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tbeckner
join:2004-03-20
Bend, OR

1 edit

tbeckner to aaron12345

Member

to aaron12345

Re: [Vonage] Sold out numbers

said by aaron12345:


My area code (703) however appears to be "sold out".
Based upon a review of Vonage availability I did two nights ago, half of the once available area codes in the United States that Vonage had available six months ago are currently sold out. This cannot be good news for the bottom-line or the future of Vonage. I know that they buy numbers from small wireless companies, but if they are to continue to expand this year they might be in big trouble.

Additionally, AT&T CV has a very big advantage in area code availability and local number porting, so they just might surpass Vonage this year.

usa2k
Blessed
MVM
join:2003-01-26
Westland, MI

usa2k

MVM

Re: [Vonage] Sold out numbers.

said by tbeckner:

... Based upon a review of Vonage availability I did two nights ago, half of the once available area codes in the United States that Vonage had available six months ago are currently sold out. ...
Maybe they were growing too fast? I imagine it is hard to match the Customer Service staff to their growth.

roamer1
sticking it out at you
join:2001-03-24
Atlanta, GA

3 edits

roamer1 to tbeckner

Member

to tbeckner

Re: [Vonage] Sold out numbers

said by tbeckner:

I know that they buy numbers from small wireless companies
Vonage does not "buy numbers from small wireless companies"; they get them from a small number of CLECs (from what I've seen, Focal/Broadwing in particular.) Number pooling (where carriers receive numbers in blocks of 1,000 rathern than 10,000) can make numbers look like they are assigned from wireless carriers, if you look at only the NPA-NXX and not the NPA-NXX-X.

(NPA-NXX-X assignments are at »www.nationalpooling.com/ ··· teTyp=FR If a NPA-NXX-X is not listed there, the number belongs to the carrier who has the "whole" NPA-NXX unless it was ported out.)

One reason VoIP carriers in general have issues with keeping phone numbers in stock (I've seen the same happen with VoicePulse and others, but not to the degree I've seen with Vonage) is that NANPA, which assigns phone numbers, is tightly managing number resources, and the CLECs VoIP providers use can't let VoIP providers or anyone else have "too many" numbers just sitting in reserve for future customers without raising the ire of NANPA. (Most VoIP providers order numbers in advance of customers actually signing up for service rather than dynamically requesting numbers from CLECs when a new customer signs up. There are a number of factors for why that is.)

A related problem I've seen with Vonage is that they still have no coverage in smaller markets (like Chattanooga and Knoxville, TN) where P8, VoicePulse, CV, and many, many others have numbers, mostly because of what appears to be reluctance to use more CLECs than the few they do now. Sticking with only the largest cities isn't a good way to grow a telephony business...too many CLECs competing in the same small number of cities for the same customers is one of the reasons the "CLEC bust" happened.

-SC
tbeckner
join:2004-03-20
Bend, OR

1 edit

tbeckner

Member

said by roamer1:


said by tbeckner:I know that they buy numbers from small wireless companies
Number pooling (where carriers receive numbers in blocks of 1,000 rather than 10,000) can make numbers look like they are assigned from wireless carriers, if you look at only the NPA-NXX and not the NPA-NXX-X.
Actually, using the the national lookup tables you supplied via the link, my number from Vonage was originally assigned to a small local wireless carrier.

Update: I just rechecked the information and it now reflects "Focal" as the previous carrier.
DiskDrive
Goin' In Circles
Premium Member
join:2004-11-03
Farmington, MI

DiskDrive

Premium Member

said by tbeckner:

Update: I just rechecked the information and it now reflects "Focal" as the previous carrier.
Actually, Focal Communications is one of the carriers that Vonage frequently uses as the CLEC to provide you with your phone number.