Calling a Canadian cell phone number

trustee · Post by **trustee** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:13 am

When calling a Canadian cell phone number with my MJ, the MJ rings and rings but the cell phone does not. I recall reading that there is a workaround, but of course, I did not write it down.

Can't find that post now. Can anyone help?

THX

tony · Post by **tony** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:42 am

If you can get the cooperation of the person with the cell phone, can you run some tests? Using the MJ, call the cell phone:

1. with the cell phone off

2. with cell phone on

I've noticed a Rogers cell I call will ring and ring at times and at other times I get the message "your party is out of the service area". I don't know what state the cell is in, on or off.

It could be the endless ringing is an indicator of the state of the cell phone. Otherwise I've had no problems calling other cell phones (mostly they are on the Telus network).

trustee · Post by **trustee** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:49 am

Sorry, I should have been more precise. When calling with the MJ, I hear on the call that I am making that it sounds like it is ringing to the number I am calling. Yet when I got hold of the person later, from my cell phone, they told me their phone never rang.

So, I tried calling my own Rogers cell phone from my MJ. I hear what sounded like the call being placed through my MJ, but my cell phone never rang.

So, the question is, how do you call a cell phone from MJ, as I think there is an "*" and some extra digits that need to be dialed first, which is the workaround.

evilmonkey1987 · Post by **evilmonkey1987** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:09 pm

*674*16-xxx-xxxx

*67 first-digit-of-area-code*rest-of-the-number.

jwryahoo · Post by **jwryahoo** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 2:02 am

HI,
I'm in the U.S. - my brother is in Eastern Canada... Nova Scotia. I've called him a good number of times on his cell phone using my MJ without any problems at all. And I didn't need to use the * *

Blessings

jwr

evilmonkey1987 · Post by **evilmonkey1987** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 7:23 pm

Seems to be a Toronto problem. Not quite sure why.

faadia45 · Post by **faadia45** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 5:10 pm

I call my friends in Toronto on their cell phones and it usually is really good. The one problem that I have found is it takes a while (usually rings for 20-30seconds) then it connects me. They use Rogers I believe as well.
Regards,

evilmonkey1987 · Post by **evilmonkey1987** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 8:05 pm

faadia45 wrote:I call my friends in Toronto on their cell phones and it usually is really good. The one problem that I have found is it takes a while (usually rings for 20-30seconds) then it connects me. They use Rogers I believe as well.
Regards,

Really? I should try that out. I know that after 4 rings its supposed to go to voicemail, so if it rings past that, I just hang up...

lmcjipo · Post by **lmcjipo** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 2:09 pm

I just purchased MagicJack (located in Montreal) from a local reseller and I've also experienced this problem.

I would say that 99% of the calls that I make to Rogers or Fido cellphones in Montreal don't go through. I get what appears to be ringing and it sounds like it rings for maybe 30 seconds before MagicJack hangs up. Sometimes it won't even wait 30 seconds. After I dial my Montreal cellphone number, it would hang up and I will get the dialtone.

I called my work cellphone (Rogers) and my personal cellphone (Rogers) as well as my other personal cellphone (Fido) and the same problem occurs.

Once or twice, my test call to my cellphone will actually go through and cause my cellphone to ring.

My cellphones all have Montreal area codes.

I tried calling my cellphones from the US and they work without any issues.

When I turn off my Montreal cellphone and call it using MagicJack, I get the same results (when it should go to voice mail). On the MagicJack side, it seems like the phone is ringing but obviously it isn't because the phone is off.

I tried the *675*145551234 trick but I get a message saying that "You have reached the Wimax Communications Test Number. Your call was completed successfully".

When I call a regular Montreal landline number, MagicJack works without any issues (although I did get disconnected during the call). I think that the disconnection was due to a 30 minute limit that I have been reading about.

I contacted MagicJack online technical support. They asked me to try a few things like not using the included USB extension cable (didn't work), dialing a 1 in front of the number (didn't work), plugging it directly to my PC and not to a powered USB hub (didn't work).

I don't see why it can't call my Montreal cellphone numbers but has no problems calling Montreal landline numbers.

trustee · Post by **trustee** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 6:30 pm

I noticed starting yesterday, that I forgot about the *67 workaround, and called from my MJ to a Toronto cell phone on Rogers and got connected by just dialing the 10 digit number (I am in the US right now). When I tried calling other cell numbers yesterday, some got through, some did not, but the *67 workaround did not work at all.

Then I forced an upgrade to my MJ software today, and tried a Rogers cell again and it worked. So, perhaps there is now a software upgrade wherein we will be able to call Canadian cell phones just like any landline and not experience problems anymore. I hope so.

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