topic Re: Calling a VOIP phone in Get Support

Calling a VOIP phone

dhom — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 07:15:36 GMT

Hi,

I changed my plan to unlimited Province calls and text but when I call my home phone (VOIP phone), the minutes are still debited on my 400 international minutes bundle, even if this VOIP phone is a local phone.

Is it normal ?

Thanks

Re: Calling a VOIP phone

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 22:24:41 GMT

Hi @dhom. What are the area codes of your PM line and your VOIP line?

Re: Calling a VOIP phone

NDesai — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 22:26:41 GMT

@dhom No, add on min should not be deducted if you are calling within your home province. Check in your self-serve account and make sure you have correctly changed your plan to include province-wide talk. Depending on that, you will likely need to reach out to the Moderator_Team with your account info and an explanation. They will get back to you within 48 hours, hopefully.

Re: Calling a VOIP phone

dhom — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 00:07:04 GMT

Hi,

Thank you for your swift answer.

My area code is 902 and my VOIP line is 782 (but is considered a local phone).

I thought that calling this number would be considered as calling local but apparently not...

Regards,

Re: Calling a VOIP phone

EdmondY — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 00:55:03 GMT

A quick Google said that the area codes 902 and 782 are used in Nova Scotia and PEI meaning, while that area code in used in the province, it's not necessary registered in that province which might result a long distance call. You'll have to check where your VOIP number is registered to see if it's going to the other province.

Re: Calling a VOIP phone

computergeek541 — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 01:53:06 GMT

@dhom wrote:
Hi,

I changed my plan to unlimited Province calls and text but when I call my home phone (VOIP phone), the minutes are still debited on my 400 international minutes bundle, even if this VOIP phone is a local phone.

Is it normal ?

Thanks

No, this shouldn't be happening. Whether or not a call is considered to be calling out-of-province is completely dependent on your current location and the city of the phone number that you are dialing. It makes no difference if it is a landline, cell phone, VOIP, pager service, etc.

Re: Calling a VOIP phone

NDesai — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 03:38:37 GMT

@computergeek541 wrote:
@dhom wrote:
Hi,

I changed my plan to unlimited Province calls and text but when I call my home phone (VOIP phone), the minutes are still debited on my 400 international minutes bundle, even if this VOIP phone is a local phone.

Is it normal ?

Thanks
No, this shouldn't be happening. Whether or not a call is considered to be calling out-of-province is completely dependent on your current location and the city of the phone number that you are dialing. It makes no difference if it is a landline, cell phone, VOIP, pager service, etc.

This would apply in sense of cellular phones as they can track location via towers, but i am not sure how they figure out the location for VoIP connection.

Re: Calling a VOIP phone

computergeek541 — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 03:44:30 GMT

@NDesai wrote:
@computergeek541 wrote:
@dhom wrote:
Hi,

I changed my plan to unlimited Province calls and text but when I call my home phone (VOIP phone), the minutes are still debited on my 400 international minutes bundle, even if this VOIP phone is a local phone.

Is it normal ?

Thanks
No, this shouldn't be happening. Whether or not a call is considered to be calling out-of-province is completely dependent on your current location and the city of the phone number that you are dialing. It makes no difference if it is a landline, cell phone, VOIP, pager service, etc.
This would apply in sense of cellular phones as they can track location via towers, but i am not sure how they figure out the location for VoIP connection.

I would imagine that most VOIP services are offering at least national calling anyway. Things would be problematic if the service was only offering local outgoing calls and the service was basing things based solely on the reported location of an IP address.

Re: Calling a VOIP phone

EdmondY — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 03:45:00 GMT

Physical location of your cell phone can't be determined by anyone aside from your own carrier (and 911). Your number, regardless of the type, is registered to at least a specific city.

You could probably look up the number and you could figure out where it's registered, if you don't mind sharing the number. For example, my Textnow number (free VOIP call/text app) with a area code of 604 is registered in North Vancouver while I use it elsewhere in GVA, just depends on the operator.

Re: Calling a VOIP phone

NDesai — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 03:54:09 GMT

@EdmondY While the area code tells the location of the city/province, PM province-wide calling suppose to work even when you travel across other provinces. For example, if you travel to ON with BC 604 number, you can dial GTA 416 number without having long distance ad-on.

Re: Calling a VOIP phone

EdmondY — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 04:01:06 GMT

Well what I'm trying to say is that, considering the registered location of the number, there's a possibility that the number could be registered in another province. Area codes 902 and 782 are serving PEI and Nova Scotia.

Take this for example: The caller is currently located in Halifax. The caller is trying to call this 782 number, which is registered in Charlottetown. This call would be a long distance call and charged appropriately. However if the caller travelled to Charlottetown (or anywhere in PEI for the matter) and called the same number (even if the number used to place the call isn't registered there), it would be considered a local call.

There's a chance that the number that try are trying to call could be registered in a different province, which makes Public Mobile think it's a long distance call. It's quite possible as both area codes are used in two provinces.

Re: Calling a VOIP phone

dhom — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 17:57:58 GMT

Hi,

Thank you for your comprehensive answer, which helped me understand the issue.

I checked and my VOIP phone is registered in NS but I misunderstood the way phone calls are charged.

When calling from another province in your home province, it's charged as a long distance and I thought it was not. If I understand well local/long distance depends on your location, not where your cell phone is registered.

Sorry for the confusion but I'm from Europe and there is no such thing as long distance any more.

I'll change my plan for a long distance one and that will solve the problem!

Thanks again for your help.

Jerome

Re: Calling a VOIP phone

EdmondY — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 01:46:39 GMT

Well aside from our problem with pricing, the plans don't work like the ones in EU do, which includes calling and roaming within anywhere of the European Union.

You'll need a Canada wide calling plan in order to place calls to different provinces without using your long distance addon. There's only a few plans that are within province only, think it's the unlimited talk or the unlimited talk + text plans that do that.