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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 6/17/2025 8:49 PM, Gerry Peters via
Patentpractice wrote:<span style="white-space: pre-wrap">
</span></div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:20250618114928.97ee57f46eae72b3f26d02b0@jttpatent.com">
<pre wrap="" class="moz-quote-pre">I am very much open to advice from Carl or other VOIP nerds (and I use that term with the utmost respect) on the best workaround going forward...</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>It is interesting to think of different possible ways to conduct
international telephone calls.</p>
<p>The general problem is the PSTN (public switched telephone
network). The PSTN is the world we all knew thirty years ago.
Thirty years ago, anybody who wanted to place any international
telephone call would dial (for example) "011" and a country code
and a city code and a telephone number, and the call would go
through (or it would not, for any of a number of reasons). But
everything about the call completion path was determined by a
single entity in the destination country. That single entity was
typically the post office in that country or it was a single
private company that was not at arm's length from the government
in that country. <br>
</p>
<p>It was simple (from the user point of view) and it was
expensive. And if a government wished to eavesdrop on phone
calls, well, there was a way to do it across the board. But was
simple from the user point of view.<br>
</p>
<p>Now we are in the world of VOIP, which includes two interfaces.
A first interface is DID world (direct inward dialing), meaning a
way to obtain a (PSTN) telephone number almost anywhere in the
world and to route inbound calls from the PSTN to one's own
telephones or one's own PBX. A second interface is A-Z service.
This means a way to place an outbound call from one's own
telephones or one's own PBX and the call will pass into the PSTN
of any country starting with the countries that have a first
letter "A" in their name and finishing with the countries that
have a first letter "Z" in their name. Hence the term "A-Z"
service.<br>
</p>
<p>In plumbing we talk about a goesinna and a goesoutta. For a
water heater the "goesinna" is the place where cold water goes
into the water heater, and the "goesoutta" is the place where hot
water comes out of the water heater. From the point of view of
the human being who is trying to use the Internet as a way to
connect with the PSTN, the DID is a "goesoutta" of the PSTN, a
place where phone calls exit from the PSTN and pass into the
internet, and once the calls reach the internet, the human being
can control a lot about what happens to the phone calls. From the
point of view of that same human being who is trying to use the
Internet as a way to connect with the PSTN, the A-Z service is a
"goesinna" of the PSTN, a place where phone calls that originated
on the internet pass into the PSTN, and once the calls pass into
the PSTN, the human has little or no control about what happens to
the phone calls.</p>
<p>From the point of view of a government trying to control its
phone calls in (the PSTN of) its country, the plumbing terminology
reverses. From the point of view of a government of a country,
the "other" that the government seeks to control is VOIP. So from
the government's point of view, the DID is the "goesinna" namely
the place where a telephone call exits the PSTN and passes <i><b>into</b></i>
the VOIP "cloud". And from the government's point of view, the
A-Z carrier is the "goesoutta" namely the place where a telephone
call exits the VOIP cloud and passes <i><b>into</b></i> the PSTN
of that government's country.</p>
<p>Anyway, the DID world in a given country can be (and depending on
the country, it is) a first choke point that the government may
feel the need to control closely. And the A-Z world in a given
country can be (and depending on the country, it is) a second
choke point that the government may likewise feel the need to
control closely. <br>
</p>
<p>For a given company or individual that is trying to make use of
VOIP, you might get your DIDs from any of a large number of DID
service providers. And you might get your A-Z service from a
different service provider than the service providers from which
you get your DIDs. You might use several A-Z service providers,
spreading out your outbound calls to one A-Z provider or another
depending on the destination country.<br>
</p>
<p>Years ago my firm had DID numbers in several countries from
several service providers and we got our A-Z service from just one
of those same service providers. But in more recent years my firm
chose to simplify things and now we use a single service provider
(VOIP.MS) for all of our DID needs and for all of our A-Z needs.
<br>
</p>
<p>When I reported, a few days ago, that I was finding I could no
longer place telephone calls to China, I was reporting an A-Z
problem. <br>
</p>
<p>One of the fascinating aspects of VOIP service is to consider
what happens if two parties who wish to call each other just
happen to be getting their VOIP service from the same single
service provider. The extremely happy situation (from the point
of view of those two parties) is that their call is able to start
and finish without ever touching the PSTN. It usually means the
call is free of charge. And it usually means the phone call goes
through quickly and with a high quality connection. And it often
means the call is outside of the influence of any government
(unless the service provider provides some back-door access to a
government). <br>
</p>
<p>There is a patent firm in Poland that uses VOIP.MS (the same
company that my firm uses). I can call this patent firm on the
phone and the call is free of charge and it is a high quality
connection and the call goes through essentially instantly. They
can call me and it is the same happy situation. Part of why
things are so happy is that the call never touches the PSTN in the
US or in Poland.</p>
<p>It is the same for a patent firm in the Netherlands. They also
use VOIP.MS. Calls between their firm and ours are free of charge
and the connection is high quality and the calls go through fast.</p>
<p>There are many countries around the world where there is a sort
of similar situation for any two people who happen to be customers
of the same mobile phone company. In the US, for example, if a
first Verizon mobile phone customer picks up their phone and dials
the telephone number of a second Verizon mobile phone customer,
the call will be free of charge and it will go through fast and it
will be high quality. The reason for this happy outcome is that
the call bypasses the PSTN. Same is true for a call where both
customers use T-Mobile or both customers use AT&T mobile phone
service.</p>
<p>A similar situation presents itself if two would-be communicators
happen to both be Signal users. If you use Signal to call me on
Signal, then your call will bypass the PSTN and it will be free of
charge and it might be high quality and might go through right
away. I have a Signal ID that is sort of like a telephone
number. If you are using Signal, you can call my Signal ID and
your call will bypass the PSTN and it will be free of charge and
it might be a pretty high quality telephone call. If you would
like to try this, drop me a note and I will send you my Signal ID
for an experiment.<br>
</p>
<p>Oh there is another fascinating aspect of all of this. Suppose
you are a VOIP user but your VOIP service provider is not
VOIP.MS. And suppose you want to place a telephone call to me
(and I also use VOIP, in my case through VOIP.MS). Is there a way
to do this that also bypasses the PSTN? The answer is yes. There
is such a thing as a "SIP URI". For example you can "dial" a SIP
URI that is <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:13032528800@sip.oppedahl.com">"13032528800@sip.oppedahl.com"</a> and your call will pass
from your VOIP service provider to my VOIP service provider in a
way that bypasses the PSTN. No matter what country you are in, and
no matter what country I am in, likely as not the call will cost
very little (maybe free or maybe a penny per minute). And the
call might go through pretty fast and might be pretty high
quality.</p>
<p>So where am I going with this in response to Gerry's question?</p>
<p>Part of where I am going with this is to invite people who might
need to call each other to see if by any chance they happen to
both be using the same VOIP service provider. For example maybe
they both use VOIP.MS. If so, then they can bypass the PSTN and
they can make free calls to each other. And the calls will go
through fast and will probably be high quality.</p>
<p>A related concept would be to try to convince other parties to
use the same VOIP service provider that you use.</p>
<p>Still another related concept is to start using Signal if you
have not already done so. If you are a Signal user, and if you
have not already set up a Signal ID for yourself, then set up a
Signal ID for yourself. And try to be alert to the possibility
that some party that you would like to have a conversation with
might also be a Signal user. And you could give them your Signal
ID. Or they could give you their Signal ID. Such phone calls
will bypass the PSTN. <br>
</p>
<p>In your office or personal telephone system, you might want to
set up one or more SIP URIs. Share them with parties who might
need to call you. Send me a SIP URI and I can try calling you.<br>
</p>
<p>Another place that I am going with this is to invite people to
learn about SIP URIs and to make use of them. if you can figure
out how to dial <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:13032528800@sip.oppedahl.com">"13032528800@sip.oppedahl.com"</a> then you can call
my law firm while bypassing the PSTN in your country and bypassing
the PSTN in the United States.</p>
<p>Another thing to realize is that you should have been doing all
of this four years ago. See my blog article <a
href="https://blog.oppedahl.com/shaking-loose-from-the-public-switched-telephone-network-getting-to-know-sip-uris/">Shaking
loose from the Public Switched Telephone Network (getting to
know SIP URIs)</a> which I published on August 31, 2020.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
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