[Patentpractice] impossible to place international telephone calls? (was impossible to place a telephone call to China?)

[Gerry Peters]

Carl, thank you very much for taking the time to write up such a clear
and helpful introduction to the world of VOIP.

I use Signal extensively: I've managed to get most family, friends,
and even a few clients to use Signal with me instead of email.
An often-underappreciated fact (until you see your bill) is that
international texts via one's regular phone provider can be
quite expensive; here also, Signal comes to the rescue, as
international texts via Signal are free (at least I'm pretty sure they
are free; my accountant, a.k.a. wife, no longer complains).

Thanks for mentioning your blog posts from a few years ago on the
subject of VOIP, which I read with great interest around the time you
first published them. My conclusion at the time was that, though
facinating, DIY VOIP was not for the faint of heart. 

Though still not for the faint of heart, it's looking more and more
unavoidable, so I especially appreciated your overview and reminder
about your blog posts on the topic.

Many thanks,

---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


>> BEGIN MSG ID ee4f1968-065c-4b75-a59c-b4085745bf5a at oppedahl.com <<

Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2025 02:57:23 -0600
From: Carl Oppedahl 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: Carl Oppedahl
<carl at oppedahl.com> Subject: [Patentpractice] impossible to place
international telephone calls? (was impossible to place a telephone
call to China?)

On 6/17/2025 8:49 PM, Gerry Peters via Patentpractice wrote:
> 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...

It is interesting to think of different possible ways to conduct 
international telephone calls.

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.

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.

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.

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.

 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 /*into*/ 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 /*into*/ the PSTN of that government's country.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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
"13032528800 at sip.oppedahl.com" 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.

So where am I going with this in response to Gerry's question?

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.

A related concept would be to try to convince other parties to use the 
same VOIP service provider that you use.

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.

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.

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 "13032528800 at sip.oppedahl.com" then you can call my law firm while 
bypassing the PSTN in your country and bypassing the PSTN in the United 
States.

Another thing to realize is that you should have been doing all of this 
four years ago.__ See my blog article Shaking loose from the Public 
Switched Telephone Network (getting to know SIP URIs) 
<https://blog.oppedahl.com/shaking-loose-from-the-public-switched-telephone-network-getting-to-know-sip-uris/
> which I published on August 31, 2020.


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