Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

FCC ruling on ringtones is... shortsighted

(1/4) > >>

wraith808:
Once again, a government agency doesn't think through its ruling...

So, I have Vonage as a phone provider.  They've been adequate so far... they are cheaper than a landline, the quality is just as good... and it's a phone.  What else can you expect?

Today, I made a few calls... and received the strangest message.  "Your call is being connected" over and over followed by "Your call could not be completed."  Then, just as I was about to hang up, the call completed.

I contacted Vonage, and they said it was because of their comfort tone feature, and a recent FCC ruling.  So I looked it up.

Rural Call Completion: Problems with Long Distance or Wireless Calling to Rural Areas

The ruling

B. Rules to Address Ring Signaling
111. False Audible Ringing. One of the rural call completion problems that parties have identified is “false audible ringing.” False audible ringing occurs when an originating or intermediate provider prematurely triggers audible ring tones to the caller before the call setup request has actually reached the terminating rural provider. That is, the calling party believes the phone is ringing at the called party’s premises when it is not. An originating or intermediate provider may do this to mask the silence that the caller would otherwise hear during excessive call setup time.279
 As a result, the caller may often hang up, thinking nobody is available to receive the call. 280
 False audible ringing can also make it appear to the caller that the terminating rural provider is responsible for the call failure, instead of the originating or intermediate provider. Once an intermediate provider provides a ringing indication to an originating provider while still processing the call, the call cannot be handed back to the preceding provider for an alternate route.281
 
112. In the Notice, the Commission proposed to mandate that audible ringing be provided to callers only after the terminating provider affirmatively signals that the called line is free and the called
party is being alerted.282
 The record overwhelming supports the adoption of the proposed rule.283

--- End quote ---

So... what do they do instead?  Always play a recorded message that communicates nothing about what is happening, and in no way fixes the problem- and in fact, makes the problem worse.  Great move, guys.  Great use of our taxpayer dollars paying your salaries...  :-\

mwb1100:
This sounds like a Vonage problem.

wraith808:
This sounds like a Vonage problem.
-mwb1100 (June 24, 2014, 10:13 AM)
--- End quote ---

Vonage is taking advantage of the short sighted FCC ruling.  It's mostly to give advantage to the land-line die hards.  Because only on those networks is the handoff guaranteed.  And I don't blame them for doing it... I blame the FCC for the ruling in the manner that they did, rather than fixing the underlying problem.

Basically, the phones that I dialed today have been arbitrarily changed to be long distance.  And... this ruling affects long distance calls.  And international calls.  Even though one of the phones is sitting right next to me currently on AT&T's networks.

skwire:
Good grief.  Is something like this "false audible ringing" really an issue?   :huh:  Sounds like a solution in search of a problem.  :down:

40hz:
When you can't sort out important issues (like net neutrality) find a little diddley issue you can "solve" more easily.

Although in this case, I think because it's originating in response to an issue surrounding rural area phone customers (whom all the major carriers are doing their absolute damnedest not to be required to serve any longer) there's probably a larger and more significant consideration behind this ruling.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page