[Patentpractice] impossible to place a telephone call to China?

[Gerry Peters]

I can confirm that calling the US (particularly the USPTO) from here
(Japan) has gotten harder and harder over the last year or two. I have
(or had) about five (5) providers for calling the US, of which I
think probably _none_ work reliably now. Paid Skype was one of the
last to go, but Microsoft completed its destruction of Skype in May and
so that option is no longer available (or at least not without a bit of
hacking). One of the more bizarre behaviors that was the first hint of
trouble about a year or so ago was that calling in for a conference
call with an Examiner and her SPE successfully got me to the automated
message telling me to hold for other participants, but then apparently
silently disconnected me, as the Examiners later told me that _they_
were waiting for _me_ to join the call when from my end I was told to
wait for _them_ to join call. No fast busy signal, no dial tone, just
silence (leading me to believe I was still on hold) for on the order of
30 minutes. This happened two days in a row before I eventually
concluded it was either their PBX or some mutual provider
incompatibility that was gumming up the works and I was inspired to
try a different provider which thankfully happened to work for me then,
but which I have reason to believe (because of similar experience since
then with another party) no longer works now. 

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...

"Things fall apart; the center canot hold."

---Gerry

Gerry Peters
U.S. Patent Agent & Japanese Translator

JTT K.K. (OSAKA & TOKYO JAPAN)
JTT PATENT SERVICES, LLC (NH USA)
JTT TRANSLATION SERVICES, LLC (NH USA)
--------------------------------------------------
TEL +1 206 203 5010	EMAIL	info at jttpatent.com
FAX +1 206 203 5020	WEB  	www.jttpatent.com


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Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2025 22:14:12 -0400
From: Rick Neifeld via Patentpractice
<patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com> To: "For patent practitioners. This
is not for laypersons to seek legal advice."
<patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com> Cc: Rick Neifeld
<richardneifeld at gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Patentpractice] impossible to
place a telephone call to China?

On a related note:

"I Overview
While Zoom isn't officially banned in China, access to the platform is
heavily restricted. The experience varies across different regions, with
some areas allowing access while others block it completely. Some users
have reported difficulty accessing Zoom or even having accounts blocked,
while others have found that Zoom works well within China. "



On Mon, Jun 16, 2025 at 9:19 AM Carl Oppedahl via Patentpractice <
patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com> wrote:

> Yes and thank you as well for posting this page.
> On 6/16/2025 4:53 AM, Randall Svihla wrote:
>
>
> https://help.talk360.com/en/articles/122794-experiencing-difficulties-making-calls-to-or-from-china
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com>
> <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> *On Behalf Of *Carl
> Oppedahl via Patentpractice
> *Sent:* Monday, June 16, 2025 6:45 AM
> *To:* For patent practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek
> legal advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
> <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
> *Cc:* Carl Oppedahl <carl at oppedahl.com> <carl at oppedahl.com>
> *Subject:* [Patentpractice] impossible to place a telephone call to
> China?
>
>
>
> Today I picked up my office phone and tried to dial the telephone
> number of a patent firm in China.  The country code is 86, of course
> (China) and the next couple of digits are 10 (for Beijing).  I got a
> fast busy signal.
>
> I opened a ticket with our telephone company (VOIP.MS).  What I heard
> back was a surprise:
>
> Due to new regulations in China currently VoIP calls aren't
> connecting to the called destinations.
>
> This makes it sound like it's not just me.  Maybe nobody from
> anywhere in the world is able to place telephone calls to China?
>
> Have others run into this?
>
> --
> Patentpractice mailing list
> Patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com
>
> http://oppedahl-lists.com/mailman/listinfo/patentpractice_oppedahl-lists.com
>

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