Possible expansion

[TheHardy]

Even though I am relatively new to the board (and the technology etc), I have managed to read through most of the forums over the past few weeks while I have been using FPL (softphone only).

I have read a lot of old posts regarding proposed expansion of both LD-calling coverage and also areas in which numbers can be assigned for FPL.

I have no found ONE thread, rather they were all split up all over the place, and a lot of "we are expanding and will consider it". I know it is hard for 'management' to commit to anything until it is "on and running". Acceptable and understandable.

However, maybe if there was ONE thread for suggestions and confirmations of expansion, it would simplify the operation of finding the information and keeping the thread current.

Generally, I find Western Canada undercovered, but that may be because I am from there. Also there is far less population out here than in the east.

Here are some areas that _I_ think would be good candidates for future FPL expansion:

British Columbia
Victoria - provincial capital, sort of an important place (also have available numbers from here)
Prince George - northern 'capital' of the province, major hub, major education and industry facilities
Kelowna - medium population, popular destination
Kamloops - same as above
<many other 'smaller' towns/cities too, but maybe a secondary list as a subsequent post is most appropriate for this>

Alberta
Fort McMurray - major industial hub, popular city (have numbers available here)

Saskatchewan
Regina - provincial capital (have numbers available here)
Saskatoon - major city

Manitoba
Brandon - second largest city in the province

Ontario
Thunder Bay
<other than that, pretty good coverage>

Quebec
<dunno enough to make educated decisions here>

Maritimes
Let's get all the provincial capitals as served areas, shall we? Halifax is a good start, but the Maritimes are just drastically under represented!


Okay, that's my input on this. I will edit and amend this top message with other viable suggestions, if anyone has them.

[TheHardy]

Follow-up post (as threatened) with a few more BC cities, which it would be nice to have free calling/coverage to:

Abbotsford - largest city in the Fraser Valley, close to Vancouver (probably nice to have assignable numbers here as well)
**Note: Abbotsford (and Mission) are free local calls to Vancouver on ALMOST all wireless providers
Nanaimo - fairly large population, halfway up the Island, major centre
Courtenay/Comox - also a fair sized population and lots of expansion
Whistler - major tourist & recreational destination (sure that people would like vanity numbers from here as well)
Penticton - fair sized city in the Interior
Cranbrook - another fair sized population centre in the Kootenays

There's many more I could list too, but that would just be a laundry list. Ultimately, it would be nice to have Canada wide coverage, but that could be a while off especially for a FREE service!

[tbrummell]

I'm sure the FPL management will take your input into consideration.

LMFAO!!!!

[TheHardy]

I'm sure the FPL management will take your input into consideration.

LMFAO!!!!

Well, I am not holding my breath, and I certainly didn't go into the post wearing my rose coloured glasses, if that is what you are inferring.

I am, however, a strong believer in making my views known. It is hard to fix something if you are unaware that it is broken. Nor can you complain that something you WANT improved is NOT being improved if you don't at least take the time to make some suggestions.

At the end of the day, it may have been a waste of my time and pixels, however I can have a clear conscience about the whole thing and say that "At least I tried..."

[TheHardy]

Drats, thought that I would be able to go back and edit my previous posts, but I guess I cannot. Hmm.

Some more cities in Alberta (AB) and Saskatchewan (SK) that would prove useful to have added as free calling cities:
Grande Prairie, AB (major oil and gas hub)
Lethbridge, AB (major southern city)
Medicine Hat, AB (eastern hub city)
Red Deer, AB (halfway between Calgary/Edmonton)

Prince Albert, SK
Moose Jaw, SK
Battleford, SK
Swift Current, SK

[bridonca]

Drats, thought that I would be able to go back and edit my previous posts, but I guess I cannot. Hmm.

Some more cities in Alberta (AB) and Saskatchewan (SK) that would prove useful to have added as free calling cities:
Grande Prairie, AB (major oil and gas hub)
Lethbridge, AB (major southern city)
Medicine Hat, AB (eastern hub city)
Red Deer, AB (halfway between Calgary/Edmonton)

Prince Albert, SK
Moose Jaw, SK
Battleford, SK
Swift Current, SK

I suspect some blocks of number are really hard to get at, or are too expensive to be viable. As you know Freephoneline, or to be more exact, it's parent company, Fibernetics, tend to own whole exchanges. The incumbents are no doubt making it hard for companies like Fibernetics from moving in on certain territories. For example, Atlantic Canada has it own little fiefdom with Aliant.

[TheHardy]

I suspect some blocks of number are really hard to get at, or are too expensive to be viable. As you know Freephoneline, or to be more exact, it's parent company, Fibernetics, tend to own whole exchanges. The incumbents are no doubt making it hard for companies like Fibernetics from moving in on certain territories. For example, Atlantic Canada has it own little fiefdom with Aliant.

That is true, to be sure, for acquisition of assignable number space. The only thing more fierce than the larger incumbents is the small local independents serving the small communities, mind you a lot of that has to do with historical (and ongoing) government subsidization to provide service to small/remote/outlying settlements.

That said, the main gist of my posts in this thread has been an increased local calling area. Whether or not actual ENTRY into providing assignable numbers in these areas is warranted, well, that is a matter for the bean-counters and network growth planners.

I can certainly see the merit of hitting the larger population centres and at least the provincial capitals (most of the time one and/or more and the same).

As was also pointed out to me, it is, in reality, a pipe-dream to want to get MORE of something for nothing! Granted that FPL/Fibernetics does get termination fees, but I am not certain how much that all ends up to be when all is said and done. As you state, there needs to be some solid business planning behind it to make it all worthwhile in the end!

[Jake]

I'm sure that both Steve and Kris have mentioned in the past that FPL wants to provide a comprehensive coverage of Canada, in the end. I have no doubt that this will happen, but that might take a while.

After all it was only in the last year that your neck of the woods was added to the DID list.

[TheHardy]

After all it was only in the last year that your neck of the woods was added to the DID list.

Thanks for pointing this out. I have seen Kris & Steve's posts to this matter, and it is good to hear/see. That being said, I also realize how difficult it is to break into an established market. The fact that FPL is doing it with a non-traditional revenue stream is all the more impressive.

To be sure, I am happy for the service. The downside is that they don't seem to motivated or on-top-of keeping the information on the website up to date.

And I can also fully understand the fact that they have concentrated on the area around their HQ/base of operations and are only taking "baby-steps" out in the west and maritimes.

Hopefully there will be more expansion out in 'my neck of the woods'. I think I have clearly laid out where I would like to see it happen, and although no one else has really chimed in with any ideas/comments on the areas themselves, I am confident that I nailed it pretty well.

[TheHardy]

Ontario
Thunder Bay
<other than that, pretty good coverage>

Seems TBay does have FREE calling, although as Jake points out in another thread, that may be a tariff error. For now though, I will count it amongst the free destinations.

[lauren]

Hopefully in the near future, we will be able to fully expand throughout Canada as time progresses. We are trying our best to cover all regions of Canada and we thank you for your patience.


Lauren
Support Specialist
www.freephoneline.ca

[TheHardy]

Hopefully in the near future, we will be able to fully expand throughout Canada as time progresses. We are trying our best to cover all regions of Canada and we thank you for your patience.

Don't take this the wrong way Lauren, as I appreciate your presence and participation in the forums. Getting a "canned" or pre-fab answer which says nothing is almost as bad as getting no answer at all. While it is nice that you took notice of the board and posted a reply, the fact that nothing of value was added to the discussion is somewhat disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it is not that I want FPL 'admins' to IGNORE the forum, and I am also aware that there may be things that you do not know the answer to or are not allowed to particularly comment on. Steve, to a lesser extent, is also guilty of this, but I can see that for 'officials' it is nice to put in an appearance an comment on what others are posting.

I think we have all heard the "expansion is coming" "we plan to cover Canada" etc. I would like details. Specifics. Confirmation of what we are "guessing at" in the forums as to areas that we have found that offer $0.00 (free) calling, whether it is OFFICIAL or an accidental tariff mistype or what not.

Again, don't take this as a slag or a belittlement, rather just my view of a rather canned vanilla reply to a specific question.

Thanks!

[bridonca]

To mods know about as much as we do. It might be refreshing to some to hear that from them, but that still does not change the situation. It will happen when it happens, if it i happens.

[TheHardy]

I agree that it is sometimes nice to hear the official word. However, pat/canned replies seem almost trite or in some cases even condescending. I know that was not Lauren's intent, but at times, just hearing "yeah maybe, sometime, no specifics" can inflame the situation.

[lauren]

I do not want to make any one angry by any means. Within the designated amount of time I have been working for freephoneline (which is not very long), I have not seen too much progress with addition to the free city list calling. Again the key term would be, how is Freephoneline making any profit? Well perhaps, it could be due to these locations that are not on the list, but I am not entirely sure if this is the case. That was me trying to be funny, again, I do not want to offend anyone. Because it is a voIP service, hopefully we are going to be coming up with a huge expansion to make all of our customers happy. Our programmers are working on adding more cities, but we do not have a designated amount of time as to when these numbers will be added. It is best to monitor the free city calling list to see if there are any additions. Hopefully I haven't choked on my tongue by adding more information about this, but if it happens, it happens, and we will let our customers know when that will go down.

[TheHardy]

Fair enough. And I do appreciate the official presence in the forums, and potentially the first-to-know knowledge also! Always good to have an inside scoop!

Is it possible that you can pass along to whomever needs to hear it, that the website itself does need some kind of a facelift and updating? Whether or not there is the behind-the-scenes work on expanding the free calling area (ie: adding cities, or more correctly ratecentres), there is the fact that the website seems to have become a bit of a hodge-podge where there are hard to find links, outdated and poorly organized information.

To that end, I've made my suggestions for some of the improvements already. Futhermore as I alluded to above, the term "free calling cities" is a bit of a misnomer, insofar that what is listed is really the ratecentres and not the cities/towns. While the terms are used interchangeably, they are not, really. I have pointed this out specifically in the detailed NPA-NXX posts that I have made in another board, particularly for the Vancouver area where the "cities" of Burnaby and Surrey are NOT represented anywhere in the list (as they are part of other ratecentres). Rather than complicating the "new" webpage with too much information concerning this, a note at the bottom stating the difference between ratecentres and cities, perhaps a link to the forum (and sticky the nxx lists), or even perhaps if there are only a few of these cases (Vancouver seems to have a large amount, but I am from here and know the ins and outs), a javascript popup note for those ratecentres.

I think I have flogged this to an end.

[TheHardy]

Our programmers are working on adding more cities, but we do not have a designated amount of time as to when these numbers will be added. It is best to monitor the free city calling list to see if there are any additions.

Any bones to toss to us, as to which areas are under development or consideration?

Don't forget your allegiance to the forums too, and perhaps announce it here a few hours before the web team updates the website!

[MySweetf]

I think we have all heard the "expansion is coming" "we plan to cover Canada" etc. I would like details. Specifics. Confirmation of what we are "guessing at" in the forums as to areas that we have found that offer $0.00 (free) calling, whether it is OFFICIAL or an accidental tariff mistype or what not.

[TheHardy]

Kind of counter productive, if FPL were to acknowledge an incorrectly tariff'ed area ... it would be far more practical for them to simply correct their tariff. They are losing money on calls incorrectly tariff'ed as $0.00 IF those calls should be charged -- usually means that they either do not have an agreement in place with the *LEC there, or that they do not have a POI/POP of their own network in the vicinity. And if FPL loses money on the deal for long enough, where do you think that will leave those of us with the free accounts? As they really OWE us nothing, they can pack up the service altogether and leave us rather high and dry ...

Not saying that either FPL nor FN are 'fly-by-night' companies, but rather that the "free long distance calling" that they are offering us is NOT a right, but rather a privilege.

Official acknowledgement of CONFIRMED 'on-net' areas that are not already listed WOULD be very nice, as would a much needed website redesign/update.

I too would like them to nail down some hard and fast details on expansion plans, which is one of the reasons why I began this conversation.

Thanks for your contribution!

[TheHardy]

Bringing this topic back to the frontlines again, as there has been talk in a few other threads about it, as well as a few cities that appear to have popped up as being ZERO-cost (either deliberately or accidentally) ... could there be an actual expansion in the works that we are just not YET aware of? I for one wait with baited breath. It would be nice to be tossed a CARROT rather than beaten with a STICK (oooops, a thinly veiled reference to that evil CONNECTION FEE again!).

From other people and myself, a redux of requested expansion...
Victoria, BC
Abbotsford, BC
Chilliwack, BC
Prince George, BC
Kamloops, BC
Kelowna, BC
Whistler, BC
Lethbridge, AB
Fort McMurray, AB
Red Deer, AB
Regina, SK
Saskatoon, SK
Moose Jaw, SK
Brandon, MB
Portage-la-Prairie, MB
Peterborough, ON
Thunder Bay, ON (this used to be a free call but was removed during tariff update)
Charlottetown, PE
Gander, NF
St John's, NF
Saint John, NB
Hartland, NB


I know there are other cities that probably someone wants, but these are ones from above posts in this thread and also in a few others that I remember seeing as I caught up on old posts in other threads!

[TheHardy]

Our programmers are working on adding more cities, but we do not have a designated amount of time as to when these numbers will be added. It is best to monitor the free city calling list to see if there are any additions.

An old quote, but requoting and reposting this as it is STILL an ongoing problem with FPL -- the info is STILL out of date, and this is like 4+ months after I joined the forums and found the free calling list to be outdated then!

Winnipeg and Halifax are STILL not listed there... although they appear in the softphone.

I almost feel like I am beating my head against the wall with regards to this. <sigh>

[TheHardy]

I feel bad quoting myself ... but ... Just bringing up to date an older thread, now that we have some of the Fongo/DellVoice expansion in place for FREE CALLING ...

Bringing this topic back to the frontlines again, as there has been talk in a few other threads about it, as well as a few cities that appear to have popped up as being ZERO-cost (either deliberately or accidentally) ... could there be an actual expansion in the works that we are just not YET aware of? I for one wait with baited breath. It would be nice to be tossed a CARROT rather than beaten with a STICK (oooops, a thinly veiled reference to that evil CONNECTION FEE again!).

From other people and myself, a redux of requested expansion...
Victoria, BC [DONE-NOW FREE]
Abbotsford, BC [DONE-NOW FREE]
Chilliwack, BC
Prince George, BC
Kamloops, BC
Kelowna, BC [DONE-NOW FREE]
Whistler, BC
Lethbridge, AB [DONE-NOW FREE]
Fort McMurray, AB
Red Deer, AB
Regina, SK [DONE-NOW FREE]
Saskatoon, SK [DONE-NOW FREE]
Moose Jaw, SK
Brandon, MB
Portage-la-Prairie, MB
Peterborough, ON
Thunder Bay, ON (this used to be a free call but was removed during tariff update)
Charlottetown, PE [DONE-NOW FREE]
Gander, NF
St John's, NF
Saint John, NB [DONE-NOW FREE]
Hartland, NB


I know there are other cities that probably someone wants, but these are ones from above posts in this thread and also in a few others that I remember seeing as I caught up on old posts in other threads!

Still leaves a few to go, and potentially a whole pile more to add to the list of requests!

I know Peterborough and Timmins have been requested by other users ...

[TheHardy]

While there are new ones in BC, a few are not listed but appear as ZERO rated (FREE):

Nanaimo
Courtenay
Princeton
Field

It should be noted that it is ONLY these cities PROPER, and not their associated LCAs that are FREE CALLS. There are potentially others, but I have not identified them as of yet.

[TheHardy]

Breathing life into an old thread again ...

Re-iterating requests for a few areas that have popped up in other threads, and some that would benefit me directly ....

Chilliwack, BC (not just the ratecentre, but the whole city, which would include ROSEDALE, SARDIS - this one is odd, as Abbotsford and Hope are covered, but not C'wack)
Whistler, BC
Prince George, BC
Kamloops, BC (note that primary ratecentres are SOUTH KAMLOOPS and NORTH KAMLOOPS)
Medicine Hat, AB
Red Deer, AB
Fort McMurray, AB
Portage-la-Prairie, MB
Peterborough, ON
Thunder Bay, ON

There were others mentioned previously, and I am sure that they still exist as well.

And while I am re-hashing old stuff, how about getting full LCA coverage into a lot of the CITIES that currently have free calling (ie Winnipeg, Halifax, Victoria...).

Anyone else have specific requests for more coverage areas in Canada? Other large metro areas that I have overlooked that you have friends/relatives in?

[Mallox]

There are some area I'll like to see into the free calling:

-Trois-Rivières, QC and it surrounding area (all the local calling city " http://www.localcallingguide.com/lca_ex ... xch=174680 ")

-Joliette ,QC and it surrounding area (all the local calling city "http://www.localcallingguide.com/lca_ex ... xch=170630 ")