I don't know if this is a common problem or not so let me try to explain as
best as I can. I picked up the magicjack as a 2nd line, just for international calls because my wife has family in China. Recieved the unit last week and the local call work fine but we are having problems with the international calls. Most of the numbers in China are 11 digits, some are 7
digits and here is the problem. Every time we call a number 011-86-771(7 digit number) it is fine. when we call 011-86-771(11 digit number) I get 3 rings and back to a dial tone. Now all these numbers work fine with my landline, calling cards and all othe VOIP services I have ever used. Been calling over there for years with no problem.
After many chats with tech support, always the same. re-format, click the update link, and unplug the unit. Nothing works.
Has anyone had this problem or know of a answer?
Thanks in advance for your help!
International calling
Moderators: Bill Smith, Pilot
This will be difficult to solve because the problem is squarely magicJack's.
Way back in the 1960s, when automatic dialing of international telephone calls was being worked out in the CCITT (now the ITU), nobody imagined the proliferation of telephone services that we enjoy today. Back then, they assumed a much more modest growth and decided that no telephone number in the world can be any longer than 15 digits, including the Country Code. Recently (within the last 5 or 10 years, I don't remember when the discussion occured), this limit was doubled to 31 digits. (No, my math skills aren't bad; one digit is needed as a country escape token.)
Now, as you may know, the ITU is a technical agency of the United Nations. As such, it may only issue Recommendations, not standards. All Recommendations are approved unanimously or they are modified until unanimous consensus is reached. That means that most Recommendations, including E.164 (Numbering), are littered with exceptions. One exception in this Recommendation is that member nations need not accommodate this change quicker than they can afford to.
Your comment about a 16 digit long phone number in China is the first one I have heard. I personally have phone numbers all over the world, and none is longer than 13 digits "from stem to stern".
That's the technical explanation of what is happening to you. Let's see how to get it fixed. The FCC, naturally, is the agency charged with implementing ITU Recommendations in the US. As such, they trifurcate every new development as being Required, Permitted or Not Permitted. I have no idea what the FCC told the US telephone companies what they should do. Since you report that you can call these numbers from other phones, it is safe to assume that the FCC did not declare 31 digit numbers as "Not Permitted". Also, since you report that one of your successes is with another VoIP service, it is reasonable to assume that MJ's termination provider (which is not YMAX) is equipped to handle the longer numbers.
So, all symptoms taken together point back to MJ. On that conclusion, the problem must either be in the MJ softphone (namely, the SJPhone that underlies it) or in MJ's proxy server(s), the latter possibly being a by-product of a billing system limitation. The only way for any MJ subscriber to distinguish which subsystem is the culprit is for someone using MJ with a different client (an ATA, Asterisk, etc.) and money in his/her International account to call one of these longer numbers to see if it goes through. If the call goes through, the problem is in SJPhone. If it does not, the problem is inside MJ's servers.
Good luck.
Way back in the 1960s, when automatic dialing of international telephone calls was being worked out in the CCITT (now the ITU), nobody imagined the proliferation of telephone services that we enjoy today. Back then, they assumed a much more modest growth and decided that no telephone number in the world can be any longer than 15 digits, including the Country Code. Recently (within the last 5 or 10 years, I don't remember when the discussion occured), this limit was doubled to 31 digits. (No, my math skills aren't bad; one digit is needed as a country escape token.)
Now, as you may know, the ITU is a technical agency of the United Nations. As such, it may only issue Recommendations, not standards. All Recommendations are approved unanimously or they are modified until unanimous consensus is reached. That means that most Recommendations, including E.164 (Numbering), are littered with exceptions. One exception in this Recommendation is that member nations need not accommodate this change quicker than they can afford to.
Your comment about a 16 digit long phone number in China is the first one I have heard. I personally have phone numbers all over the world, and none is longer than 13 digits "from stem to stern".
That's the technical explanation of what is happening to you. Let's see how to get it fixed. The FCC, naturally, is the agency charged with implementing ITU Recommendations in the US. As such, they trifurcate every new development as being Required, Permitted or Not Permitted. I have no idea what the FCC told the US telephone companies what they should do. Since you report that you can call these numbers from other phones, it is safe to assume that the FCC did not declare 31 digit numbers as "Not Permitted". Also, since you report that one of your successes is with another VoIP service, it is reasonable to assume that MJ's termination provider (which is not YMAX) is equipped to handle the longer numbers.
So, all symptoms taken together point back to MJ. On that conclusion, the problem must either be in the MJ softphone (namely, the SJPhone that underlies it) or in MJ's proxy server(s), the latter possibly being a by-product of a billing system limitation. The only way for any MJ subscriber to distinguish which subsystem is the culprit is for someone using MJ with a different client (an ATA, Asterisk, etc.) and money in his/her International account to call one of these longer numbers to see if it goes through. If the call goes through, the problem is in SJPhone. If it does not, the problem is inside MJ's servers.
Good luck.
Thank you for the replymberlant wrote:This will be difficult to solve because the problem is squarely magicJack's.
Way back in the 1960s, when automatic dialing of international telephone calls was being worked out in the CCITT (now the ITU), nobody imagined the proliferation of telephone services that we enjoy today. Back then, they assumed a much more modest growth and decided that no telephone number in the world can be any longer than 15 digits, including the Country Code. Recently (within the last 5 or 10 years, I don't remember when the discussion occured), this limit was doubled to 31 digits. (No, my math skills aren't bad; one digit is needed as a country escape token.)
Now, as you may know, the ITU is a technical agency of the United Nations. As such, it may only issue Recommendations, not standards. All Recommendations are approved unanimously or they are modified until unanimous consensus is reached. That means that most Recommendations, including E.164 (Numbering), are littered with exceptions. One exception in this Recommendation is that member nations need not accommodate this change quicker than they can afford to.
Your comment about a 16 digit long phone number in China is the first one I have heard. I personally have phone numbers all over the world, and none is longer than 13 digits "from stem to stern".
That's the technical explanation of what is happening to you. Let's see how to get it fixed. The FCC, naturally, is the agency charged with implementing ITU Recommendations in the US. As such, they trifurcate every new development as being Required, Permitted or Not Permitted. I have no idea what the FCC told the US telephone companies what they should do. Since you report that you can call these numbers from other phones, it is safe to assume that the FCC did not declare 31 digit numbers as "Not Permitted". Also, since you report that one of your successes is with another VoIP service, it is reasonable to assume that MJ's termination provider (which is not YMAX) is equipped to handle the longer numbers.
So, all symptoms taken together point back to MJ. On that conclusion, the problem must either be in the MJ softphone (namely, the SJPhone that underlies it) or in MJ's proxy server(s), the latter possibly being a by-product of a billing system limitation. The only way for any MJ subscriber to distinguish which subsystem is the culprit is for someone using MJ with a different client (an ATA, Asterisk, etc.) and money in his/her International account to call one of these longer numbers to see if it goes through. If the call goes through, the problem is in SJPhone. If it does not, the problem is inside MJ's servers.
Good luck.
! Not sure if I was clear but the number is only 11 digits after the country and city code. This is how I dial the number. 011-86-771(xxx-xxx-xxxxx). Thank you for the reply, I learned a lot fom your post!
i would recommend for distance calls to use www.localphone.com. magicjack charges 2 cents to call china and localphone.com charges 1 cent.
Re: International calling
not trying to be a smarty but why dont you get a second mj and mail it over to china all your calls are free mj to mj .I have already send like four to erope to family altough i`m having some problems with one right now.and they can also call you any time on any land line or cellphoneloustrk wrote:I don't know if this is a common problem or not so let me try to explain as
best as I can. I picked up the magicjack as a 2nd line, just for international calls because my wife has family in China. Recieved the unit last week and the local call work fine but we are having problems with the international calls. Most of the numbers in China are 11 digits, some are 7
digits and here is the problem. Every time we call a number 011-86-771(7 digit number) it is fine. when we call 011-86-771(11 digit number) I get 3 rings and back to a dial tone. Now all these numbers work fine with my landline, calling cards and all othe VOIP services I have ever used. Been calling over there for years with no problem.
After many chats with tech support, always the same. re-format, click the update link, and unplug the unit. Nothing works.
Has anyone had this problem or know of a answer?
Thanks in advance for your help!
-
slayersofadmin
- MagicJack Newbie
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2009 6:35 pm