[Asterisk-biz] Bounty for a residential number port for my asterisk service

Mon May 16 13:32:15 MST 2005

On Monday 16 May 2005 11:18 am, Rehan Ahmed AllahWala - Super 
Technologies I wrote:
> Get a Soft phone account from vonage, and set a call forward busy on
> this line
>
> it will cost you 10$ only and then u can register the soft account on
> your asterisk box.
>
> you can also ask them to swap the numbers for you, and your softphone
> becomes your primary account.
>
> you can have concurrent calls on it using vonage.
>
> I already do it, and yes it can be done, and yes it works.
>
> I hope this helps

Yes, it does.  I'm annoyed I didn't think of this before.

I was already doing something like this before.  I had voicemail turned 
off, and call forward set to a voicepulse-connect number.  I was 
already using the limited 500-minutes plan, which suited me fine.

But what hadn't occurred to me was to use a vonage softphone account, 
that way the forwarding would be "free" because it was a vonage to 
vonage call.  When I was forwarding to voicepulse, I'd use up outgoing 
vonage minutes, so I had my asterisk box answering the analog line 
first in preference to taking a forwarded call.

Also, vonage is doing CNAM lookups for me, while voicepulse-connect 
didn't give me any callerid names.

The only apparent disadvantage of using the softphone for outgoing calls 
is the apparent inability to play callerid games. It looks like I'm 
going to have to get the numbers swapped to get those to use the right 
callerid.  For now, I'm using teliax for outgoing calls, and spoofing 
my main incoming number.

BTW; I'm not missing something with callerid, am I?  SetCIDNum() 
generally works for IAX2 but not for SIP providers, right?

> You can Pay me with kind words.

Indeed, and thank you!!  I'm still annoyed at myself for not trying 
this.

I'll see about a number swap in a few days time.

> Rehan
>
> > What I'm looking for is somebody who can port my home phone
> > (925-968-0766) to their VoIP service in such a way that is suitable
> > for use from my home Asterisk box.
> >
> > The catch is that it was once an SBC number, and was ported to
> > Vonage a bit over a year ago.  When I last was able to look it up,
> > it seems it is connected to Focal right now.
> >
> > Given that we have an Asterisk box at home, my wife and I find
> > ourselves on the phone concurrently an uncanny regularity.  We
> > don't actually use it that many minutes, but we seem to be
> > (un)lucky to manage to both want to use it at the same time.
> >
> > There seem to be no shortage of VoIP providers who can port the
> > number, but want me to use a locked ATA (bleah, I've already got
> > that with vonage, no thanks) or a restricted residential plan. 
> > These all seem to be focused on the "unlimited" plans (which
> > actually have limits, bleah!) and try to build in ways to stop
> > abuse, like put session limits in place, try to define what
> > "residential" usage looks like and cut you off if your call
> > patterns stop looking residential.
> >
> > What I actually want is something that allows for concurrent use on
> > an occasional basis.  If that means paying by the minute etc, then
> > so be it.  Actually that tends to work out better for us anyway
> > because we don't use that many minutes.  I'd be just as happy with
> > a base plan that charged extra for time on additional concurrent
> > sessions, or just about anything within reason.  Just so long as it
> > isn't a 'business plan' that assumes I'm going to be making
> > thousands and thousands of minutes of calls and prices accordingly.
> >  I need concurrency, not minutes.
> >
> > There seem to be no real shortage of VoIP providers who allow
> > concurrent use, but don't seem to be able to port my particular
> > number.  I don't know if this is because this particular switch
> > (DAVLCA13) is poorly serviced or because Vonage/Focal has it locked
> > or something.  (BTW, I'd love to find out if that is the case)
> >
> > I'd be happy with a plan that looked something like these:
> > * simply pay by the minute, for the DID and for any special
> > services [like doing an LNP port].  Kind of like voicepulse
> > connect's no-frills wholesale service (except they dont do LNP), or
> > teliax.com's pay-as-you-go service (except they don't seem to be
> > able to port my number).
> > * one of the typical monthly residential plans, providing they dont
> > care too much about occasional concurrent sessions that stay *well*
> > within the expected monthly minute range for a home
> > or even:
> > * one of the typical monthly residential plans, so long as it
> > allows for concurrent use or has a way of charging reasonable rates
> > for concurrent sessions instead of blocking a call
> >
> > I'm happy with either SIP or IAX2, with a preference for IAX2 as
> > long as it is reliable.
> >
> > Anyway, if you're a VoIP provider and can provide a reliable
> > no-frills residential service that has provision for concurrent
> > service, see if you can port my number above.  I'm offering an
> > initial $500 bounty on top of regular new account costs for the
> > first provider who can do what I want.
> >
> > (This might seem odd for a residential user to care about this sort
> > of thing, but its become a matter of principle.  I love teliax's
> > pay-as-you-go service, but they just told me that they can't port
> > my !&@#^%!&@# home number!)
> > --
> > Peter Wemm - peter at wemm.org; peter at FreeBSD.org; peter at yahoo-inc.com
> > "All of this is for nothing if we don't go to the stars" - JMS/B5
> > _______________________________________________
> > Asterisk-Biz mailing list
> > Asterisk-Biz at lists.digium.com
> > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
>
> Super Technologies Inc., Pensacola, Florida
> http://www.supertec.com - Technologies from tomorrow, TODAY!
> http://www.VirtualPhoneLine.com - Get A US, UK, EU Number, Forward it
> to any  number in the world instantly.
> http://www.PhoneOpia.com - SIP Based OPEN Phone Services.
> http://www.MySuperPhone.com - The NEXT Generation of Telephone.
> Http://www.ip-pabx.com - One World, One Number, One Pabx, All Hosted.
> Http://www.superPBX.net - One World, One Number, One Pabx, Physical.
> http://www.didX.org - We will sell all your DID stock for you.

-- 
Peter Wemm - peter at wemm.org; peter at FreeBSD.org; peter at yahoo-inc.com
"All of this is for nothing if we don't go to the stars" - JMS/B5