Can Vonage et al. be used FROM foreign countries?

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.voice-over-ip (More info?)

Ramon F Herrera wrote:
> I was told something that I find hard to believe:
> Supposedly Vonage and the other VoIP telcos perform a traceroute and if
> they determine that the SIP phone's IP address is outside the US (and
> that's VERY hard to determine), then the service is not provided.
>
> Any truth to that?

Determining the geografic location of an IP address is not that hard,
unless special precautions (VPN, proxying etc.) are taken: there are
several methods providing reasonable guesses. For example,
http://www.hostip.info/api/rough.h [...] 28.127.111 locates you at
Somerville, MA, whereas http://www.bbox.ch/default.asp?m=15 traces you
at Mt Laurel, NJ (which is the place of your ISP, Comcast Cable
Communications LLC).

The question is: why should Vonage decline to serve a new customer,
provided that the bills get paid? In no case would they have to bear a
bigger cost for non-US customers, given the way the Internet works.

Enzo

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.voice-over-ip (More info?)

Phil Thompson wrote:
> On 3 Jul 2005 16:14:05 -0700, "Enzo Michelangeli"
> <nospam@em.no-ip.com> wrote:
>
> >The question is: why should Vonage decline to serve a new customer,
> >provided that the bills get paid?
>
> taxation and regulatory issues perhaps. If for example they were
> required to provide a 911 service with some sort of location data, or
> if a jurisdiction banned VoIP or applied a tax or USO fee - I could
> see why they might not want the hassle of subscribers in Nepal or
> wherever.

This is true, but I seriously doubt that US regulations could apply to
subscribers outside the US territory. This both if we accept a "benign"
view of regulation (to protect own citizens from abuse -- hardly
applicable to citizens in other jurisdictions) and a "realistic" one in
the spirit of the Nobel laureate Robert Lucas (who once said he'd never
seen a regulator who actually gives a damn about consumers). I
personally suspect that mandatory 911 services etc. are just expedients
to protect the incumbents (conventional telcos), so why should a US
regulator bother and do anything to prevent a US company from competing
with a foreign telco?

Enzo

P.S. This case of less-than-honest motives is quite enlightening:
http://www.teletruth.org/USF.html

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.voice-over-ip (More info?)

Ramon F Herrera <ramon@conexus.net> wrote:
> I was told something that I find hard to believe:
> Supposedly Vonage and the other VoIP telcos perform a traceroute and if
> they determine that the SIP phone's IP address is outside the US (and
> that's VERY hard to determine), then the service is not provided.
>
> Any truth to that?

No, of course not.

1) A traceroute? They'd look at the AS number.

2) They specifically say in their support pages that you can take it with
you when you travel overseas.

3) I've done it.

miguel
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