[Asterisk-Users] iconnect & caller ID

[William Walsh]

On Thu, 2003-03-13 at 12:36, Jim Archer wrote:
> --On Thursday, March 13, 2003 11:11 AM -0800 William Walsh 
> <william at wxw.org> wrote:
> 
> >  I presume the problem is in the CallerIDName that shows up when you
> > call a regular number through iconnecthere?
> 
> It usually presents no caller ID, resulting in an anonymous call rejection 
> message.

The # is getting passed in all of my calls through them, but not always
the correct name I set, depending on other things like I mentioned
earlier.

> > Technically the phone numbers "belong" to Deltathree, and in the telco
> > systems that is how they are registered, and that is why  your
> > CallerIDName does not show up.  I really do not know that
> > deltathree/iconnecthere can do anything about that.  It's a design issue
> > in the system.  Your system's sent data can't override the telco
> > systems.
> 
> Fair enough.  But most of the people we call are customers at their homes. 
> Verizon and other carriers have given everyone "anonymous call rejection" 
> for free and, at least in the case of Verizon they have turned it on by 
> default.  The result is that we can't call people through iconnect.  I have 
> tried sending the code to enable passing caller ID but no luck.
> 
> I just got to the point where I had dumped a lot of time into it and was 
> becoming convinced that I was not going to be able to get it to work.  I 
> was also seeing issues with call connect reliability.  It seems often that 
> Asterisk initiates a connection to iconnect but iconnect either fails to 
> notice or says it is temporarily unavailable.

I see this occasionally myself.  For the cheap price of the service, I
chalk it up to a small price to pay normally.  I do notice that
sometimes you have to wait a minute between placing calls as well.

> I didn't even look at the issue of whether or not we can make 2 or more 
> calls out through iconnect at the same time.  That may work fine, I just 
> have not tried it.

One outgoing call at a time per account.  A silly restriction when you
are paying for minutes, IMO, but one that does not appear to be unique
to iconnect/deltathree in the VoIP termination industry.

> I am happy to keep testing if it will be useful to anyone else, especially 
> the developers.

I think you just have to decide if the limitations make it worthwhile or
not.  I wouldn't depend on iconnecthere as a sole means of making calls.

I've been looking myself at signing up for packet8.net's service
myself.  For about twice as much as iconnecthere's service, you can get
unlimited calling (with a 1 year contract).  But that also is 1 outgoing
call at a time.  

If you are looking at some serious call volume, you may want to approach
deltathree's business development service for a custom arrangement that
better meets your needs.  I know a couple people on this list are
working on IAX termination services as well that may be worthwhile
checking out for business volume calling.


-- 
William Walsh <william at wxw.org>
Jabber: william at wxw.biz