Short answer now only to parts of your email... as the day moves on and others respond I'll be able to look for more details...
I use VoIP and my cellphone exclusively, including rolling my own, and Vonage. No landlines here at all. I don't know anything about using VoIP for text messages, however. More below... On Friday, September 24, 2010 06:06:14 am Roger E. Rustad, Jr. wrote: > --Calls to the US sometimes (from my iPhone) sometimes require the GSM > standard dialing (e.g. +1 949 xxx xxxx), othertimes it doesn't take the +1. > I cannot figure out why this is the case. I suspect it is because of weird > issues between bouncing around the local carriers (Oi, Claro, TIM, etc). Outside the US the +1 is the country code; here in the U.S. cellphones always work with or without it. When you call the U.S. from your iPhone who is the carrier, or carriers? > --Countries that I am working more and more with do not have Skype In phone > numbers (e.g. Kenya). Numbers for many countries are not easy to get. Even in major first-world countries; it took me quite some time to find a provider for UK "local" numbers, for example. http://www.voip.ms/intldids.php has a lot of International numbers, but not Kenya. The problem is that many countries don't like interconnect with VoIP, others for example in the US) require that you get a number from a company with a presence in the area (CLECs in the US). > --Google Voice does not allow inbound faxes (I have to use MyFax for that) > --The Skype In number for Brazil (+55 11 xxxx yyyy) seems to only forward > to my Brazilian cell phone on (Samsung Galaxy on Claro's network, +55 11 > xxxx yyyy). I can't figure out why it won't just call my iPhone with > AT&T. There may actually be government requirements, prohibitions, etc. > Ideally, I need... > > --One US number to ring all my phones (even my foreign cell phones). > --Ring all my cell phones (including American one) when I get a call from > the local number I set up in that country Should be easy. Even vonage allows ringing up to five numbers at the same time (not sequential), and then whichever you pick up gets the call. They can be foreign or US numbers, but you pay for calls to many countries even on the best Vonage plans, and they're not cheap by today's standards. > --Receive texts to all my phones. I have no idea how to text using VoIP; hopefully someone else will. > --Be able to turn up a local phone number very quickly (e.g. African > country that Skype In does not service). Hard to impossible. If Skype doesn't do it, then it's likely that it's anywhere between hard and impossible. > --Faxes sent to my one phone number magically get routed to my fax. I believe you can do that with Asterisk implementations (we're currently playing with PIAF (PBX In A Flassh), but I'm not sure of the details; numbers are very cheap and we have a separate fax number. Actually we get our number from SmartFax; they're the same company as eFax, but much cheaper, and they forward an image to my desktop/laptop. $6.95/month if I recall. > I'm willing to roll my own solution here, as I see all of the hosted > solutions as only doing part of what I need.... > > Any suggestions? Find a source for numbers first. Otherwise the rest isn't really going to help you <frown>. > --Countries that I am working more and more with do not have Skype In phone > numbers (e.g. Kenya). Did you google? I googled: Kenya DID and found this: http://forum.voxilla.com/other-providers/kenya-did-number-28895.html http://www.mydivert.com/buy_DID_Phonenumbers.html mentioned by chris Penn, also seems to have a lot of international numbers but again, not Kenya. http://www.flowroute.com as mentioned by Charles, seems to only manage inbound DIDs to the states. And we pay significantly less than they charge; their pricing is good but not cheap. the Voxilla forum in general is a good place to ask questions. If you need a UK number that's local anywhere, I got mine from aaisp.net. (They're a special kind of number in the UK) Perhaps more later, as others write. I'm doing a conference call with on of my VoIP vendors today; hopefully I'll be able to pick their brains. Jeff -- Jeff Lasman Post Office Box 52200, Riverside, CA 92517 Our jplists address used on lists is for list email only Phone +1 909 266-9209, or see: "http://www.nobaloney.net/contactus.html"; _______________________________________________ LinuxUsers mailing list [email protected] http://socallinux.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxusers
