how-to block ads
|
|
Uniqs:
149 |
Share Topic
 |
 |
|
|
| VoIP companies are doing the innovating! Jeff said (regarding dealing with telemarketers), "VoIP consumers should be able to implement call screening techniques which are more advanced than traditional telephony subscribers." It's worth noting that VoicePulse already offers both a telemarketer blocking feature and anonymous call rejection (with an enhancement that optionally allows a caller to punch in their number, and it's displayed on the Caller ID display). Either or both of these features can be used to eliminate almost all telemarketing calls.
And, to the best of my knowledge, only the VoIP companies (first VoicePulse, and as of today, Vonage also) offer an option to have Voicemail audio delivered as an e-mail attachment. A traditional phone company would probably take 5-15 years to come up with something even that innovative, and then might take as long as another 10-15 years to roll it out in all of their exchanges throughout their service area.
Then there is the ability to have an incoming number that is located somewhere other than where you are physically located, not to mention that it won't change as you move from place to place unless you want it to. The phone companies offer nothing like that except their EXTREMELY expensive "Foreign Exchange" service.
These are the kinds of innovative services that VoIP companies can offer, that the regular phone companies wouldn't think of offering unless competition forces them to do so. If the states or the FCC try to hamstring VoIP, I fear that U.S. customers may miss out on many innovations (and reductions in cost) that would otherwise become available. | |
 rchandraStargate Universe fanPremium
join:2000-11-09
14225-2105 | Verizon ACR is a joke. If it were true ACR, if I activated it, there would NEVER be a time when the phone rang and the callerID number line read "UNAVAILABLE." As it is, there are plenty of times where this is the case.
What I don't quite understand is how the data can't be passed through the network. This seems to be common practice for telemarketing companies for semiobvious reasons, but there is one company (a client of the company for whom I work) that calls me every now and then who doesn't provide any ID at all. Presumably, with a service that is true ACR, these would be blocked, yet I want to receive this limited class of calls (from our client). What's mentioned is really what's needed: if the business or the carrier with which they contract for telecom services is unwilling or incapable of passing the data automatically, the caller needs to dial in some sort of identification for my review, or they don't get through.
As far as FX, yeah, that seems really, really out of proportion. The telcos really have you over a barrel there. Hopefully things like VoIP can help this.
I wonder just how cutting edge these VoIP companies are willing to be. I wonder if any of them are willing to start using IPv6 in order to promote its adoption. That would be good.
--
English is a difficult enough language to interpret correctly when its rules are followed, let alone when a writer chooses not to follow those rules.Blog is here | | |
|
| said by rchandra:
What's mentioned is really what's needed: if the business or the carrier with which they contract for telecom services is unwilling or incapable of passing the data automatically, the caller needs to dial in some sort of identification for my review, or they don't get through.
If I'm remembering this correctly, what VoicePulse does is give you the option to block all anonymous calls completely, or to give anonymous callers the option to punch in the number they are calling from. If you choose the latter option, and a caller whose caller-ID info is blocked chooses to touch in a number (which could be just about ANY ten digit number, so they could for example touch in their own home or office phone number, or anything you might recognize), it appears in the NAME field of the caller ID display (the number field shows all zeroes). This makes it easy to distinguish between an actual caller-ID delivered number, and a caller-entered one.
Note that if the caller doesn't attempt to enter a number at all, your phone never rings. Most telemarketers won't even attempt to guess a number, so you aren't bothered by them. Should a really brazen one make the attempt, they probably won't punch in anything you'd recognize.
So basically you could tell anyone who needs to be able to get through the anonymous call rejection to punch in their normal home or office number, or any 10-digit number that would cause you to pick up the call. As far as I know, among the VoIP providers, only VoicePulse offers a feature anything like this at present. | |
| reply to rchandra
said by rchandra:
.
I wonder just how cutting edge these VoIP companies are willing to be. I wonder if any of them are willing to start using IPv6 in order to promote its adoption. That would be good.
If they plan to have Voice over 802.11 that lets you roam from point to point, then they will have to go with IP6. | |
|
