311?

[mysaurin]

Hi

I live in Toronto City and tried dialing 311 but said that my balance is insufficient to place this call.

Please share your experiences

Thanks

[trini4ever]

The same thing happened to me on the weekend.

[mysaurin]

I called tech support at freephoneline just now, the lady replied that we can not dial 311 unless we purchase a voucher. The only alternative to reach 311 is dial 416-392-2489.

Hope Steve looks at this message and provide us better solution..this should not happen but that's what I was told.

311 website has posted following FAQ:

Can you call 311 from a VOIP phone?

It is up to individual VOIP providers to make 311 service available to their customers. Once configured, VOIP service should work properly as long as the user is registered as being located within City of Toronto boundaries. If you are a VOIP customer and you are having difficulty calling 311, it is best to contact your respective carrier and let them know you cannot connect. Alternatively, you can reach 311 Toronto by dialing 416-392-CITY (2489).

[Bloodsong]

Anyone who is a linksys ATA can set-up a dial-rule that will make 311 dial the 10digit number. Similarly many of the dial-string gurus in this forum have set-up 411 to dial goog-411 for free.

[trini4ever]

[quote="mysaurin"]I called tech support at freephoneline just now, the lady replied that we can not dial 311 unless we purchase a voucher. The only alternative to reach 311 is dial 416-392-2489.

[quote]

My sister-in-law buys long distance credits, which explains why she can make these calls with Fongo. The call was free but can only be made if you have a credit balance in your account. Maybe we should all buy credits for our freephoneline accts.

[dibsmft]

I called tech support at freephoneline just now, the lady replied that we can not dial 311 unless we purchase a voucher. The only alternative to reach 311 is dial 416-392-2489.

My sister-in-law buys long distance credits, which explains why she can make these calls with Fongo. The call was free but can only be made if you have a credit balance in your account. Maybe we should all buy credits for our freephoneline accts.

I think 311 calls are processed locally by your friendly local telco and represent only a partial number such as 709-737-311 that is routed to the real number. Fongo is not your local Telco so will normally not know which town the 311 call is destined for. As mentioned, the best solution for most people is to alias 311 to the real number or as a speed dial in you ATA as already mentioned. Fongo list 311 as non-free as 3 cents/min but it is not clear what destination it is pointed at although Fongo should may be able to process it for the correct destination if your DID is actually a local number but perhaps not where my FPL number is in Toronto.

[TheHardy]

We had this 311 discussion before, and it WAS supported in certain cities -- based on the DID location, not of course the actual location.

Steve confirmed (at the time) that TO worked, as did Vancouver. There were some more .... lemme search the thread in another window ...

http://forum.fongo.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... 27&#p16020

I can also confirm that 311 for my Vancouver based number is no longer working at this time ...

[mysaurin]

Hi

I tried searching a lot on 311 but could not get easy answers as to why the it gives me message that my balance is insufficient to place the call? My number is from Toronto area and dialing from toronto.

Please find me a thread that tells me if FPL allows us to dial 311 directly and why customer support denys it

Thanks

[dibsmft]

The rate table shows 311 listed as
Number: 311
Price: $0.03
Country: Not Applicable
If you have no credit then your balance is insufficient to place the call I suppose. Perhaps if you had credit it would work but why 3 cents/min? I would have expected 2 cents/min at most as the real number may be free to call.

[TheHardy]

I quoted the thread where Steve confirmed that 311 was working in selected markets. The pricing for the 311 in the rate table may be along the lines of it reading as COUNTY CODE 31(1) ... that being said, Fongo really needs to get on board with allowing 311, 511 and 310- calls to complete correctly if they want to be a player in the local telco market and move away from just being a niche provider!