The Site > Old Forums > AT&T CallVantage > Any benefit to port out of CallVantage early vs late?

Any benefit to port out of CallVantage early vs late?

No date as of yet, and I've not initiated any porting action. The advantage of porting now is two-fold: first, you know you're off the sinking ship; second, you're not caught up in any "mad last-minute rush". As to which advantage is more noticeable, it'll probably end up being the former.

I don't know if I'll end up waiting to port until I get a firm disconnect date, or if I'll move on earlier... I'm just hoping to not get a letter from ATT any time soon.

reply to pjjameso
When I spoke to CV support the other week they did tell me that we would be getting a 60 day notice of termination of service, so they are not going to do a Sunrocket on any of us.

Having said that, I am in the middle of a port out of CV and doing so now for the reasons mentioned by Fisamo. I also have been having some issues with CV and uplink packet loss. I don't know if it is my ISP or AT&T since each blamed the other, but I do know that in my case the ones I am porting to (CallCentric and InPhonex) sound better. YMMV.

reply to pjjameso
I don't know how many customers CV still has - but I imagine that once a date has been announced many people will try to port out at once which will slow things down. Since you already know time is limited, might as well port out sooner before the massive port out wave comes.

reply to pjjameso
Maybe the wrong place to ask this question but, what VOIP service has offerings the most like CallVantage? I am mainly looking for the Control by Phone that CallVantage offers.

I need this also....

Phone Power said they will have Control by Phone in the 3rd Quarter of 2009...

Another VoIP provider told me I was the only person who ever asked asked for Control by Phone. (Callcentric)

Vonage had no idea what I was talking about.

I went with Phone Power.

I don't know what is CV's phone control panel and have no special interest to know - it's neither classical example nor something which is going to last for others to study it - CV is in a process of eliminating of all their proprietary named functions and services. It's soon to be a "past".

On the other side - there are few Callcentric functions one cannot do over phone - read current balance, recharge account, order new or cancel existing products/services. Most other functions are controllable via "*NM" (star) key combination from your phone.

Also - Callcentric has very well documented WEB site where one may find answers to most their questions (either by browsing pages or by entering questions into "search" boxes). Callcentric accounts are free to create and use (without providing any credentials) as long as you don't use their premium services like calls to/from PSTN lines. Even voice-mail and technical supports are included, without limitations, for all users including free accounts - just try and see yourself before paying for anything. Test calls to PSTN (to asses real voice quality) are also free - just dial 17771234567 number and your call will go to Tell Me interactive PSTN service (movies, stocks, weather, etc, etc.) so you may hear and be heard on a real phone line...

You don't have to be defensive. I was interested in one specific feature that I need. Callcentric said they don't, and won't provide, that feature. They did not say they didn't know what it did.

Not a discussion of their other features, which I really do like, but my buying decision was based on Phone Power's promise to replicate the Control by Phone feature later this year.

So, if you don't know what Call by Phone is, you probably should understand the functionality it provides before blowing me off.

If you're talking about the "feature" described here (the only material I could find):
»[ATT CV] Control By Phone Access Numbers: Odd Advice

- then Callcentric DOES support it. There are several ways to do it:
a) obtain a free iNUM number (on a free Callcentric account) - you'll be able to get into your Callcentric account from over 45 countries around the world; of course - you'll be able to reach your voice-mail through iNUM as well;

b) there are 1000s International and domestic (many are also sponsored by Callcentric) access phone numbers available on SIP Broker site here:
»www.sipbroker.com/sipbroker/acti···nNumbers
you may dial the access number closest to you and get to your Callcentric account (Callcentric is one of SIP Broker sponsors) - then the same as with iNUM - you may get to your voice-mail and control it from there;

c) you may setup your own personal calling card by using either global Callcentric's access numbers around the world or by assigning one of your own numbers (DIDs) to become your personal calling card. That way if you're going to a business trip or vacation to London - you may obtain a local London phone number from Callcentric and assign it to your personal calling card. Then, once in London, you may dial your "personal" number from any local mobile or land-line, get prompt from Callcentric and dial (at Callcentric's rates) any destination around the world. This way your call from London's hotel to your work offices (or to your friends anywhere else ) will be below 2 cents/minute or even free depending on your current Callcentric plan...

Well, again, I'm sorry if the above said was not what you're looking for - the only explanation of CV's Control by phone I've found at the aforementioned link.

Control By Phone:

1. Dial a pre-established Control by Phone number associated with your telephone number (Area Code)

2. Enter the account's phone number and PIN (can be configured to recognize the calling phone number and go right to the PIN entry

3. Enter main Control by Phone menu

4. For my purposes, I then take option "2" and can dial both domestic or international phone numbers and not need a "calling card". The call would be billed as if I were at my home CV phone.

I could call this Control by Phone number from my cell phone, or from a POTS, or from another VoIP provider.

So, think about this: I need to place a lot of international calls from my car, using my cell phone. Doing it on the Cell phone plan would cost a ton-o-bucks. Using a calling card would be cheaper. Logging into my CV account and dialing the international numbers thru CV was really inexpensive.

Control by Phone is a valuable feature for those who knew how to leverage it.

I could also control forwarding by using Control by Phone.

I really believe that the feature you're asking about is already 3 years available from Callcentric and was described in my previous reply as option c). It's simply called as "personal calling card" within Callcentric's feature list. A "personal" - because one may have his/her own number associated with their account which after dialed asks them to enter PIN code (if configured to ask, because it may also use your phone's caller ID - multiple can be configured - your home, office, mobile, friends, etc... - then it will go straight to the main prompt) and then you may dial any numbers and even make multiple calls - there are star-codes to edit numbers, use your own quick-dial address book, etc... The calls will be billed according to Callcentric's regular rate table. You may use this feature from anywhere in the world. You may have multiple personal numbers in different cities or even countries...

Moreover, you may configure your own, home number (or any other number on your account - Callcentric allows multiple incoming phone numbers on the same account - from the same city, different cities or even different [over 40] countries) to act as a personal calling card when THAT number is called from predetermined phone numbers (caller IDs) or depending on time/date (Callcentric has a unique feature named "Call Treatment" allowing the user to configure multiple rules applied to any incoming call; depending on these rules - there are many things one may do with/to that call... including sending it to an "error" message when call is from someone you don't want to hear from or when called by tele-marketeers or during night times to send a call to a voice-mail...). Shortly - the same Call Treatment rule may send an incoming call to a Personal Calling card when your own home number called from your mobile phone, or when you're on business trip - from another country, etc... - your imagination is only the limit of what you can do with Call Treatments combined with Personal Calling card.
So, simply speaking - what you asked is provided by Callcentric, but you may do much more with Callcentric than what was "allowed" by CV...

I'm not defensive... I simply know Callcentric's features inside out as well as features offered by most other providers - yes, there are features missing (like simul-ring or call live transfer from one handset to another one while talking), but by majority of all, commonly used features - Callcentric exceeds existing providers while providing lots of very unique features, not offered by others (like those mentioned Call Treatments and/or Personal Calling card or iNUM or SIP call forwarding or fax-to-email [free])...

Yes, sometimes there is a terminology barrier (same like a language barrier) when somebody asks something which is named or formulated differently by different providers - this is to "advocate" the Callcentric's rep who answered your e-mail - this is why Callcentric offers free accounts for one to try and play and ask live questions (via Callcentric's trouble-ticketing system) and to "level" the vocabulary among different providers... B/w - most Callcentric's features and services were already offered while CV was still under the development... You may read about Callcentric here on DSLRs/BBRs by just searching keyword Callcentric (I believe the articles are going down, as far as to 2005).

reply to Broadband22
I often use Control-by-Phone to turn Locate Me on and off from my cell phone. My family has 'depended' on this feature for the past 4-5 years, and we used to have Remote Access to Call Forwarding on our POTS line. I have yet to find another VoIP service that has implemented a feature that allows you to dial in, from a remote phone, to an access number and control features on your line (e.g. call forwarding/do not disturb). Some providers have promised it in the nebulous future, others have implemented a pathetic version of it, but most have neglected it. To my knowledge, Callcentric does not offer this feature. As for their Calling Card feature, it is absolutely a great option for CC customers, but all calls (even domestic US if on an unlimited US plan) are billed at per-minute rates. With CallVantage, US calls are free for 'unlimited' calling plan customers. That said, though, the ability to dial an access number and get low international rates would be the primary use for this kind of feature.

I'll admit--I'm being a little argumentative. But the question is absolutely valid for certain customers. Is it a deal-breaker for me in choosing phone/voip service? Well, it can't really be, because I haven't found a provider that's implemented it to my satisfaction. However, any provider that does offer it will stand to gain my business in short order, provided their quality and reliability also meet my standards.

Now, a question for you (not intended as a slam, a real question): Does CallCentric have any kind of 'failover' forwarding feature? In other words, if my internet connection goes down, will CallCentric bounce calls to a pre-determined number (e.g. my cell phone), or will the calls get some kind of error intercept? That is another critical feature for me.

In three words - yes, it does.
You may configure those same, earlier mentioned, Call Treatments to do anything you want. Yes, the call can failover to your mobile when your internet is down, it may also be sent to your office when your line is busy... You may call forward depending on time of day or day of week, you may send certain callers to fast busy or to voice-mail or anywhere else depending on their phone number (wildcards are allowed)... Tons or other things I can't even explain here.

Yeah... Callcentric charges per minute rates on all forwarded calls made to PSTN (forward to error messages or to other SIP networks are free).

reply to pjjameso
Thanks for the clarification on Calling Card. I misunderstood how this worked when I first considered CallCentric as an alternative to CV.

I will sign-up for an account and experiment with the CC and International calling.

As I said, I really liked CallCentric's stated features, and maybe the CC will work in my application....

Thanks,

reply to pjjameso
Just signed up for a CallCentric account, set up the Calling Card and speed dialer and made an international call from a POTS phone through the local Access Number.

Worked well, great quality reported on the other end...

Would be "really" wonderful if the global access number would recognize the phone number I'm using to access the system and take me right to the PIN input session vs. me having to key in my account number.. A nit, but would be nice when in the car...

I really like what I see with CallCentric...

Well, it's a security measure which had been implemented out of necessity - when using the global access numbers - one must provide both, the account number (aka Calling Card number) and the PIN code.
The above done in order to prevent a "global" network fraud by utilizing spoofed caller-IDs (which is very easy these days - there are hundreds if not thousands sites offering "anonymous" or "spoofed" access services). When/if such a thing happens - we have no proof of who actually was/is in charge of calls made.

When using local (personal) access numbers - you may configure your account to accept a caller-ID as an account number (multiple are allowed) then you may request a PIN code or configure to allow access without one (thus using only the caller-ID as authentication). This way - one must at first have access to the account and be able to configure this feature - thus, at worst, it becomes a "local" fraud problem.

As I explained earlier - any account may have any number of inbound phone numbers (DIDs) and any such a DID may be configured as a personal (local) calling card. Because Callcentric allows online (real time), fully automated, via WEB site/Dash panel, service provisioning - a number can be added within minutes (well, sometimes within hours; at very special cases [international numbers ordered during weekends/holidays] or when some area code has been depleted out of stock) and can be dropped out at an end of month - it allows really "mobile" service acquisition and cancellation. Yes, I agree - those are all not free, not even something which one might call "cheap" - it comes at cost. But all those costs are known upfront and one may analyze and choose an option most closely matching ones requirements.

Thanks for letting Callcentric a try (I'm sure - Phone Power may also be a great choice; I heard and read lots of very good responses about them, no "buts" attached). Our presence on these boards is rather limited - we, most of the time, just silently observe/monitor the discussions, without actively participating here - it's our a policy; just sometimes, when clarifications are required or something gets misinterpreted - then we may post one/two replies. My today's participation is rather a rare exception ) You're encouraged to use our Trouble-ticketing system whenever you have anything to ask (our support is available 8:00AM till midnight Eastern time 7 days a week). I'm sure - you're going to enjoy our service.

reply to pjjameso
Oh, yeah... one more thing - when using Callcentric's global access number you may program your mobile handset to wait for answer [or just wait 4..5 seconds] then dial out your Callcentric account number and then dial your PIN code... this is what I have on my phone. When in a car - I just ask "Calling card" (well, I have a voice recognizing control center; most phones today allow it too) and then simply wait [on a speakerphone] for prompt from Callcentric's IVR asking to dial a destination number, then - as usually... unfortunately, no [yet] voice recognition on Calling Card IVR ) You may use star-codes to control your calling card calls [interrupt existing, dial new one or use speed-dials].

reply to pjjameso
yeah if you are close to one year wait for that date to pass because I didn't and they actually want me to pack up the adapter and ship it back. Even though they sent a shipping label for a box of my choosing if I don't have the original... just the very fact that they initiated this process by shutting down and still expect their equipment back and make screwed customers pack and ship it or they charge $30 is very very bad business. IMO.
--
"You don't subject minority rights to a referendum." Justice Minister Irwin Cotler of Canada

reply to pjjameso
The big feature I am looking for is automatic fail over to another number of my choosing.

I have this with CV. I see that Vonage has it. Does Phone Power or CallCentric have this?