Trouble calling long distance to the US

[davecool]

Hi. We got our Fongo home phone earlier this week and ported out number. It's been working fine so far for all the local calls we've made. Actually, we've been very impressed with it!

Tonight, however, we are attempting to call some family in the US (area code 217), and we can't get the call to connect. It rings once, waits 10 seconds, rings again, waits another 10 seconds. It's weird. We've tried a few times, once I thought we heard a voice from the other end, but it was so garbled we weren't sure. I have checked my account and money is being deducted for each attempt, even though no call is being completed.

Local calls work just fine. I have tested them again even during this problem with calling to the US. That makes me think it is a Fongo issue rather than an issue on my end.

Any thoughts as to what I can do?

[TheHardy]

I would submit the call logs to Fongo_Steve/Fongo_Mike for them to look into and see what the routing of the call is on the network level.

[davecool]

Following up: We were finally able to get the call to connect. We waited an hour and tried again.

We were able to carry on a conversation, but it wasn't great. Their voice would "go digital sounding" a every 30 seconds or so, they said we sounded the same way. They said our volume was going up and down, though their volume didn't fluctuate for us. There was also a long delay (upwards of 2 seconds) between us so we kept talking over each other.

It's a little weird that this is happening since local calls sound perfect, and this same long distance call made over Dell Voice on an iPad (over WiFi on this same home network) was also crisp and clear with no delay. (We used Dell Voice to test if Fongo was going to work for us, which is why I am surprised that the actual hardware is not performing as well as the software.)

Again, I think this is a Fongo network issue rather than an issue on our home network. Is there a way to investigate further? Is there a post on here somewhere which explains how to submit the call logs?

Thanks!

[TheHardy]

Again, I think this is a Fongo network issue rather than an issue on our home network. Is there a way to investigate further? Is there a post on here somewhere which explains how to submit the call logs?

Thanks!

I would concur that it needs following up.

Again, the course of action to do this is to send a PM to Steve or Mike (easy to find on the forums!)

Submitting a call log is relatively simple -- log into your account's web interface, get a listing of your call log, copy and paste that information into the PM that you are sending to Mike/Steve. Doing so you should not need to include your Fongo # as it should show in the call logs. This will give Mike/Steve the info they need (account number, number called, time/date) to investigate.

It is odd that it would work fine on one device and not on another, unless the calls are being ROUTED differently. Then again, there are several known problems with the actual PC app, so I suppose this is not overly surprising.

[davecool]

I submitted my call logs to Mike and I'll report back what I learn from him. Thanks for the help!

[TheHardy]

Sit and relax, is about the only thing you can do now! Mike is very capable, and will root out the issue, if it is a Fongo-side thing.

[davecool]

I never heard anything back... what should I do? Calls connect reliably now, but still suffer from long delays.

[davecool]

Just tried a call originating from the US number calling into our Fongo number, and the call is perfect! No delay, no dropouts, no digital-sounds. Why would an outgoing call have trouble while an incoming call would be fine? Any help in understanding is greatly appreciated.

[TheHardy]

I would love to give you an answer to this -- I suffer from similar problems though with the PC softphone app -- my outgoing calls have massive audio problems, but incoming calls seem to be somewhat more reliable. It may be to do with how the traffic is handled on the Fongo-network side, or in my case the software.

I empathize with your problem and the lack of a response. Perhaps now that the weekend is over, try firing off another PM (private message) to the same Fongo employee that you contacted last time and ask if there has been any action on your problem!

[FONGO_mike]

Hi Dave, i have not seen the call logs yet....please send them (again if you already have)

[davecool]

Thanks Mike, I have just PM'd you again.

[davecool]

This issue has resurfaced now in 2013. I thought we had it licked, but now calls to the only number we ever call in the US is troublesome again. Lack of connecting, or cutting off during the call. I don't understand how the connection just... drops.

We had the US number call us back, and when it rang, the ringer was going crazy (not a regular ring, but a bunch of short rings in a row). No call display came through. Weird!!

I am sending call logs to Mike and Steve. Please get back to me!

[Fongo Support]

This issue has resurfaced now in 2013. I thought we had it licked, but now calls to the only number we ever call in the US is troublesome again. Lack of connecting, or cutting off during the call. I don't understand how the connection just... drops.

We had the US number call us back, and when it rang, the ringer was going crazy (not a regular ring, but a bunch of short rings in a row). No call display came through. Weird!!

I am sending call logs to Mike and Steve. Please get back to me!

For Fongo support, please send an email to talkfreely@fongo.com with your Fongo phone number and a description of your symptoms. Thanks!

[davecool]

For Fongo support, please send an email

Is this new? The fongo web site directs users to the forum and I have only ever handled tech support over the "Customer Support" forum.

Since your username is Fongo Support, are you able to deliver the message to the correct recipient? I have also sent PMs to Mike and Steve.

[Fongo Support]

Yes. We're implementing processes and structure to do things better. The Forum will always be an awesome place for users to support each other but we'll jump in when we think there's an issue we can help with.

We've also launched new mobile friendly knowledge bases:

For Fongo: http://support.fongo.com/
For Freephoneline: http://support.freephoneline.ca/

Please let us know if there are topics you'd like to see covered.