Tesco Internet Phone Service Stopping -April 27th 2010

overcharged

North-East_Quine wrote: »

I can't seem to get logged in to my Tesco Internet Phone? Is anyone else having problems? Have they stopped the service already?

Upon clicking Login with my pre-filled (thanks to Safari) 100% correct Number and password I'm seeing "We encountered errors in the information you submitted. Please check the fields marked below and try again."

claire_parker

Ditto - it has happened a day early

claire_parker

....................although my mailbox is still taking calls - but I cannot retrieve them!!!!!

overcharged

Still waiting for VoiceHost to reply about whether they successfully ported my Tesco Internet Phone number successfully.

So far it isn't showing up in my VH account yet as a number of mine.

No doubt VH are very busy getting all the numbers 'ported'.

Hopefully will hear soon and will update thread with latest.

SOHO66_2

Hi - As another VoIP provider, we were originally quite keen to try porting the Tesco Internet Phone numbers. We made enquiries direct with FreshTel (the carrier for the Tesco Internet Phone service) and, were told that there was no interest to port their numbers away from the service. As such, we've been turning people away when enquiring on porting their numbers into us, as we felt it was the responsible thing to do.

As far as I'm aware, and I'll wait for someone who has no bias (maybe a Tesco Internet Phone customer) to confirm this, VoiceHost, nor any other provider, are able to directly continue with the FreshTel numbers, and they are simply being given back to Ofcom who, in 6 months time, will then be in a position to allocate them to another provider.

In the meantime though, unfortunately, customers will have to seek new numbers with an alternative provider.

bunking_off

As someone who's been involved in this sorry episode, with no commercial relationship with VoiceHost, I can confirm what Phil says. I do know who has acquired the Freshtel interests, but given Phil doesn't seem to, I can only assume that it's commercially confidential at this stage so can't breach that...customers should speak to Freshtel.

I'm unclear if the acquisition means that Tesco/Freshtel customers will continue to receive service, or whether it'll be a "pheonix from the flames" situation where the existing users lose their number - I hope not.

What I would say is that there is a hole in the technical standards - currently being worked on by the UK telecoms standards agency - which means the basic SIP protocol used by most providers...including Freshtel...isn't capable of supporting the UK standard for number portability without using a proprietary solution (*). Ofcom is aware of this. As such, in the short term I'd be pessimistic about ability to port numbers away from Freshtel's successor.

(*) Some/many VoIP providers do implement via proprietary solutions.

bristolleedsfan

phil_collin wrote: »

For the record.
VoiceHost attempted to negotiate the purchase of Freshtel UK in it's entirity as that was the only way Freshtel wished to reassign their number ranges. Freshtel cancelled the agreement meeting just hours before it was due to take place. Instead they said the numbers would be returned to Ofcom in early May as they had liquidated their UK company, hence there being nothing to buy. Ofcom asked Freshtel to confirm in writing before 12:30 today that they were returning the numbers so that Ofcom could reallocate the entire 413 ranges [1K not 10K blocks] to VoiceHost. BT,O-Bit Telecom, C&W, Virgin Media, Ofcom & VoiceHost had a solution already being implemented to allow the numbers to continue to be used after Midnight on Friday the 30th of April. Freshtel told OFcom today, on the wire, that they were now not returning the numbers to Ofcom as they had sold the UK business to another provider who wished to continue to offer VoIP services with those numbers. VoiceHost had stopped accepting "porting request documents" as soon as the reallocation process paperwork had been put together after Freshtel told us they were returning the numbers. We have communicated openly and fairly with every person that has expressed an interest in continuing to use those numbers with VoiceHost. We today wrote to all of those folk detailing the above. We do not know at this time who, if there actually is a provider, has "bought" the Freshtel business and I am sure that after the bank holiday weekend some more information will emerge. We have offered full refunds to anyone that had added credit to their accounts in anticipation of the transfers we have been working flat out on, if they wished to now try and pursue these numbers with whoever actually has them. I hope that makes VoiceHost's position clear to everyone that reads this.

Do we assume that this now doesnt apply.????????????

---

Original Message

---

From: <[EMAIL="tesco&#64;voicehost.co.uk"]tesco@voicehost.co.uk[/EMAIL]>
To: <
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 10:27 AM
Subject: [#642821] thinking about joining up with Voicehost

Hi ...........
You will be able to pick up your old Tesco number from us on Saturday morning by dialling that number and entering your VoiceHost account number [you will need to have registered for an account and put some credit on the account prior to calling your old tesco number] a set of automated prompts will walk you through allocating the number to your account]


regards,

Phil

croggyboy

No so goo news now

Check out voicehost tesco blog thingy, I can't post the link

Freshtel are being !!!!!!

Think I might invoice them for the cost of replacing their phone hardware, changing my number and re-printing all my business stationery.

overcharged

Freshtel have said in an email to me concerning the Tesco Internet Phone number today that all their services have now closed, and if there is a resumption in services within 30 days I will be notified by email of any options open to me.

Seems ridiculous that there seems to be a chance that the Tesco Internet Phone number will just be dumped forever? Surely they should just release them into the public domain? I'm not too telecoms-savvy as you might tell, but will repost if I hear from Freshtel again.

phil_collin

We are finally now in a position to have your ex Tesco / Freshtel telephone numbers allocated to our network.

So, if you are an ex customer of either of those companies and would like to use your old phone numbers again via the VoiceHost service then please send an email to: -

[EMAIL="tesco&#64;voicehost.co.uk"]tesco@voicehost.co.uk[/EMAIL]

Please enter your numbers into a spreadsheet and attach it to the email so that we can create a full list of all of the number ranges needed.

Any questions on time frames please feel free to email [EMAIL="support&#64;viocehost.co.uk"]support@viocehost.co.uk[/EMAIL]

Phil