[geeks] International calling question

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Wed, Oct 01, 2008 at 02:56:51PM -0400, Sandwich Maker wrote:
>the elephant in the room is number portability.  i have my old verizon
>landline number on my voip service, but i could just as easily have
>gotten a nh or even ny number if i'd wanted.  folks can move around
>and jump cell providers and still have their numbers from halfway
>across the country.

I've had a 215 (Philly) phone number for almost 5 years now, without ever
having been in the US for that time. At first people could not figure it
out, that calling me in Philly, only costs them a call to Philadelphia,
not to Israel, and yes it really is 3am here. :-)

People are begining to realize it, but the time difference still
confuses them.

I use a VoIP provider whose market niche is people emigrating to Israel,
from the planing stage to living here. They offer a combination package
with a US/Canada incoming number and an Israeli one with different rings
and combined dialing. If you dial a phone number starting in 1 it's assumed
to be the US, and if it starts in 0[2-9], Israel. 

I recommend it to people who are trying to arrange things here before they
get on the airplane, so that they can get the best prices by calling
and giving a local phone number. 

At least Heinlein's prediction of a phone with two dials (and you had
to dial part of the number on one, and part on the other) did not
come to pass.

Geoff.


-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM