port was authorized by the CLEC. Since the port was done a long time ago is not possible to recover it."
https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32649987-
Fibernetics, which is the parent company of Freephoneline, is a CLEC. I feel safer knowing that my paid numbers are with Freephoneline, personally.
Regardless, in the event that Freephoneline were to suddenly shut down you would still be able to port out:
http://forum.fongo.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=16964
"This isn't something you have to worry about. Hypothetically speaking though, if something were to happen, arrangements would be made for users to be able port their numbers out, or stay with whichever company were to take over operations of FPL [or Fongo]. The bottom line is, you would not simply lose your number."--Fongo_Jeff
Freephoneline is owned by Fibernetics, which is the largest privately held CLEC in Canada. It owns Nucleus Information Service, Worldline.ca, 1011295.com, 295.ca, Vonix, NEWT, etc.
Fibernetics owns FPL's DIDs/phone numbers. If FPL doesn't pay its bills, Fibernetics still has FPL's phone numbers. If Fibernetics doesn't pay its bills, Fibernetics still has FPL's phone numbers/DIDs until another company takes over. And FPL's customers will be able to port out before then or choose to stay with the company that takes over. Moreover, FPL, Fongo, and Fibernetics are registered with CCTS:
https://www.ccts-cprst.ca/complaints/service-providers. If there's an issue, you can file a complaint with CCTS, and CCTS will act as an intermediary to help negotiate a resolution for you.
You might as well worry about what happens when any VoIP provider shuts down instead; I can speculate that any one of them will close. I already know what almost happened to Nettalk. Iristel, another CLEC, owned Nettalk's customers numbers. Iristel claimed Nettalk owed Iristel money. Suddenly Nettalk customers weren't able to use their numbers and were afraid of losing control of them. That situation can't happen with Freephoneline because the parent company, Fibernetics, owns the numbers.
Did you know that VoIP.ms uses Fibernetics as one of its carriers?
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/question ... #p25468891
“FreePhoneLine and VoIP.ms provide very similar services. The pricing structure is different, and VoIP.ms has more complex inbound call routing options, but the actual VoIP is the same. VoIP.ms even uses Fibernetics (FreePhoneLine's parent company) as one of their carriers, so some of the service is literally identical.”
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