Not so Freephoneline if you have to call 613-404-xxxx

[ta_king]

Someone in our family just got a new cell phone which has a 613-404-xxxx. They can call us fine, but for some reason when we call the number is not covered by tariff plan, and we have to pay 20 cents for a 10 minute call. I am not sure why freephoneline would not include this number in the tariff plan as it was issued at a local store in the city of Ottawa and it is in the 613 area code.

We are planning to get a cell phone for our daughter and we would like to make sure that we can avoid any number that would incur long distance charges under the Freephoneline plan.

Does anyone know which 613 numbers are not covered in the tariff plan?

Also City of Ottawa 311 service does not work through FPL.

Thanks,

[TheHardy]

Sometimes when new exchanges (NPA-NXS's) are added, Fibernetics (FPL's parent company) is a little slow to add them to the tariff plan, and therefore you will have problems dialing them, even if they are in a "free-to-call" ratecentre (city). There have been several threads to this end related to VARIOUS ratecentres that were inadvertently charged/rated/tariffed as longdistance/not under tariff plan.

Simplest solution is to PM FPL-Steve with: (a) ratecentre in question (613-404), (b) your account number, (c) details of the calls (dates/times) that were charged wrong. FPL-Steve has an EXCELLENT track record of getting tariff issues resolved QUICKLY, and would also be the person that would most likely be able to take care of getting any potential reimbursement for incorrectly charged calls.

Hope this helps!

[TheHardy]

Also City of Ottawa 311 service does not work through FPL.

3-1-1 calling is an issue that has also been covered a few times over in the threads. There are only a few cities/regions that have FPL coverage in terms of 311 and 211 service. According to information in the threads & also PMs that I have had from FPL-Steve, it is the responsibility of the provider of that n11 service (in this case the City of Ottawa) to contact the CLEC (Fibernetics/FPL) to request that the n11 service be supported on their network (also, according to FPL-Steve, the provider will 'know' how to contact and who to contact at Fibernetics to get this done -- note that FIBERNETICS is the CLEC not FPL!).

I have a few threads going in various places regarding n11 translations (ie: the real 10D number behind the shortcode) which may be of some interest.

FWIW: City of Ottawa 3-1-1 translates into: 613-580-2400 / 866-261-9799 (from the webpage http://ottawa.ca/info/contactus/index_en.html)

Also: FPL does have support for some 3-1-1 and 2-1-1 services (check the Toronto 3-1-1 thread) as per FPL-Steve; in this case, and all others, it should be noted that to access those n11 services via their n11 code, you have to have an FPL # that is WITHIN that n11 local calling area (more details are in that thread) -- IE in your case, if the Ottawa 311 service were introduced to FPL, your FPL number would have to be Ottawa-based for the 311 to work properly!

Hope this helps! Feel free to check the above threads, or ask any other Q's you may have, and we will try to give you a hand!

[TheHardy]

just got a new cell phone which has a 613-404-xxxx

Another quick update -- just hit up http://www.cnac.ca/data/ac613.htm which is more or less the official website for phone numbers, and it shows 613-404 as still being ASSIGNED (ie not active) for Rogers Wireless in Ottawa-Hull, which is probably why it is not yet included at Fibernetics/FPL. I assume that the # is actually in service, but it may have been placed in service by Rogers prior to the date that CNAC has for it (& thus it is still ASSIGNED vs IN SERVICE). This will almost always cause problems for not only Fibernetics, but probably also other telecom providers, such as BELL (MOBILITY etc). As an interesting aside, can you call the 613-404 number from another number, or do you get an error? IE: your cell, or a non FPL-landline?

[FONGO_steve]

It looks like the CNAC site is a bit behind, as it shows that exchange as still assigned, but it is active. This would be part of the reason why it isn't setup in our routing yet. I have added it, so you should now be able to call that number.

An auto update system is around the corner so hopefully these exchanges will already be setup the minute they become assigned, and this will alleviate the sometimes slow manual updating.

[TheHardy]

It looks like the CNAC site is a bit behind, as it shows that exchange as still assigned, but it is active. This would be part of the reason why it isn't setup in our routing yet. I have added it, so you should now be able to call that number.

An auto update system is around the corner so hopefully these exchanges will already be setup the minute they become assigned, and this will alleviate the sometimes slow manual updating.

Thanks for beating this issue into submission so quickly with your multi-facet'ed "FIXIT HAMMER" Steve. Quick resolution as usual!

On the note about CNAC, they are frequently a week behind, I think that they only update their site twice monthly with regards to updating "ASSIGNED" statuses; I know that they add new "ASSIGNED" numbers as they are requested, ditto ones that are "RECOVERED" etc. I think that the problem is that they do not have a mechanism for auto-changing ASSIGNED to IN SERVICE based on actual activation date (which is info that is only in the Telcordia/TRA/LERG/NNAG files).

Speaking of autoupdates, that is a good thing for FPL (and Fibernetics, I am sure). I know that with TelusMobility, I frequently had issues with brand new NPA-NXXs as well -- I was working as a delivery driver and brand new mobile numbers were FREQUENTLY activated by their carriers before the actual activation dates by a day or two, and other *LEC's had not yet updated their tariff/routing tables accordingly -- in other words, these sort of issues are OLD HAT to me, and that is one of the reasons that I know most of the ins and outs as well as resources on this matter!

[ta_king]

Thanks for your help on this issue,

I wasn't 100% sure on the best way to address this issue, but the above comments address all the concerns, and now I have a better understanding of what is happening. The auto update feature should be helpfully given the rate of new phone numbers being issued. As far as 311 the workaround is to modify the dial plan on the ATA or dial the full number.

[TheHardy]

Thanks for your help on this issue,
I wasn't 100% sure on the best way to address this issue, but the above comments address all the concerns, and now I have a better understanding of what is happening. The auto update feature should be helpfully given the rate of new phone numbers being issued. As far as 311 the workaround is to modify the dial plan on the ATA or dial the full number.

Glad that I was able to help out on it -- I hope you are okay with the fact that I charged ahead with it and contacted Steve; as you can see, once you get the right info to the right people, it speeds along quickly enough. [in case the subtlety was missed, I posted here AND PM'd Steve as I had suggested to you -- net result, a few minutes of work and problemo solved!]

Sorry if I stomped on a toe or two along the way. Some of the stuff I threw around was fairly 'technical-ish', so if you would like me to expand or explain any of it, let me know.

As to the 3-1-1, in short, yes, dial the full 10D, or monkey with the translation/dialstring on the ATA (See Toronto 3-1-1 thread for details http://forum.freephoneline.ca/viewtopic ... 27&#p12751 ).

Other than that, contacting the 3-1-1 provider in question and asking THEM to contact Fibernetics to IMPLEMENT it on the (Fibernetics) network side of things is the 'long-and-drawn out' solution. To that end, if you explore a bit, you will see I just this evening posted out all the city-hall numbers around metro Vancouver when I stumbled across my old paper phonebook's blue pages listings...

**EDIT to throw link to Toronto 311 into msg