Steve: Thanks for officially chiming in. It is important to see the GREEN NAMES weigh in. I was not meaning to poke anyone in the eye with a sharp stick; not my intent. I was (and am) stating the inconsistencies and just looking for answers. I appreciate your reply, and it does clear things up for some of the newer forum members ... (also, not sniping, but your reply only skirted some of the things I posted, hence my post title -- I did not mean it offensively!)
FONGO_steve wrote:Back when Dell Voice launched the Fongo free calling areas list received several updates. Many of these updates were to expand the free calling areas to be able to provide free calling in almost all the major metropolitan areas in all the provinces - an upgrade that added a couple previously paid areas/provinces into the free calling area. We aren't able to offer DIDs in all of these expanded areas yet, but agreements are in place that allow us to connect free calls for our users into those select cities.
I understand the "update" and the reasons behind it. The point that I am making with this thread in general is that it is INCORRECT to state (direct quote as above) "
free calling in almost all the major metropolitan areas in all the provinces" ... the current set up is calling into the MAIN RATECENTRE of that major city ONLY, not any of the metro area ... and
THAT is the whole crux of my starting this thread! The very
heart of the issue, to be sure!
I know that the "agreements" on interconnection are not a subject for public discussion here, other than to just acknowledge that they exist, however, I would politely request (I know I am only a user) that someone re-visits these in a bit of detail to see if they only provide inbound termination to that SPECIFIC ratecentre or the entire LCA associated with that ratecentre (again, the crux of this thread...).
I suppose that I am a bit of a stickler on this issue (and I am sorry if it comes across as being a PITA) because I do have
some knowledge in the way these things work, both on a regulatory-overview side of things, and also a technical behind-the-scenes level --- it goes back to my old-school "BBS" days (remember bulletin board systems, modems, and all that jazz?) when I was doing call-routing and arranging with other SysOps (wow, blast from the past!) to make use of off hours LD calling, PBX routing, tie-lines and all sorts of other methods of reducing telecom costs!. It is from that experience and on that level that I cannot wrap my head around how a call can be routed INTO Winnipeg proper via an interconnection agreement, but say Oakbank which is a local call from Winnipeg is NOT covered...??
FONGO_steve wrote:Any areas that went from free to non-free during this upgrade were never previously advertised as being free cities to begin with - for one reason or another they were being offered as "unofficially" free for a period of time.
I think we can all agree that the PRE-Fongo "list" was pretty pathetic, insofar as it did not have very much detail at all, and even cities in which FPL had DID's were not listed (Montreal). The only two unofficial big cities in there at the time were Winnipeg and Halifax, although they appeared in other methods (such as the softphone ABOUT window...). The NPA-807 "unofficial" thing was kind of funny to see, but that was human error. A few of the other corrections are perplexing to look at, but the shaving off of the LCA's of major cities is the sticking point that created a lot of controversy.
FONGO_steve wrote:However, our advertised free calling area should always be taken as the area offered - any areas free that are not advertised should not be assumed to be always free.
But is not proper (I will not say FALSE) to categorize them as "
MAJOR METROPOLITAN AREAS" when it is only the specific target RATECENTRE itself -- it is --
disingenuine -- I guess that is the best word. Not quite misleading, but pretty close.
That said, who can confirm "non-listed" free calling areas? In BC, I've spotted Nanaimo and Comox as two that are not listed, but appear to have FREE calling.
FONGO_steve wrote:Fongo is working hard to continually expand our network coverage and thus our free calling footprint and our abilities to offer DIDs in these cities as well. Our website will always keep you up to date on the happenings, as will signing up for our official newsletter at
http://www.fongo.com!
Thanks for that -- can we also get confirmation that this forum will also be a vehicle for announcing those updates? Is there any progress that can be stated at this time regarding the ongoing activities? Perhaps a teaser of which areas Fongo is seeking to expand DID-coverage into? Or just the well-rehersed "Stay tuned!" ??