Re: Service available? ( was RE: Re: VOIP )

pctech-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>   6. Re: Service available? ( was RE: Re: VOIP ) (Booth Martin)
>
>My suspicion is that its more a matter of contracts and points of 
>presence?  If Vonage has a contract for an area code & exchange then 
>they can offer it.  Whoever "owns" the switch gear for an exchange might 
>have a lot to say about pricing tiers, availability, etc?

I would like to believe that. However, I believe that others on the same 
exchange can get the service through Earthlink DSL _if_ they're in a different 
neighborhood (this exchange covers a good-sized geographical area; it's 
effectively rural). And it doesn't explain their insistance that ComCast is 
what their offering is through in my neighborhood.

To me, it doesn't make sense unless they simply have an incorrect database. One 
of my closest friends works for Cingular (in what used to be AT&T Wireless). He 
is heavily in to modernizing the equipment databases, etc., giving him an 
extremely good income for the past five years or so. I imagine the problem 
isn't isolated.

Any of us can research FCC rules & regulations and study up on how it is all 
_supposed_ to work. But after all, it still comes down to whether or not the 
info on a customer rep screen is correct. You can be sure that no one you call 
at Vonage has ever actually visited your local switching station and made 
diagrams of how all the circuits tie together. If the displayed info comes up 
as 'Not Available for this exchange', they're far less likely to dispatch 
anyone to see what the problem is. In their mind, no problem exists.

Tom Liotta

>qsrvbas@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> pctech-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> 
>>> Our area code is 260.  Work phone exchange is 422, home phone exchange is
>>> 639.  Vonage says 422 can be moved, 639 cannot.  Both are local Fort Wayne
>>> exchanges.  Strange, huh?
>> 
>> 
>> I've been an Earthlink subscriber for... long time. I've wanted to use their 
>> DSL offering since... hmmm, more than a couple years, maybe four years now.
>> 
>> But I can't because they insist that DSL service isn't available at my 
>> location because my house isn't within the proper distance from a switching 
>> station. They say that the broadband offering that they supply to my 
>> location is through cable.
>> 
>> Every once in a while, I get around to contacting their support people and 
>> ask why they keep telling me that DSL isn't available at my location even 
>> though I've had DSL (through CenturyTel) to my house for at least two years, 
>> and why they keep saying that cable should be used when there is no cable 
>> service along the nearby streets (we use Dish Network).
>> 
>> I suspect that all such service providers use some form of geo-coded mapping 
>> that is provided by local telcos. There's no way that Earthlink physically 
>> surveyed utilities service in my neighborhood, so they're relying on 
>> mappings provided by (1) CenturyTel and (2) ComCast. As it turns out, 
>> neither mapping is accurate; so Earthlink can't provide a correct answer.
>> 
>> I imagine the same is true of Vonage when deciding which neighborhoods have 
>> exchanges and/or area codes that work. If the mapping shows a switching 
>> center (or whatever) in the right place, the info is probably usually 
>> correct.