Vonage says Clearwire interfered with VoIP calls

Wireless operator Clearwire was one of two broadband providers causing traffic problems for Internet phone operator Vonage, a Vonage spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Vonage said last month that a cable operator, along with Clearwire, was suspected of blocking calls and not letting some home-phone adapters work appropriately. While identifying Clearwire, Vonage has not provided the cable operator's identity nor the exact cause of the problems. Vonage calls over Clearwire's network are now going through uninterrupted, but an issue remains with the cable operator, according to Vonage.

A Clearwire spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Blocked calls by design or technical error are becoming more commonplace for Vonage and other voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, telephone operators. The usual suspects are broadband providers, which view VoIP providers as unwanted hitchhikers on their networks. Because VoIP software lets any Internet connection double as an inexpensive phone line, Vonage and other "networkless" operators need only require subscribers to supply a broadband connection on their own.

Clearwire was created by wireless pioneer Craig McCaw. It's a small provider of WiMax wireless broadband service, and it operates in St. Cloud, Minn.; Abilene, Texas; and Jacksonville and Daytona Beach, Fla. WiMax is an experimental technology that promises to broadcast broadband at a radius of several miles.

The Vonage complaints in March were levied less than three weeks after a Mebane, N.C., telecommunications provider, Madison River Communications, said it would "refrain from blocking" VoIP calls and pay a $15,000 fine to the government. Vonage, a VoIP provider, brought Madison River to the Federal Communications Commission's attention and may do the same with providers involved in these latest problems.

The FCC had hoped the Madison River enforcement would help eradicate what's commonly referred to as "port blocking," a way of blocking traffic--one that telecommunications providers threatened by VoIP are turning to with increasing frequency. The FCC did not comment on Monday about the impact of the fine or about the Vonage complaints.

[Gerald Quaglia]

It will take the FCC

To put its foot down and stop these M$ like tactics of anti competition.

[Stating]

So Why Don't They Just Use Common Ports?

Skype is flexible enough to use just 2 ports, like 80 and 443. What is wrong with Vonage? They require a huge block of ports to be open. Sounds like bad engineering. If these guys aren't savvy enough to travel under the radar, they won't stay in business for long, it's a jungle out there. Legal remedies always come to late to be of any help.<br /><br />Vonage:<br />"You may need to direct certain ports to be accessible to our communications network in order to complete high quality phone calls. Each router manufacturer has a different process for Port Forwarding (also called Port Opening), but in each case, you must always specify two port ranges to be opened:<br /><br /> * 5060 ? 5061 (UDP)<br /> * 10000 ? 20000 (UDP)" <br /><br />Skype:<br />"Skype Technical FAQ<br />I can?t connect to Skype from work or due to a restrictive firewall. Which ports need to be opened in order to use Skype? The minimum requirement is that Skype needs unrestricted outgoing TCP access to all destination ports above 1024 (OR) to ports 80 and 443 (the former is better, however)."<br /><br /><br />Keith<br />www.techcando.com

www.vonage-forum.com

This topic has been discussed at great lengths here:<br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic4184.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic4184.html</a><br /><br />I would cancel my ISP an go with another broadband provider if they did this to me.