Travel Outside Canada

[rummaan17]

Hi,
I just wanted to know if i could take my ATA box with me while travelling abroad so that i can recieve and make call from there??

If yes please let me know where to configure it here or the country i am travelling to coz uptill i hav knowledge ATA box configure something using Ip??

[FONGO_kris]

Soon we will have a "Travel Mode" on the softphone only for travelling which will piggy back on the IP of the country you're in.

[rummaan17]

only for softphone wht about ATA box??

[FONGO_kris]

That is very difficult to do since we have 911 service which NEEDS your residence on file so 911 can actually find you.

If you can get your ATA to work in another country, awesome. But right now if I took it to Europe, South America etc... Anywhere outside of Canada, maybe even the US because they use the same IP class as us. It wouldn't work because of IP conflicts.

Again... It's the ATA that doesn't work internationally, not our service. You can use any VoIP service internationally technically speaking.

[qingz]

That is very difficult to do since we have 911 service which NEEDS your residence on file so 911 can actually find you.

If you can get your ATA to work in another country, awesome. But right now if I took it to Europe, South America etc... Anywhere outside of Canada, maybe even the US because they use the same IP class as us. It wouldn't work because of IP conflicts.

Again... It's the ATA that doesn't work internationally, not our service. You can use any VoIP service internationally technically speaking.

Except 911 service, I don't understand why the ATA won't work in another country if the power matches. And I don't understand what you said "IP conflicts". I thought the public IP address (not the private one for the home network) should be unique in the whole world.

[FONGO_kris]

Simply put, our service does not support non-Canadian IP addresses at this time. I'm not sure if there is a plan to have extended/international IP support but regardless there is none at this time.

There are a lot of technical hurdles to get things working that originate outside of Canada... Since our service is based on a multitude of things that work inside Canada we can easily support originating service from here (Canada).

That being said - many users are able to get it working outside the country with some tweaking on their own. However, we have no way of recommending settings to use for this or providing support for out-of-country users at this time.

[qingz]

Simply put, our service does not support non-Canadian IP addresses at this time. I'm not sure if there is a plan to have extended/international IP support but regardless there is none at this time.

There are a lot of technical hurdles to get things working that originate outside of Canada... Since our service is based on a multitude of things that work inside Canada we can easily support originating service from here (Canada).

That being said - many users are able to get it working outside the country with some tweaking on their own. However, we have no way of recommending settings to use for this or providing support for out-of-country users at this time.

Your last post said "Again... It's the ATA that doesn't work internationally, not our service.". Now you say your service does not support out-of-country users.
The most advantage of the VoIP is we can bring the phone with us when we travel. I really don't understand why your service does not support non-Canadian IP addresses. Will non-Canadian IP addresses bring you extra cost?

[FONGO_steve]

Not sure if it'll bring us extra cost or not, but it would require some modifications to the back end. It's not to say we won't support non-Canadian IP addresses in the future, but at present time we are working to build a really strong Canadian network before thinking about expanding abroad. We started out as a Canadian service designed for use within Canada, it's not to say the idea hasn't been considered for outside of Canada use, but right now we still have some stuff to work on within Canada.
Another issue that would need to be worked on for out of Canada use is the 911 system which we are required to keep updated. We know that when 90% of people travel, they won't bother to log in and change all their address info to reflect where they actually are. Then faces the problem of linking emergency services across the globe; when you dial 911 right now it goes through the Canadian Northern 911 routing center to reach your appropriate PSAP. If you're in China and calling 911 I'm not sure if Northern has the resources available to dispatch the appropriate Chinese emergency officials. So now we'd need a way to disable 911 when you leave the country and re-enable it when you're back. Since that can't be done automatically, we are now relying on people to not only change their address but also their 911 info. Legally, by us providing a phone to you in Canada that can make regular outgoing calls we must make sure you can always reach 911 services. Therefore, if you disable 911 when you leave the country and forget to re-enable it when you're back in Canada, things can fall down to us getting in trouble.

That's just scratching the surface of a few things we'd need to consider by saying we support out of Canada usage of our devices. Like Kris said, it might work in some other countries, but we never told you to do so

[qingz]

It is totally fine if no 911 support and no tech support out of country. Actually the phone number for emergence service in China is not 911.
What I concern is you do not block the non-Canadian IP, and we should be able to use the service on our own. You do not need to take any responsibility on how we use it.

[FONGO_steve]

It is totally fine if no 911 support and no tech support out of country. Actually the phone number for emergence service in China is not 911.
What I concern is you do not block the non-Canadian IP, and we should be able to use the service on our own. You do not need to take any responsibility on how we use it.

I'm not sure what he meant by blocking but we do not block out of canada IP addresses. However, the country you're in might have internet blocking/filtering that we can not control.

[Krazie243]

While Freephoneline is not set up to do this, you can make ATAs work outside Canada. My brother went to China with his. Of course, you need to keep in mind that there is no 911 or tech support outside of Canada. But as long as you are fine with that, try it. But if it doesn't work, there is nothing anyone can do to fix it for you.

[digamma]

QUOTE :

[ Soon we will have a "Travel Mode" on the softphone only for travelling which will piggy back on the IP of the country you're in. ]


Is this "Travel Mode" available yet ?

[FONGO_kris]

We've actually put the kibosh on that.

After looking into it I found that it is more or less a useless feature, since as far as I know, no ISP's internationally block port 80, therefore you can use your ATA / Software phone on the go, just run through port 80.

[Bloodsong]

United States had a proposal relating to targeted blocking of port 80, look up the CP80 bill (Clean Port 80) I wrote a huge rant on it... but that was over a year ago now, so I can only assume it was shot down.

Still, doesn't mean other governments wouldn't do the same. Can't say I disagree with the intent, but the bill was very heavy-handed and broad stretching as it was originally proposed. If you want to censor your internet, then use a tool like OpenDNS and choose your own censors.

Edit: (Note: I do not approve of censorship, period. But I know the interwebs are a scary place for adults.)

[fmdream]

I believe in open Internet, eventhough ISP's like bell & rogers are managing your internet service, IN INDIA we have open internet and I am able to use my FPL # in INDIA without any issue (Min. 80 KB upload is required), SOFTPHONE sometimes have some issues with DROP calls, using ATA is better as service is stable.