Finally I have had enough of the unreliability of the Blueface service!
My new phone number is +353-21-490 8485.
This is the Eircom number on my DSL service. I may go to another provider in time but for now, at least I know the Eircom service works.
Tag Archive for 'landline'
This morning I was unable to receive incoming calls on my Blueface service. I discovered this when Brian Greene tried to call me. Fortunately we were having an IM chat on Skype at the time so we were able to talk on Skype instead but had it not been for that, I would have been blissfully unaware that there was any problem.
I have written before about what a crap service I am receiving from voip telephony provider Blueface. Now I know why they are called Blueface.
Yet again today the Blueface service is down and I can’t make outgoing calls from my landline. And anyone who has called me on my mobile knows just how bad mobile reception is here.
It will be difficult to extract myself from Blueface now, as the contact number I have given everyone is the number Blueface have given me.
For anyone considering using their service - don’t. Use any other telephony provider, even Eircom! Really.
UPDATE: - I seem to be having problems with incoming calls as well - if you have been trying to ring me, ring my mobile - +353-86-384 0828
In a follow up to my post the other day on Jahjah, I spoke to Greg Spector, Chief Marketing Officer of Rebtel today and he explained Rebtel’s model to me in great detail.
There are a number of differences between the two services, the main one being Jahjah requires a software download to work on your mobile. Rebtel has no such requirement.
In essence, what you do with Rebtel’s service is register your numbers (mobile, landline, etc.) on their site, register the numbers of people you want to contact who are living abroad, Rebtel then generates local numbers for you and your contacts. You call your contact and instruct them to hang up and call you back on the local number you just appeared to call them from - then Rebtel connects the two local calls at no charge (other than the $1 per month you pay Rebtel and the local call charges).
The biggest issue I see with this service is, as I pointed out in the title of this post, why would anyone want to pay to receive a call from me? The cost may be minimal, but it takes a hell of a cheek to call someone and tell them to call you back. Unless you know they desperately want to hear from you or they are close enough family that they don’t mind paying for calls from you.
This model may not present problems in the US where people with mobile phones already pay to receive phone calls and have large voice plans for very little outlay (Cingular, for example, on its Nation 900 w/Rollover plan offers 900 minutes per month for $59.99) so effectively they have free outgoing calls.
Compare that to the situation in Europe where on my Vodafone plan, for instance, I pay €49 per month and get 200 minutes. In a situation where I don’t pay to receive calls and outgoing calls are expensive, it takes a bit of neck to ring someone and ask them to call you back even on a local number, unless you know them very well.
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