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ANVEO cannot reach all US numbers

Started by Denis-Forum, June 23, 2014, 10:19:08 AM

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Denis-Forum

ANVEO, after some start-up difficulties, has been working well with ObiH110 until I found that there are some numbers that it cannot reach, yet cell phone and Skype can. The response I received from ANVEO is, "I am very sorry. We don't have routing to some rural arias." This is because these numbers cost extra to be connected and ANVEO has decided to just not connect them. Since one number I cannot reach is my local Doctor, I conclude that ANVEO is not suitable as a landline replacement.
Are all VoIP providers this bad?  Can you advise on which I should change to.

Sam_from_CircleNet

I try not to self-promote here but I think i am a good enough fit to justify posting here. (Sam puts on his fire-proof suit in anticipation of flames)...

I think our CircleNet prepaid service would fit really well here as an add on to your current Anveo service. We do connect to every US number and you pay only for the calls that you make so you could add us as a second provider on your Obi for those hard to reach numbers.

Just and idea :-).
Sam Moats

HarpsichordMan

I just discovered the same thing with Anveo, much to my dismay. I checked that issue with PhonePower and was assured they do not have this issue. Anveo seems to be engaging in poor business practices in addition to poor service.

RFC3261

Quote from: HarpsichordMan on June 26, 2014, 01:58:34 PM
I just discovered the same thing with Anveo, much to my dismay. I checked that issue with PhonePower and was assured they do not have this issue. Anveo seems to be engaging in poor business practices in addition to poor service.

The "call completion charges" by some (often rural) phone companies are, indeed, high.  While there were certainly some providers "pumping up their profits" by hosting ("free") conference calling with high completion charges, many of the (often rural) providers just have a high cost of doing business.  With the changes to the universal service fund no long subsidizing some locations, and the least cost routing employed by many providers, there are some locations where one can often just not call.  I believe even Google Voice blocked some (especially excessive) high call completion charge exchanges. 

At the end of 2013, the FCC issued some new rules in an attempt to address call completion issues at some (often rural) exchanges.  While one should first contact the provider (Anveo in this case), if one does not get satisfaction, one should contact the FCC if the provider is not providing call completion (the FCC form is at https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/form2000.action?form_type=2000B ).  The FCC has taken call completion seriously.

Like it or not, with the FCC transition of the universal service fund, it seems likely that these high cost areas are going to see a combination of poorer service and/or higher rates, but call completion should still happen.

Denis-Forum

Thank you for your explanation and history. The worst aspect is being powerless. I have sent a complaint to the FCC, as you suggest. I f there is any result I will tell you all. Denis

c3c3

One potential solution is to charge extra for these calls.  This was discussed on dslreports a while ago.

Usetheforceobiwan

The FCC doesn't help ensure universal access like it did for many years and it's a shame because the country benefitted immensely from it.  And how ironic that the emerging technology that will take over, cable/internet, that the FCC is powerless to stop outrageous and predatory practices and fees. 

A universally accessible communications network is pivotal to a dynamic and growing economy.  Once we lose that, and it's trending towards that IMO,  I don't want to imagine the consequences to us as a nation.

Mango

This is a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation for many service providers.

Some time ago, Anveo released price tiers for the US which allowed calls to high cost areas (at a higher cost), and actually LOWERED rates to much of the USA, to $0.005/min.  They got flamed hard for this from the customers who used routes that went up by a fraction of a cent, and the end result was that they rolled back to the original pricing model.  So, if this is an inconvenience for you, thank the customers who refused to pay pennies extra per month.  The lesson to be learned is that insisting on the products and services you buy be as cheap as possible is not always the right thing to do.

If PhonePower's claim that they do complete calls to high cost areas at a flat rate is accurate, that's good PR.  But they'll lose money on your account.  I can assure you that won't last.

ProfTech

I recently discovered this also, after-the-fact and in a similar fashion to you. After a bit of discussion on this board and a couple of late responses from Anveo they made mention of setting up their system so when you dialed one of the "expensive" numbers, you would be given an option to press 1 or something similar to have that one call processed at a higher rate. I wouldn't have a problem with that, it sounded like a good setup. But I haven't seen or heard anything from Anveo since about implementing it. CallWithUs is another excellent option for those "expensive" calls. Easy enough to set them up on a voice gateway on your Obi. If you have an open ITSP slot on your Obi, FlowRoute is also an excellent choice and can be used exclusively for all outbound calls if you want. They don't work when set up as a voice gateway, however. I believe they have the best voice quality of any ITSP I have tried and would switch everything over to them except they don't offer the bells & whistles of most of the others. No voice mail, no fancy call flows or call treatments like Callcentric so for the time being only using them for outbound. They were up front with me about the "expensive" numbers. If you only have a few short calls to them, they are ignored. If more than I think 20% of your calls are of that type, they will assess a small up-charge.