VOIP or Voice Over IP which is used to deliver telephone service over the Internet is a wonderful technology. In places throughout the world with high density populations it is a great alternative to the traditional land line phone service.
There has been much talk over the past few years in our neck of the woods about VOIP. Here are the challenges to VOIP in our area.
In order to provide local calling features to area residents and business a connection must be made to the local telco, in this case TELUS. The connection must run between the ISP and the TELUS CO. This connection is called a PRI and it enables local calling between the ISP VOIP provider and the local telephone exchange.
For example when a caller on the VOIP system places a call to a local number (Wainwright exchange) the call is switched from the ISP to the PRI and over to the Telus CO where it is connected to the local area land line number. The same is true of the reverse, a local land line calls the VOIP number and it is switched from the Telus CO over the PRI to the ISP and then to the customer.
Currently no PRI exists in the Wainwright area to provide this function and the cost of such a PRI is prohibitive without a great deal of customers on the VOIP service. A PRI needs to be large enough to accommodate high call volume in the case of emergency situations and high call traffic dates such as holidays. If the PRI is not large enough then calls start to get dropped. Of course the larger the PRI the larger the cost.
An additional issue exists with customers wanting to have number portability. Number portability is the ability to take your current home or business phone number and move that to another provider. This means you do not need to update family, friends and customers of your new phone number. Number portability is currently only available in;
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Acme
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Fort Saskatchewan
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Sherwood Park
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Airdrie
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Gibbons
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Spruce Grove
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Alberta Beach
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Hay Lakes
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St Albert
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Ardrossan
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High River
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St Michael
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Beaumont
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Irricana
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Stony Plain
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Beiseker
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Keephills
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Strathmore
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Blackie
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Lamont
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Thorsby
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Bon Accord
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Langdon
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Tofield
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Bragg Creek
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Leduc
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Turner Valley
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Bruderheim
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Legal
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Wabamun
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Calgary
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Longview
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Calmar
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Millet
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Carstairs
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Morinville
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Chipman
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Morley
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Cochrane
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Namao
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Cremona
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New Sarepta
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Crossfield
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Nisku
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Devon
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Okotoks
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Edmonton
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Onoway
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Edmonton International Airport
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Redwater
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And not all providers can use the centers.
The lack of portability in Alberta and BC seems to be a great deal lower then say Ontario. Check the site above and compare.
With these challenges providers are less likely to go through the expenses of providing such a service to the area due to the simple fact that there would need to be very good area penetration of the service to simply break even.
Any provider who does not go through these steps prior to providing a VOIP service limits the customers’ ability to have an alternative phone service comparable to the local telco. Customers calling local numbers are subject to long distance rates as are local numbers calling the customer due to the fact that the only available phone numbers for the VOIP customer are outside the local exchange area. Numbers cannot be ported leaving customers to supply new calling number to friends, family and business contacts.
In short, VOIP is a great tool, however its practical use in rural Alberta leaves too many holes compared to the phone service we have all grown accustomed too.