Over 820 exchanges, but none in central & upper BC WHY?

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Why no Kelowna BC numbers? Anyone dare respond?

Postby Randiemmills » 11/17/2021

Greetings,

I have been a user of free phone line since about 2008.

I’ve seen this service grow and grow.

New exchanges everywhere. Everywhere except for the interior of BC, namely Kelowna.

The market for a service here is huge, but I’ve been told that Fongo can not and will not buy banks of numbers sold by the distributor of them in Kelowna and surrounding areas.

Is this true? Set me straight!

I doubt this posting will get any response, but I hope it does.

Cheers,

Randy
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Re: Why no Kelowna BC numbers? Anyone dare respond?

Postby bridonca » 11/19/2021

If I were to guess, I think it comes down to BC not having that many area codes for the population, and because of that, Fongo is not able to get the exchanges they want. In Nova Scotia, exchanges get given away like candy, because you have a new empty area code just looking for telco providers, serving around a million people.
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Re: Why no Kelowna BC numbers? Anyone dare respond?

Postby Randiemmills » 11/19/2021

Not true. Here in BC, we have 2 new exchanges that are new. 236 and 672, and they both have thousands of numbers available.
The true problem is who are the brokers for the numbers here in BC, and elsewhere.

One of them is Iristel, which supplies all the numbers for Fongo, and the other company Fibernetics, which is the competing supplier.

It seems that Fibernetics somehow holds the rights to certain areas, Kelowna being one of them.

So to me it appears that these 2 companies won’t cooperate and sell numbers to each other.

Someone out there, prove me wrong?
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Re: Why no Kelowna BC numbers? Anyone dare respond?

Postby Jake » 11/20/2021

I would suggest you send in a support ticket on this one if you want an official answer.

https://support.fongo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

If you have, and the official answer was the one you stated in your first post, then I don't think there are going to be any other answers.

I was a little hesitant in actually responding to you posts as, if you knew or not, they were set out to be slightly provocative. You seem to be looking for someone to disagree with you. With that in mind, this will be my final post on the matter, and you may find that others will not reply for the same reason.
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Re: Why no Kelowna BC numbers? Anyone dare respond?

Postby Randiemmills » 11/20/2021

Sometimes one must ask the tough questions.

Really? I’d love to be corrected on my postings.

Contacting this company about anything is an exercise in futility.

I know, I’ve had a fully paid unlocked voip adapter, with one of the original 604-283-xxxx
Since about 2007 ish, and they are good people who run this company, but profits are narrow so customer service is limited
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Re: Why no Kelowna BC numbers? Anyone dare respond?

Postby bridonca » 11/21/2021

A few things. Fibernetics owns Fongo, and Fongo will not pay a company like Iristel for numbers. Fongo will not provide numbers in that area until Fibernetics decides it is able to get that exchange. I am sure Fibernetics has their reasons not serving Kelowna right now, very likely beyond their control. So their best move is to say nothing.

Another thing I noticed was that a lot of competitors are represented in Kelowna, Iristel, Allstream, Distributel, even Comwave. Telus seems to have at least 75% of the exchanges for Kelowna. I notice there is not one exchange represented by Fibernetics. I say this, because in Nova Scotia, there are quite a few exchanges that Fibernetics owns, but are not available on the Fongo client, as of yet.

https://localcallingguide.com/lca_prefi ... xch=016290

In all honesty, we are pretty much in the dark on the goings on in Fongo as you are. We can make educated guesses though.
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Re: Why no Kelowna BC numbers? Anyone dare respond?

Postby Randiemmills » 11/21/2021

Btw,

I am a West Coast guy, but 3 generations prior to me are maritimers. Moose head and Alpine. Lol

I totally agree with your posting!

It seems in Canada, pretty much every provider seems to have its protected territory.

I wonder what would happen if I tried to port out a Fibernetics number to an Iristel number?

My guess is that the system would say not possible, however, legally and according to the CRTC, it must be possible.

I have numbers with both of them. Perhaps I’ll give it a try and when they say no, push the issue to the crtc.

Have a great day!
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Re: Why no Kelowna BC numbers? Anyone dare respond?

Postby bridonca » 11/22/2021

A provider has to have a presence in the area to be able to port in and out a number in the area. So no go.
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Over 820 exchanges, but none in central & upper BC WHY?

Postby Randiemmills » 08/01/2023

I’ve been a FPL user is 2007, with an unlock key that cost me $25.00 at the time. I have one the very scarce 604-283-XXXX numbers. The system works perfectly! I also use the Fongo mobile app for IOS. It too, works perfectly!

I am so happy with this product, but I’ve seen the number of Fongo exchanges grow over the years to today, over 820. A truly huge benefit for Canadians. However, I now live in Kelowna BC. There are no local Fongo exchanges here, in fact, there are none anywhere around here

WHY?

I am aware that Fongo either buys or leases numbers from the 2 major Canadian vendors.

I’ve been trying for years to get to the true answer of why no exchanges here in Kelowna.

Although no one can or will confirm my belief, my guess is that one of these vendors has the exclusive right to sell numbers in Kelowna and near here and I further believe that these 2 companies may make it extremely difficult for the other company to obtain a number in their exclusive area.

Could that be true? Anyone out there who has an idea, please post.

Thank you from KELOWNA BC
RM
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Re: Over 820 exchanges, but none in central & upper BC WHY?

Postby Liptonbrisk » 08/02/2023

Randiemmills wrote:I’ve been a FPL user is 2007


https://web.archive.org/web/20120211042 ... fongo.html

"Fongo has been providing free calling across Canada since 2009 under the name freephoneline.ca."

Forum postings also don't go back further than 2009.

with an unlock key that cost me $25.00 at the time


$50+tax

I have one the very scarce 604-283-XXXX numbers



Fibernetics, Vancouver number


I am aware that Fongo either buys or leases numbers from the 2 major Canadian vendors.


Fibernetics is the CLEC that Fongo uses. The carrier for Fongo is Fibernetics. They're Fibernetics' numbers.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120211042 ... fongo.html

"Is Fongo a CLEC?
No, but we’re good friends with one.
A CLEC (competitive local exchange carrier) is a government regulated classification for phone companies. Fongo has agreements with Fibernetics, a CLEC with a national telco network. These agreements allow Fongo to leverage Fibernetics' network assets and regulatory status, providing Fongo with a huge cost advantage over other VoIP providers. We pass these savings on to customers.

What’s Fongo’s track record?
Fongo has been providing free calling across Canada since 2009 under the name freephoneline.ca. We’ve powered millions of free phone calls and saved Canadians millions of dollars. In 2010, we launched our first partner brand – BudPhone – with Labatt Breweries. The team behind Fongo has a long history of offering innovative calling services dating back to 1997.

How are Fongo and Fibernetics related?
Fongo was formally spun-out of Fibernetics in 2010. Fongo and Fibernetics are now independent companies. That said, we really like each other."



I’ve been trying for years to get to the true answer of why no exchanges here in Kelowna.


If you want an official response, you need to submit a ticket: https://support.fongo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new. Submit it as a Fongo Mobile customer.

These are user-to-user support forums only, and support staff is not obliged to read or respond here. That is, I doubt most non-employees are in a position to know the answer to your question.


You can check your ticket status by logging in at https://support.fongo.com/hc/requests. That's an account for tickets (zendesk) only and is completely separate from your Fongo Mobile account or any other Fongo account you may have. Use the same email address that you use to submit tickets. Do not use the same password as your Fongo Mobile account. Again, these two accounts are unrelated.

Support staff does not respond to tickets on weekends or holidays. Support hours are 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. EST.

Visit https://status.fongo.com/.
If "Support System" indicates "Degraded Performance", ticket response time can take up to a week.

If you don't receive a satisfactory response from them, you could try contacting Fibernetics. I suspect someone there is more likely to know the real reason.
You can contact them at https://www.fibernetics.ca/contact/.
Please do not send me emails; I do not work for nor represent Freephoneline or Fongo. Post questions on the forums so that others may learn from responses or assist you. Thank you. If you have an issue with your account or have a billing issue, submit a ticket here: https://support.fongo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new. Visit http://status.fongo.com/ to check FPL/Fongo service status. Freephoneline setup guides can be found at viewforum.php?f=15.
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