[WXC/VFX] Moving from TelstraClear to WorldxChange: good or bad experiences?

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [WXC/VFX] Moving from TelstraClear to WorldxChange: good or bad experiences?

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#74725 14-Jun-2007 20:46

freitasm I was in much the same situation. Tripple service with Telstra. I was a little more courteous in that we kept the phone servervice for a further month and just forwarded from the telstra line to the VFX number.

I can honestly say I have no regrets. I agree with you that keeping the cable internet is a good idea. For all Telstra have their issues the technology is not one of them. Telstra cable has very low lantency and of course that is good for VOIP

As far as fear of Telstra cutting off the wrong service well.. my problem has more been the other way. When I did port the number it took Telstra some time to do their bit. Also I have just had to email them (not waiting on that phone for a hour if I don't have too

) to ask them to stop billing me for the phone and answer phone service when it was cut off mid April. I got a reply today to apologise and say that they would credit us back to the date of disconnection however I have heard other people say that they have gone through several months where Telstra say they will stop billing for a service and then the next month do so I will wait and see

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#74805 15-Jun-2007 14:40

Here is the current status...

This morning I got Linksys SPA2102 configured with a Wellington number (thank you WxC!). I plugged it into my router, plugged a phone and it worked.

I then opened an account with mynetfone as suggested by sbiddle, and plugged another phone into the 2nd line on this SPA2102.

The voice quality is really good, for both local calls and international ones.

Next, waiting for the number porting, happening Wednesday.

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#74822 15-Jun-2007 15:20

Did you get your mynetfone account configured OK?

We'll have you upgraded to Asterisk once Phil has support for it! :-)

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#74857 15-Jun-2007 19:43

It took me all about 1 minute to configure mynetfone on that router.

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#75340 20-Jun-2007 16:04

And the verdict is: GOOD EXPERIENCE (or what else would you expect?)!

I've got a SPA 2102 (analogue phone adapter, two lines, router) configured with a "fake" Wellington number for testing only. I plugged it behind my existing router (but not to the switch, to keep the internal LAN traffic separated) and it worked just like that.

I then created an account with mynetfone.com.au to have an Australian phone number and plugged a second handset to the Phone Line 2 in that router. It worked with no problems.

Today WorldxChange called me to proceed with the Number Porting. They switched my account from the fake number to the actual number at 3pm and gave me a test call from their switch, which worked ok. At that time I was able to place calls from my new VoIP service provider.

About thirty minutes later I got a test call from the POTS, which worked fine. I was then able to receive phone calls from POTS on my old number, but through WorldxChange.

The Administration portal is easy to use and e-mail notifications worked ok. I now have Caller ID, which I didn't have before because of cost.

Because we don't have a POTS line anymore we can't rely on power over the phone line. Last week I purchased a new UPS (1200 va) to use in addition to the existing one (800 va). I now have two routers, a switch, two cordless phones, a server, laptop and Apple iMac all powered on this backup. If anything happens we can still have power for another hour or so - even more if we shutdown some of the gear around.

We are connected through TelstraClear cable modem (10 MBps down, 2 Mbps up) so not much worry about bandwidth for those calls. I actually tried calling Australia while doing some large download and playing a game, and quality wasn't affected.

OVerall very easy transition, call quality is good and everything is working fine.

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#75343 20-Jun-2007 16:16

So I take it you only had the one physical phoneline in your house?

Since it has worked so easily for you, I am now thinking abour doing it myself.

My requirements would be exactly the same but I would need to be able to send and receive faxes still.

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#75345 20-Jun-2007 16:23

Yes, and since we use cable modem, we don't have a phone line anymore. As I explained to my wife: we have a phone number, we don't have a phone line...

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#75351 20-Jun-2007 16:38

rscole86: So I take it you only had the one physical phoneline in your house?

Since it has worked so easily for you, I am now thinking abour doing it myself.

My requirements would be exactly the same but I would need to be able to send and receive faxes still.

Faxing can be a small issue with VoIP but judging by quite a few posts elsewhere on here it does seem to work OK over VFX with the right hardware.

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#75360 20-Jun-2007 17:32

freitasm: And the verdict is: GOOD EXPERIENCE (or what else would you expect?)!
...OVerall very easy transition, call quality is good and everything is working fine.

Thanks for posting your report Mauricio -- Great to hear that it has been a painless transition for you

Three months on from Number Portability, we have a good group of Geekzone users connected via pretty much all the available broadband technologies, using various ISPs and the vast majority have had a positive experience with VFX, Number Porting etc.

With this sort of a track record, it should be possible for VoIP to move into the mainstream over coming months.

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#75402 20-Jun-2007 20:41

Except that mainstream consumer doesn't even know such a thing as VoIP exists... I tried to tell my parents-in-law how this would be much better for then in the long term (considering they have a daughter with family in Australia)... Let's see.

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#75404 20-Jun-2007 20:50

I agree with Mauricio. It is going to be hard to convince most of the main stream public that a telephone will work the same over broadband as it did over copper before (obviously still using the same copper in a lot of cases). We are using it over wireless and most people give me a strange look when I try to explain how it works. They are all very impressed with the quality though. I am thinking about carrying a diagram around in my pocket!!

My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.

maverick

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#75457 21-Jun-2007 08:01

Grant I wish it was Mainstream but I also agree with Mauricio, it's not a mainstream technology yet ...but it is coming...

,

This is why WorldxChange several years ago went down this path to make sure our network was built and designed around this technology and we did not wait until now to embrace it or start even to build it, as previously stated our whole network has been running VOIP for a number of years and we have had class 5 solutions for just as long.

Our customers haven't known they have been been on an IP network for the last few years nor should they even need to, the capabilities and qualities of an IP Network when implemented correctly are excellent, however it does take a huge amount of work to make it all interop correctly and we also have to look at how it implements into the Telco environment in New Zealand and this can not be underestimated, even though SIP is a "Open Standard" as more and more carriers switch to it and start interconnecting having SIP based services running across several carriers is going to be a challenge in it's self and our concern will be that poor implementations will adversely effect the customers expectations and quality / benefits of VOBB / VOIP technology, you generally only get one shot at making an impression.

This is one of the major reasons why we did not want to release a product offering until the access conditions were at least capable of offering a reasonable experience as most consumers are not as technically savy as the people who visit this place, so having a product that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, problems with different hardware etc is not something that the general customer will understand or put up with, hence the reasons for the stances we take on Hardware intreop etc, we aim to be the best at what we do and how we deploy services so that this technology can be adopted into the Mainstream by everyday customers.
(This is also why we value the input from the early adopters by members of Geekzone, Customer Input is valued highly by us, we may not always agree as we do have a business to run

but your impressions and comments and taken very seriously by us)

Anybody can run a SIP server but deploying it so it works within the NZ telco environment as a Mainstream service is another story.

Yes I am a employee of WxC (My Profile) ... but I do have my own opinions as well

https://www.facebook.com/wxccommunications

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#75466 21-Jun-2007 08:56

Sounds great! I should have ported my Telecom number to VFX last October if I knew this is coming...

Now that we have 2 Telecom numbers ported to 2 TCL numbers, both which operates with voice and fax services.

Tell me Maverick, if we decided to port these two numbers over to VFX, will the Telecom numbers be ported together with TCL numbers to VFX? I presume we'll have the new VFX numbers too? (so in the end, will we have 3 numbers for each "lines"?)

I seriously need to keep the Telecom numbers (fax and international), not too worry with TCL numbers as can easily forward to VFX numbers.

I know the VFX still have some glitches with fax... however I like to be able to plan out a strategy before committing the switch. Could you please PM me so I can discuss the situation in private without hording over this thread.

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#75470 21-Jun-2007 09:26

Chiefie, what you have with your Telecom numbers going to TCL sounds like it is permanent redirection. I got very confused about that before because people would refer to that as porting as well. Two years ago I had my Telecom number 'ported' to Woosh, which was really just a permanent redirection or call forwarding. With outbound calls it was my Woosh number that would show up on people’s caller display units.

Since April this year we finally have number portability.

This is different. This is number portability as it should be. When I took my Telecom number from Woosh to VFX my Telecom number became the actual line number. There is no other number & it is my Telecom number people see on their caller display units when I call them. I was issued with a VFX number, but that was only temporary until the porting had been completed. It is gone now & I just have 1 number. It is my old Telecom number that I have always had.

The irony is that Telecom could not even allow me to use my own Telecom number on the exchange I am in.

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#75479 21-Jun-2007 09:51

Ah! Thanks Andy, sounds about right.

Yes, you're right that both the Telecom numbers we have here are forwarded to our TCL numbers, and as mentioned, both Telecom numbers carry voice as well as fax from the old contacts that may or may not aware of us moved over to TCL. To make more spaghetti worse... We have started giving out our TCL numbers too but not a lot. So if moving to VFX which will carry our old Telecom numbers over, then that's great!

If it is possible to retain Telecom numbers when ported over to VFX, is it also possible to assign TCL numbers to forward to VFX/Telecom?? (i'm confused now!) Regardless what... I assume we'll ended up back with Telecom numbers, with TCL numbers forwarded to Telecom, and have VFX numbers temporary. And this have to work with fax (on both lines).

Is this possible?

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