CallCentric NY # - Which call center? and 911 recovery fee
HH235:
Steve in WA,
You said "BTW, "IP Freedom" refers to their 1777xxxxxxx barebones SIP to SIP service only. So, once you optionally pick an inbound plan, that's the service you are using."
So if I select a DID and/or an incoming plan I have to give up my IP Freedom part of the account?
gderf:
The IP Freedom plan provides, among other things, the SIP credentials you need to register a device with their service.
SteveInWA:
Quote from: HH235 on April 27, 2014, 11:14:25 pm
Customer Service Response is below. My second question to them (#2 below) was if I order separate incoming and outgoing services will there be two e911 charges.
Hello,
Per FCC/CRTC regulations we have to provide 911 service if you are living in US/Canada and have Incoming or Outgoing plan under the account.
1) In general, the 911 service is included for free within the following plans:
North America 500
North America 1000
North America Residential
World Select Residential
So if you ordered North America 500 plan and the Free Phone Number plan then you will not be paying $1.50 for 911 service. Reason being, the service is included within the North America 500 plan.
In your case, you are only ordering the Free Phone Number plan which does not include 911 for free. This will be an additional charge under the account(for US/Canada customers).
2) No, the 911 charge the applied to account as a whole. The monthly charge will remain $1.50.
If you any further questions please feel free to contact us. Thank you
I am not sure what you think that answer meant, as it was rather confusing to me, too. But, I will try one more time, and this is based on my own experience as a CC customer:
Scenario: you start with "IP Freedom". Like gderf and I said, this is your set of SIP credentials used to provision your ATA or softphone to make and receive calls. If all you have is IP Freedom, then all you get are SIP-to-SIP calls, and you have no actual PSTN telephone number at all (the 1-777 number is a fake/non-functional number used only for SIP-to-SPI calling, as an account number, and as your SIP credential user name).
If you then get any one of their INnbound calling plans, you get a PSTN DID (a free NY, or local paid, inbound phone number either from them, or ported in from your old carrier). That action by default means you have the pay-per-minute outbound calling option. With PPM, you need E911 service, too, if you want to comply with the FCC regulations. It's $1.50, a la carte with the per-minute plan.
Now, let's say you decide instead to buy one of their bucket o' minutes plans. This is what they tried to explain: when you do that, the $1.50 fee is instead included (no extra charge) in the bucket price, so no, there are not two separate fees. I did exactly that. I had the per-minute pricing, and I was paying the extra $1.50/month E911 fee. When I upgraded to their North America 500 plan, I now pay just $6.95/month, period. The standalone $1.50 fee is no longer on my monthly bill. That means, my 500 outbound minutes cost me a net difference of $5.45/month.
gderf:
After signing up for a Callcentric account, which automatically gets you the free IP Freedom service, if you then order a Free Phone Number, you are going to be confronted with the E911 information screen. It is there that you must answer yes or no to the question about are you using the service inside the US or Canada.
From there, it's simple.
If you answer no, you there is no E911 service provided so there is no $1.50 fee and no need to provide any billing information, and you can not make any outgoing calls to PSTN numbers with the service. And your monthly recurring billing emails will show a $0.00 charge.
If you answer yes, and I have not done that so I can only speculate what comes next, then you likely have to provide street address information and billing information to be automatically billed $1.50 per month for E911 service. With only the Free Phone number and the E911 service, you can make only outgoing calls to 911. All other attempts to place calls to other PSTN numbers will result in a message played to you saying the number is invalid or can not be placed with the IP Freedom plan. You can call 933 to hear the address information you provided when you subscribed to E911 service.
That's all there is to it. The only decisions you have to make are do you, or do you not want to spend $1.50/mo for E911 service. And if not, are you really outside the US or Canada making your answer to that question truthful.
HH235:
Thanks for taking time to reply. It all makes sense.
I have the Callcentric app on my Android smart phone and CC set up on my obi. My Sip-Sip CC calls this way have been pretty good quality. I did have 2 out of 5 test calls from a wireless at an in town free w-fi spot drop after 30 seconds. And they are a little choppy. But here in the house where I have wi-fi they have been pretty solid.
I also tried calling someone using the Sipbroker folks to my IP Freedom #. Call quality was great on both ends. (<http://www.sipbroker.com/sipbroker/action/pstnNumbers)
I think I will do what SteveinWA did with the incoming NY DID and the outgoing 500 plan. After the 500 they are only .02 cents it looks like in the US. But I think I will forward my GV number to the NY number. I hope the quality doesn't suffer because of that.
I know there are other companies that might be cheaper but if CC's app keeps working the way it does now and the call quality is high I will go with them.
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