Are international VOIP calls into Thailand blocked by the junta's new "Great Firewall"?

[Bruce404]

In the last 24 hours, starting 29 November, from overseas in the USA, I tried and failed to use my VOIP (voice over internet protocol) long-distance telephone service provider (IBN Intertelecom, which uses Global Crossing overseas cables) several times to call two different phone numbers in Thailand. I was trying to reach Thai mobile numbers with prefixes 85 and 89; the latter is a DTAC number, not sure about the 85 prefix.

In all cases, after the US long-distance provider accepted the dialed numbers and played the message "please wait a moment", or something similar, the calls were disconnected, hearing some 20 seconds later my local phone company advising with its routine off-the-hook error message, that "If you would like to make a call, please hang up."

I called my long-distance VOIP provider, who told me this was the second such complaint they received from a customer trying to use the internet (via VOIP) to call into Thailand, and they would followup on the situation. The agent informed me that calls are immediately disconnected if there is no success connecting to the dialed number.

Is anyone else from the USA, or elsewhere outside of Thailand, having trouble getting through to either mobile or wire-line phones in Thailand?

Interestingly, after failing yesterday to use my wire-line phone in the USA to make one of these calls, I was able to use Skype from a mobile telephone to call the same number. So Skype was working, while my wire-line phone was not, even though both are presumably VOIP services.

PS. To identify who is carrying one's long-distance ("InterLATA") wire-line phone traffic within and from the USA, dial (toll-free): 1-700-555-4141.

To learn what company is carrying one's within-state "intraLATA" toll calls, dial 1-[one's 3-digit area code]-700-4141 (this may fail with some VOIP providers, I learned).

Edited November 30, 2015 by Bruce404

[RichCor]

Skype calls can actually be carried over the IP network all the way into the country you're calling before eventually being transferred the "Circuit Switched" PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) and connected to the destination 'phone number'.

While it's possible that IBN Intertelecom has a dedicated "VoIP-PSTN Gateway" in Thailand (and agreements to connect to the various provider networks), most likely the IBN Intertelcom is connecting to a Thailand-bound 'call bearer' in the US, routing the call over an additional dedicated Circuit Switched or cheaper Packet Switched network to complete the call. All the 'hops' and conversion from network to network, to network, sometimes can cause issues to crop up ...and drop the call.

[ukrules]

What firewall ?

[Pib]

I used VOIP from the USA and from within Thailand for over a decade. Sometimes when still living in the U.S. over 7 years ago (way, way before this Great Firewall talk) I would sometimes have a hard time getting a VOIP call through to Thailand...but it was always my VOIP service provider in the U.s. like Vonage, Packet 8, etc., that was the source of the problem.

I remember one time when for about a week I was having intermittent, but still pretty bad, VOIP call problems to Thailand...I was bending my U.S. VOIP providers tech support ear pretty bad...they finally got the problem fixed and said it was a problem with their network....some new routing they are had started using (i.e.., to lower their bandwidth costs).

But back to current day, I have some family members in the U.S. who call me here in Bangkok via VOIP...they are having no problems. And my VOIP calls out of Thailand to the U.S. via VOIP services are working fine.

[JMWPACIFIC]

Skype is working fine and is excellent as usual.

[Bruce404]

As the original poster, my thanks to those who commented above with technical explanations and their current experience. The problem with my dial-1 IBN Intertelecom interLATA provider and its Global Crossing international carrier persists.

The IBN service rep said the problem had to do with one of two final carriers (my generic term, although "call bearers" may be the right technical term, as RichCor explained above) that it uses to route VOIP calls into the Thailand PSTN (see RichCor for definition).

In any case, I have purchased and await an analog telephone adapter (ATA) to begin directing the unused line 2 of my plain-old-telephone-service (POTS) handsets to use my broadband cable modem for outgoing voice-over-internet-protocol international calls from the USA. Line 1 will continue to be connected to the wire-line POTS for incoming calls.

Anyone in Thailand with experience -- good or bad -- using an ATA in Thailand to connect one or more analog POTS handsets (or residential cordless PBXs) to their DSL/coaxial-cable/fiber broadband service to make outgoing or receive incoming international calls? Naming specific ATA brands and VOIP providers (e.g., Vonage, VoipVoip.com, VOIP.ms, CALLcentric, etc.) would be appreciated.

PS. Re: the question above about "what firewall?", see:

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/10/7/great-firewall-thailand-internet.html

<http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/10/7/great-firewall-thailand-internet.html>

Edited December 2, 2015 by Bruce404

[mogoso]

My Skype and MagicJack are working quite well.