voip.ms discussion

[MichelR]

Not an expert here (started toying around with VoIP two weeks ago, signed up with voip.ms, and requested a port of my phone # from Rogers last Saturday), but I can answer your questions.

Originally Posted by hd4ever

1. If after signing up with Voip.ms and requesting that they port my number for the $25 fee, do I need to contact Cogeco or do they just automatically cancel my phone service after they get the porting request?

1. Do NOT cancel with Cogeco before your number is ported: Apparently a number "pending cancellation" cannot be ported
2. Initiate the phone # port ("DID Portability" on voip.ms' portal). You'll have to send a scan of your phone bill with your signature - more details in the online form and their wiki has some information as well.
3. Once your number has been ported (you'll get a confirmation from voip.ms that the process has been completed - that's my understanding though I'm still a couple of days from that), you can cancel with Cogeco.
4. The $25 seems to be an industry-standard fee (I've seen it everywhere I looked, including some cellular phone providers such as Koodo that I was considering as an alternative, though I did see some VoIP provider charge $30 for some reason).

2. How long have most people been waiting until their number has been ported? I read some posts where people have waited 3-4 weeks before porting (these were generally older posts) while some only wait a few days. Perhaps porting is done in a more timely manner these days.

voip.ms say 1-4 weeks, and apparently it depends on the carrier the number is being ported from (apparently some try to take their time - read that somewhere). I'm with Rogers and voip.ms initiated the port on the 20th and a couple of days later I got an e-mail saying the port date is the 27th, so one week in my case. There's a note saying that in Canada, that date is "tentative". I guess I'll know for sure in a couple of days.

3. Does Voip.ms give me a temporary number to use until my old number is ported? If so does the temporary one just get cancelled after my number is ported?

They don't, though with your account you can make outbound calls without a number. I was originally planning on running in parallel for a few weeks, so I got myself a number from them (it's cheap). At least that way I could test how well incoming and outgoing calls worked. Once my number is ported, I'll most likely dump the other one (their support told me I could do that).

After connecting a ATA ( have a Obi110 on the way) to the router and setting things up I assume all of the phones will in my house will then be working through the Voip.ms service. Correct?

Since you're with Cogeco I assume you have a setup similar to me with Rogers - i.e. some "gateway" that converts the phone signal from cable and plugs into a phone outlet, which "enables" all your other phone outlets to use the cable phone. I plugged my ATA phone line-out into the same outlet the Rogers gateway was plugged in and then all my phones were using the VoIP line. I have a Linksys PAP2T-NA but that doesn't matter - don't think so anyway.

Hope this helps.

[scrooloose]

I see voip.ms wants a scanned image of my Cogeco statement to start the porting process. Nowhere on the statement does it state what phone numbers I currently have with Cogeco are. Will this be a problem or are they just looking for the account number?

I have two numbers with Cogeco but only want to port the one just now. I hope that doesn't get screwed up!

-Mike

[hd4ever]

MichelR, thanks very much for taking the time to give a great answer to my questions. Much appreciated!!

[MichelR]

Originally Posted by scrooloose

I see voip.ms wants a scanned image of my Cogeco statement to start the porting process. Nowhere on the statement does it state what phone numbers I currently have with Cogeco are. Will this be a problem or are they just looking for the account number?

I have two numbers with Cogeco but only want to port the one just now. I hope that doesn't get screwed up!

Looks like you'll have to find a way to get something with your phone number on it. My Rogers invoice has 6 pages, most of them irrelevant to the phone service, and here's what I got when I asked them exactly what they needed:

Please note that we do not necessarily need the 6 pages of the invoice, but the ones with your information: name, address, phone number and please provide the invoice with your signature on it. We suggest you to please wait after the port completes to cancel your service with the old provider. Please let us know if you have any more questions.

Unless a former Cogeco phone service user here sees this and can answer, I would suggest you contact voip.ms support - surely they've had a few Cogeco customers move to their service and they'll most likely be able to tell you what to do.

[Mikey0124]

Hello everyone,

I have a question. I am trying to setup 2 phones through my Linksys papt2 through my voip.ms account but am having a little trouble. Okay I got 1 phone plugged into 1 phone slot in the back of my papt2 and then my next phone plugged into the other slot. I logged into voip.ms account and created a sub account and setup all my information on line 2 when I logged into my papt2 configeration. Now when I call my number my original phone I used in line one ringes but my new phone that I setup will not ring. I can make calls at the same time with no problem. Is it possible to have them both setup to take in coming calls or can you only have one phone for incoming calls? Under manage DID's I can only seem to select my main account or sub account? Am I missing another menu?

[Mikey0124]

I got it setup. here is what I did just incase anyone else wanted to know. I created a ring group. Then I set my DID to ring to that group through the manage did's.

[MichelR]

Since some people here asked about porting their number, I figured I could share my recent experience.

Yesterday was "porting day" here. I phoned home 3-4 times in the morning and after a long silence I was getting a fast busy signal. I figured that the porting operation was in progress. Went home for lunch and checked my Rogers line - no dial tone. While I was in the voip.ms portal making sure all my settings were set correctly for the ported number, the status of the port changed to "Completed" and a couple of minutes later I got an e-mail confirming that. Plugged the line-out from the PAP2T into the wall and tried my phones - all worked fine.

After work I phoned Rogers. I was expecting the usual 30 days notice thing (i.e. that I would have to pay a month for nothing), but that was immediate and the customer service rep - very pleasant person - told me that the faster I returned my "phone modem" to a Rogers store, the better because there was a couple of days left in the month and they would get credited. The most painful thing at the store was waiting for the woman in front of me to stop complaining about her cell phone.

So that was a pretty smooth transition for me. Just expect some downtime on your phone the day of the port.

[DelronJackson]

If I put a number into the phonebook on the account settings page, will I no longer be charged the 0.8cents per caller ID look up when that number calls me??

If so, that'd be great, cuz it's typically the same people calling me.

[scrooloose]

I have the linksys SPA2102 ATA connected using voip.ms. Everything is working except for the call display outbound. Inbound, I can see the caller on my voip.ms phone, but when I make calls using the voip.ms service, I only see the phone number appear, not my name. On the Linksys, I have the Display Name set to my name. Is there anything else on either the Linksys or voip.ms configuration that needs to be configured?

-Mike

[MichelR]

Originally Posted by DelronJackson

If I put a number into the phonebook on the account settings page, will I no longer be charged the 0.8cents per caller ID look up when that number calls me??

If so, that'd be great, cuz it's typically the same people calling me.

I tested it last night using my cell phone and it works.

[hd4ever]

Well I have been making progress thanks to this forum and a support chat with Voip.ms. One thing I am still working on is out going call display and it seems a few others are having a similar problem. When I call, my number shows up but not my name. Some people I have called won't answer as they don't recognize my new number and there is no name attached.

Some times they tell me they just see my number twice and others say they see "international" and my number. I'm not calling another country by the way and have tried both Toronto and Montreal servers.

Seems like a great product and a nice way to save a few bucks but there is a bit of a learning curve to get through. So if anyone could shed some light on how they get their name to display when calling out I'd like to hear how your configured.

[scrooloose]

What ATA are you using?

-Mike

[hd4ever]

Using an Obi110

[MichelR]

On my PAP2T-NA, I set the "Display Name" to be my full name, and it shows as such - upper and lower case letters and all on my phone at work. I just tried calling my cellphone and I don't see any name, but then again I don't know if that phone ever displayed the name: The only people that ever call that phone are in my cellphone's phone book, so it displays the name I typed. I tried changing the Display Name to a more standard last name + first letter of the first name and a period, thinking maybe the cellphone didn't like the full name, but that didn't make any difference.

The voip.ms wiki does state that the caller id name displayed on outbound calls cannot be set on the voip.ms portal and it will be whatever you set your ATA to. I don't know the Obi110, but it should have some caller id name field in its configuration, and you should also check to see if there isn't an option in there that enables/disables sending the caller id name when you call.

[hd4ever]

MichelR,

I was looking at the voip.ms wiki and saw the part you mentioned about caller id name not being set on the voip portal. So far I've yet to find anything like 'Display Name" when looking around while logged into the Obi. I'll keep looking.

Thanks