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Phone Numbers Go Locationless
flipper65 writes "Well, it looks like one of the last bastions of the regional Bells is under attack. Now your VoIP provider can give you their own area code and exchange. With the proliferation of broadband and voice services, your land line is now as mobile as your cell phone, and cheaper. Look for this to turn in to a battle royal. The regional bells will not go quietly into that good night."
When dialing a cellphone that is abroad and using roaming, the caller still pays the usual (local) tariff since he cannot know that the callee is abroad. The callee has to pay the extra charges for the international traffic, since he (presumeably) knows what those extra charges are going to be if he picks up the phone.
Okay... I'll do the stupid things first, then you shy people follow.
[Zappa]
<<I will exchange a London number for a New York number... any takers...>>
I've heard rumors that Vontage is none too hip to this idea. While the advertise the fact that you can make a call from *anywhere* with an internet connection I've been told they crack down if you use the service too much i.e. if you were to buy a box with a New York number and use it only in London.
I've got to say that this is not true at all. I use Vonage from France with a U.S. phone number (about 3 hours of phone calls every weekend). When Vonage found out about this, not only weren't they bothered, but they asked to me to do an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Also, they now happily offer up the virtual phone numbers in all of their countries to any customer for around $5/month. If I want, I can add a UK, US, Canada, or Mexico phone number.
Well, as a local market VoIP provider, we offer 911 service. We work with the 911 authority to update their database when we assign a client a number. Of course, the problem here is if the client moves locations and doesn't inform us. The lack of an elegant 911 system is definitely the biggest stumbling block to wide spread VoIP deployment IMHO
Yes.
Enhanced 911 Services, or 911 trunks to each PSAP in markets served by $VoIP_Company both solve this problem. Neither is manditory, but many providers offer it to achieve parity with POTS features.
E911 is not just for wireless anymore. Here's another good link:
http://www.911dispatch.com/information/voip.html