Halifax?

[yoshahito]

On the "Features" page of your website, it lists a number of cities for which it says "If you live in one of these, you get home phone number and the features" http://www.freephoneline.ca/features It does not state where I live: Halifax, NS.

Elsewhere, it says calling to Halifax is free. http://www.freephoneline.ca/ldServices

I am unsure if your service is available to me or not.

[FONGO_steve]

You currently can not sign up and receive a local number based in Halifax. You can sign up for the service, but you'll have to choose a number in one of the cities we support which means that anyone calling you will be making a long distance call... so it really makes no sense
The reason we don't currently have numbers in Halifax is because we have to buy regions of numbers in bulk from Bell. As you can imagine, this is a costly procedure to do so we've started with the major areas in Ontario/Quebec and will move to other provinces as the service grows and matures. The plan is to eventually have all of Canada covered for freephoneline service!
Sorry for the inconvenience

[yoshahito]

OK....
Just so I understand.....Halifax is one of the cities covered under places you can call to free. So I could call local numbers free, but if someone called me from a local number here, and say my freephoneline number is a Toronto exchange, they might have to pay a long distance charge. Is that right?

[FONGO_steve]

OK....
Just so I understand.....Halifax is one of the cities covered under places you can call to free. So I could call local numbers free, but if someone called me from a local number here, and say my freephoneline number is a Toronto exchange, they might have to pay a long distance charge. Is that right?

Correct. You'd just have to be careful calling cellphones with your number because some cell providers will charge an incoming long distance fee too. But you would have no problem calling landlines because they never pay for incoming LD calls.

[yoshahito]

I can see some advantages....like no monthly bill!

Thanks for your help!

[FONGO_steve]

I can see some advantages....like no monthly bill!

Thanks for your help!

That's certainly a big advantage eh! The 20 cities you get free long distance to are great - I use my freephoneline system myself as a long-distance setup to keep in touch with friends and relatives spread throughout most of the cities we cover.
Any further questions, feel free to get in touch with us

[yoshahito]

So I went to register, and there seems to be only options for Ontario and Quebec in the required fields for Address. How should I get around that? And if I enter my Nova Scotia telephone number for the verification call, will that be a problem?

[FONGO_kris]

As long as it is a Canadian number, you will have absolutely no problem.

As for the phone number issue... Do you want Halifax NS number? Or say a Toronto number so people in Toronto can call you free?

[yoshahito]

I would prefer a Halifax number, but as I understand it, that is not possible at this time with your service.

So I can enter an NS number for your verification call, good. What about the address field: you have to select either Ontario or Quebec from the drop down for Residential province to complete the address?

[FONGO_kris]

Unless you choose to use this as your primary phone line you don't need legit home address info.

The info in there relays to our E-911 provider to, well, find you...

[yoshahito]

OK, I was able to set it up, tried a call, and it sounds good!

Thanks very much for your help!

[platty]

Any idea roughly when we might see 902 area code. Also will 506 ever be availabe? Haven't seen that one anywhere.

[FONGO_steve]

Any idea roughly when we might see 902 area code. Also will 506 ever be availabe? Haven't seen that one anywhere.

Unfortunately I can't disclose an ETA for that region at this time, but we are working hard to make it ready soon!

[hinchesk]

It's over a year later... you guys still working hard to make Halifax numbers available soon?

Obviously there's some holdup... what needs to happen before you guys can provide Halifax numbers?

[grashoper]

Well, its been yet ANOTHER year, and still no Nova Scotia... Any insight as to what the problem is?? Any ETA?? Thanks...

[hinchesk]

Probably safe to assume there isn't currently and never has been, an actual plan to offer Halifax numbers. The staff here are likely instructed to give positive yet non-committal responses to anyone asking so as not to dash anyone's hopes. That way those potential customers are likely to get numbers in other provinces while they wait for Halifax ones. So they don't tell any lies, technically speaking, and they don't lose potential customers. But here we are several years later with no reason to believe there'll ever be Halifax numbers.

What needs to happen I assume is for Fibernetics to decide they want to be a CLEC in Nova Scotia and to purchase numbers in the 902 exchange and they're likely not doing that because the potential financial gain from doing so isn't large enough to offset the cost... and likely will never be due to the population size (i.e. the reason is a decision not a limitation). Best to keep our eyes open for alternatives for Halifax numbers... there's at least one option but that'll run you $30/year ($20 for service, and $10 for a Canadian number).

[TheHardy]

Probably safe to assume there isn't currently and never has been, an actual plan to offer Halifax numbers. The staff here are likely instructed to give positive yet non-committal responses to anyone asking so as not to dash anyone's hopes. That way those potential customers are likely to get numbers in other provinces while they wait for Halifax ones. So they don't tell any lies, technically speaking, and they don't lose potential customers. But here we are several years later with no reason to believe there'll ever be Halifax numbers.

A bit sarcastic in your tone, but I have no doubt that you are "on-the-money" with the positive spin on things. I would be worried if the CSR's were NOT told to put a positive spin on things.

The annoying thing is, that when it becomes more than a glancing question, that they still deflect and offer even more non-committal responses.

It is one thing to shine up an old river-rock and say it is a priceless gem, but to avoid the question at all costs becomes frustrating and tends to put people off.

Unfortunately, that has been my experience with some of the questions posted here on the forum. However, as I am only an interested party and not a paid customer, I cannot really get too upset by it. Frustrated yes, annoyed yes ... but there is nothing that I can do about it other than to re-ask the question and try to frame it in a manner that may elicit a response.

[hinchesk]

A bit sarcastic in your tone, but I have no doubt that you are "on-the-money" with the positive spin on things. I would be worried if the CSR's were NOT told to put a positive spin on things.
The annoying thing is, that when it becomes more than a glancing question, that they still deflect and offer even more non-committal responses.
It is one thing to shine up an old river-rock and say it is a priceless gem, but to avoid the question at all costs becomes frustrating and tends to put people off.
Unfortunately, that has been my experience with some of the questions posted here on the forum. However, as I am only an interested party and not a paid customer, I cannot really get too upset by it. Frustrated yes, annoyed yes ... but there is nothing that I can do about it other than to re-ask the question and try to frame it in a manner that may elicit a response.

Wasn't meaning to be sarcastic, just trying to summarize the situation as best I could while attempting to not let my frustration get the best of me. I've been a customer for a few years now and I have paid for the SIP settings but nothing else so far. I'd very much like a Halifax number but have given up hope and don't bother asking anymore. I posed the question back in 2010 and this was the answer I got. It's one person's opinion but it gives a general idea of why they don't have numbers in Halifax, i.e. they don't have CLEC status there. The question is what is required for them to get CLEC status in Halifax... I was hoping the connection to Dell Voice might help expand their list of available cities but no such luck. They won't even let you check the list of cities you can get a number in without creating an account...

Until freephoneline.ca has CLEC status in that region, we are unable to provide numbers there.
I believe that magicjack is buying their numbers off other CLEC's across Canada as they are an American based company. In order for freephoneline to remain free, we are unable to do this and must directly have CLEC status in each region we wish to cover.

[TheHardy]

Well, to be honest, it never hurts to keep poking the sleeping bear -- sometimes they DO need their feet held to the fire to remind them about things that they have promised (either directly, or on the "wish list").

The CLEC status assumption is all but correct -- however, just before the DellVoice launch (in anticipation of it, I think), they added a ton of cities, just LIKE Halifax, to the free-calling zone, where they currently do NOT offer DID's either ... so there MUST be some kind of a "behind-the-scenes" relationship with another CLEC somewhere for them to HAVE the POP's to offer incoming free calls to these areas ... obviously, I have not been able to get this information nor even guess at it. And whether this relationship is ONE WAY or would work to provide DID's alongside of POP's, I cannot even hazard a guess.

That being said, a quick scan of the CNAC pages shows who is expanding rapidly in terms of VOIP CLEC's ... so there is not really a lot of mystery there. MJ, due to them being a PAID service and charging an additional $20/year/C-DID are able to buy either from a broker, another CLEC or even ILEC in some cases.

While 2 years of silence and inaction are good reason for pessimism, I have been told by a few people (some even at Fongo!) that there is "news" and "expansion" on the horizon ... what they are, and where that horizon is, I do not know. Two things I would expect before too long though would be increased free calling area, and correspondingly, an increase in available DID locations. Do note that they have added quite a few more exchanges/prefixes in areas where they already HAVE DID's, so that is GROWTH (if not expansion).

Last note: on the old FPL site, there was a page that listed cities in which you could have DID's. The corresponding page does NOT exist on the Fongo site, although I would think that it would not be that tough to code one up (to that end, I have forwarded that as a suggestion to Steve).

[dibsmft]

St. John's Newfoundland? The story is the same here. It is possible to make free calls within some of the local call area of the PSTN provider (BellAliant) via Fongo but not a lot. What you can do is get a DID from a DID provider and if you shop around there are certainly numbers for Halifax. I have a local DID from another company ($1/month at present) and I have to use another provider to call some local numbers but the cost is very small (~0.5 cent/min) but it works and I no longer have a regular PSTN landline. I would sooner use one service and that would be Fongo but until they offer local DIDs it is not really practical.

[TheHardy]

I am almost bald from pulling my hair out regarding the mis-fit LCA's that they have around some of the free calling cities -- to be completely honest, it is rather hit and miss, more of a hodge podge than anything concrete. And still no explanation .... Bah ... maybe one day!