Did 0844 484 6867 Not Working

People in the UK tell me that this number (it's diredcted to a NZ landline.) appears dead (it doesn't ring). I've tried calling it from a New Zealand vodafone mobile, and I get the number is not in service. I can call the 0844 echo number though.

I'd like to be more helpful, but I dont know what else I can add...?

There are known to be problems calling these numbers from New Zealand. There's a thread about international inbound dialling in the FAQ forum.

Dean

The only number that I could call from Canada was my 870 number and I not even sure that will work now. Voipuser has stopped issuing them because of changes in the regulations in the UK. In general I think you are likely to find that the Voipuser numbers are wiil not work from outside of the UK. If you are lucky you might find that you can get to the 0844 numbers through Skype and some UK based voip providers (usually expensive numbers). Make sure that the number is being correctly dialed as they should work from within the UK.

Explain exactly what you are trying to do with the number as there may be other ways to make the connection that you are looking for (eg. There are SipBroker numbers in NZ now and perhaps you could use them)

Sorry guys, I am not making myself clear, so please let me try again - This number doesn't work when called from within the UK.

How are you dialing the number? Is it the number that came with your account or one of the free numbers? It might help if you gave the time that calls were made from the UK so that the database can be checked if required. One way to attack this might be to register to SipBroker and/or Voxalot. Possibly register for ENUM. Then the a SipBroker number (or voipuser) can be used to connect with you via voip. Still, the voipuser number should work.

Quote:

called from within the UK

Using which service? Are you a BT customer? Do you use a cable telecom service? Do you mean from a mobile provider? Please could you try calling the echo test number as a further test and let us know the result.

Ok, the calls are coming from a BT Landline

A series of test calls were made within the couple of hours prior to this message.

The first the caller didn't get ring tone (the line was silent), but the phone here rang and connection was established. Poor call quality

The second and third calls the caller was described as a a continuous tone, no connection was made.

The fourth call the caller got ring tone, but the phone here rang and connection was established. Terrible call quality, and severe latency.

Does that help?

Not my area but they are in bed in the UK now I guess. I expect there would be other people complaining if the quality was really bad. Were you sending the call to a phone number or to voip? The quality should be good to PSTN but it it is to voip it depends on your end of the link. In that case port forwarding may be the culprit especially RTP ports. I have sent you a pm

No VoIP involved, at least not from my end, its a straight redirect to a PSTN number.

I just called my 844 number via Skype (only way I can do it) and in rang in Canada OK. The sound quality was fair but not perfect. So it looks like the system is working.

You raise a couple of issues: A) not being able to call from v/f NZ, and B) poor quality from UK to NZ. I will try and give you some info so that you can understand how things work (or don't) and I will hope I don't confuse you too much.

When you use your Vodafone NZ mobile, your call is routed via the most economical route available to Vodafone as their first choice. If this route is full, then it steps down to second, third, etc choices (each one becoming more expensive to Vodafone). Of course, as they are charging you 35ish US cents a minute, they aren't losing money by using a more expensive carrier, they just aren't making as much on your call.

For calls to the UK, you are looking at wholesale rates of around one US cent a minute via a refile carrier to geographical numbers (ie numbers starting with (+44) 01, 02, and 05). As this rate is less than the cost of a call to an 0844 number, someone would lose money if the call was allowed to complete via a first choice (ie the cheapest) route.

As you get down to third, and fourth choice carriers (and the wholesale price (and generally quality) increases), calls to 0844 numbers can complete.

I have managed to get calls from my NZ Vodafone to complete to my 0844 number, but it is only at peak times (when the routes are quite full) and even then it takes lots of redialing to get a carrier lower down in the routing.

I find it easier to use my UK T-mobile roaming on the NZ v/f network to call 0844 numbers as they complete almost 100% of the time, although at 75p a minute, one would expect them to.

As to your speech quality issues, I have also experienced a poorer quality than mainstream carriers, but you get what you pay for, and considering how much one pays for VoIPuser, I think it isn't too bad.

Bearing in mind the nature of the refile market, it is possible for calls to go around the world a few times before they end up where thay are going. I traced one call once that originated in the UK and terminated in South Africa and went London, Los Angeles, Auckland, Tokyo, (lost it for a while), back to LA, changed carriers in LA, back to London, and then finally down to South Africa on BT direct circuits. This is an extreme example, but PSTN is not the simple A to B thing it used to be, but then again in the old days we were paying three NZ dollars a minute to call the UK and now it is a few cents.

Each time a call changes protocols, it loses some quality (ie 64k to 56k, any PSTN standard to VoIP, back again, etc). With the number of carriers a call passes through, you can lose a lot of quality. Also, real telephone companies use ITU C7 signalling to set up the call (or SS7 if you are American). These protocols are used to pass information about the call from the originating exchange to the terminating exchange. Then we hit VoIP. Standards are a bit fluffy there. VoIP carriers often will not return ringing tone on a call (because the speech path isn't established until the call is answered), relying instead on the point it hits the VoIP network to give ringing tone. Unfortunately, because of the fluffy standards, sometimes the point your call hits VoIP does not know that it's meant to give you a call progress tone, so it doesn't.

Hopefully this has helped you understand the quality issues you have raised. If I have lost the plot, please feel free to nudge me in the right direction with some questions.