incoming calls won't go through ("all circuits are busy")

[darrylh]

I'm in Michigan and have been getting the "all circuits busy" message since Tuesday morning. Very frustrating as most people are not able to get through to me. I can call out just fine. I know this was a catastrophic event, but I hope voipo is reevaluating having so much of their infrastructure reliant on a single provider with no backup plan.

[VOIPoTim]

I can call out just fine. I know this was a catastrophic event, but I hope voipo is reevaluating having so much of their infrastructure reliant on a single provider with no backup plan.

Sorry to hear that you and others in the thread are being impacted by the storm. Crews in the areas impacted are working hard to restore all service as quickly as possible.

I do want to clarify your statement though....

VOIPo actually didn't have any equipment damaged and our network has been up 100%. We haven't had any VOIPo outages at all.


It's kind of a complex situation, but here's my attempt at explaining it

The problem is that in some areas there is damage upstream on the phone network that prevents calls to your number from actually even making it to VOIPo to begin with.

A phone number is always somewhat tied to its geography. So let's say someone has a Florida phone number. Calls to that number always go through the phone network to equipment in FL (not owned or maintained by VOIPo) and then it gets routed to VOIPo (in Texas) then we route to you using the internet. Even if someone transfers that number to a provider with all their equipment in another state, that number will always go to FL before it gets sent to the provider due to the way the telephone network as a whole is designed.

In this kind of situation, if the call never leaves the localized network to be sent to VOIPo, it will fail even though VOIPo is fully running.

The reason you can make outgoing calls is that VOIPo has been completely up and running so we're able to route your outbound calls out whereas the incoming calls have to go through a damaged facility before they even make it to VOIPo due to the number being tied to a local area.

Hope that makes at least some sense. The bottom line is that VOIPo has been up 100% the entire time. If the calls can't make it to us from the phone network though then that doesn't matter.

[bassorider]

Tim: Thanks for taking the time to put forth an explanation. FWIW, I'm not having this problem today, so now all I need is electricity!