• How to add SMS ability to your DIDs
• How to send/receive text messages
• How you can use SMS messaging to be more productive

When: Wed May 29th 10am PST / 1pm EST
Register: Click here to register

Number Porting

Vitelity currently supports over 11,500 rate centers, more than any other VoIP provider in North America. This large footprint helps to ensure that customers can port their numbers seamlessly to Vitelity’s service. Vitelity currently has coverage for more than 97% of the US (including Hawaii and Alaska).

Yellow/White Page Listings

Vitelity is happy to announce that we are now offering Yellow/White Page listing service.  This service is virtually unheard of in the VoIP world and now Vitelity makes it quick and easy to add to your phone numbers.

Vitelity’s Yellow/White Page listing service costs $4.00 for setup/changes and $0.40 cents per month. Our listing service supports Residential and Business listings as well as Federal, State and Local Government listings.

To add directory listing to your Vitelity DID, log into your User Portal and go to the Order page. On the order page you will find a link to the White/Yellow Page listing service.

Directory Assistance Listings

Vitelity also offers Directory Assistance (411) listing service. This service will add your information to the Directory Assistance services database for customers using 411 Assistance to find your company. This service is a one-time setup cost of $5.00. To order this service, use the Directory Listing (411) service link on the order page in your User Portal.

It’s The Network’s Fault

Well, actually the problem is that sending/receiving FAX messages is a real-time process. While the sending FAX machine is sending, the receiving side is capturing the information and assembling the image to be printed. If there is any interruption in the communication stream, the FAX will fail. In a traditional FAX machine using analog phone lines, FAX transmissions can fail due to poor call quality or noise on the line. In a situation using an ATA, jitter or packet loss on the data stream can cause the FAX to fail. While a voice call can handle a few packets lost now and then (they can often be undetected during the call) with a FAX, any data lost is going to affect the FAX.

T.38 To The Rescue

The T.38 protocol was designed to provide a raw data method to transmit FAX’s. In theory, this should work well because the data network is designed for the transmission of data where the voice network wasn’t. 

Since the vast majority of FAX machines in existence today do not have T.38 built in, any FAX machine starts off the call as a regular analog call. If both sides of the call support T.38, the call will still start as an analog call and in theory, will switch to T.38 when the call is then detected as being a FAX. Due to variances in fax-detection timings, this transition does not always go smoothly and sometimes not at all.

The second part of this issue is that VoIP calls typically use UDP which is a “streaming” protocol that does not have inherent packet loss correction and is susceptible to jitter. T.38 tried to avoid this by means of allowing for redundant packets to be sent. In theory, this repetition of data will reduce the possibility of problems due to packet loss. If there are problems with the network, jitter or congestion, this can still cause problems with T.38.

The Vitelity Solution

The original solution for FAX from Vitelity was vFAX. vFAX is a cloud-based FAX solution that offers a web-based send/receive option, FAX to E-Mail, E-Mail to FAX, and a Windows Desktop App to send/receive FAXs and manage the FAX archives. By completely avoiding the voice network and the issues with real-time transmission, vFAX has been a popular option for Vitelity customers for several years.

What vFAX didn’t do was to integrate with the millions of users that still wanted to use their existing FAX machines. The transition to scan-and-send was often clunky, hard to use or was not possible to use due to different legal reasons. What we needed was a hybrid of traditional FAX machines with the vFAX service.

Vitelity’s latest product, FAX Enable offers the best of both worlds with the convenience of a FAX machine and with the robust features and reliability of vFAX.

How Does It Work

FAX Enable is a very simple solution for the user but required some complex technology behind the scenes to make it all work. The FAX Enable device connects to the phone line port on the FAX machine and then connects to your Ethernet network. The FAX Enable device creates a HTTPS connection to the Vitelity Data Center where the FAX is processed and then sent out over the PSTN (public telephone network). By utilizing HTTPS, the entire transaction is encrypted; security is implemented throughout the transmission. Along with our “secret sauce” to ensure that the entire FAX message is sent, FAX Enable ensures that the FAX is properly delivered to the Vitelity Data Center.

In our testing, we routed FAXs from Denver, Colorado through numbers in Alaska and back to numbers in Colorado then out to FAX Enable devices. During our battery of tests, our 85 page test FAX of mixed text and graphics never had a single failure. FAX Enable & vFAX offer a compelling solution to the FAX problem.

The vFAX service costs only $3 per month per DID and $0.03 per minute. The FAX Enable device is a one-time charge of $149. For the typical FAX user, the average cost of a phone line in the US is $55/month. With FAX Enable and vFAX, these customers will save approximately $550 per year off their existing FAX lines.

For more information, or to order vFAX w/FAX Enable, please contact us at (888) 898-4835.

The LNP API

The LNP API consists of four different commands for checking and placing an order. 

checkavail
The checkavail command is used to check the porting availability of a specific DID. The response will be either that porting on that DID is supported or not.

addport
The addport command is the primary command to submit an order. This call will require all of the information needed to place a port order (complete instructions in the API documentation in the user portal). This command may return a status that tell you if you need to supply a current bill and/or signature.

uploadbill
This command allows you to upload a base64 encoded PDF file of a current bill. This command will return a success or failure status.

uploadsignature
This command allows you to upload a base64 encoded JPG, GIF or BMP file of a signature. This command will return a success or failure status.

Vitelity will be showcasing our SIP trunking service as well as our other products and services including:

• FAX Enable / vFAX
• SIP Enable
• Lync Enable
• MyScribbit Voicemail Transcription
• PBX Hosting

Show dates are:

April 15 | Irvine, CA
April 16 | Irvine, CA
April 18 | San Francisco, CA
April 19 | San Francisco, CA
June 3 | Washington, DC
June 4 | Washington, DC
June 6 | Chicago, IL
June 7 | Chicago, IL
August 5 | Atlanta, GA
August 6 | Atlanta, GA
August 8 | Miami, FL
August 9 | Miami, FL

Be sure and reserve your spot by registering today.

How It Works

In a typical configuration a voicemail will come into your company’s phone system and be saved as a .WAV file. The WAV file and some basic caller ID information is then sent to your email with the WAV file as an attachment. This mostly works for people but has the primary disadvantage of forcing you to open the email, then open the WAV file (unsupported on many phones) and then listen to the message. This is a time consuming process and does not work well on all devices.

With MyScribbit.com, the email with the WAV file is sent to MyScribbit’s data center where the WAV file is transcribed by our automated system. When the transcription finishes, usually within a few seconds, an email is sent to you with the transcription as well as the original WAV file.

What Does It Cost?

MyScribbit is just $4.99 per month per voicemail account. This simple model makes it easy to know exactly how much you are going to spend every month. This base package will deliver your transcriptions and the original voicemail file to the email address and SMS phone number you specify.

For a limited time, new users will get 90 days of free service when signing up for MyScribbit at http://myscribbit.com.

Introducing FAX Enable

FAX Enable from Vitelity offers a unique solution that provides you with a number of advanced elements, at a price that is typically less than you are paying for your FAX phone-line today. FAX Enable also allows you to receive FAXs even when your FAX machine is in use, incoming FAXs will queue up and be sent to your FAX machine when it becomes available.

FAX Enable allows you to deactivate your FAX phone- line when using your existing FAX machine, while adding the following features:

• Best-in-class service
• Competitive rates
• Full service user portal
• Free SMS messaging
• Free Voicemail Transcription
• Free CNAM
• Free In-Network Calling
• Free 911 Alerts

Save money and improve your call quality with SIP termination and origination service from the leader in VoIP Service and port your numbers for free!

In addition, we are also offering Free SMS / text messaging, and free outbound caller ID with name (CNAM) in most areas with this offer. If you have been looking to move from your current provider then there is no better time than now.

We will make the transition easy. With the advent new LNP interfaces and the addition of four new LNP staff members, the Vitelity LNP process has dramatically improved. Interested in moving many numbers at once? Open an LNP ticket, and upload your numbers. LNP API will be launched next week for most areas.

Coverage

Vitelity has recently expanded our local DID footprint to become the largest provider in the world. This expanded coverage will help you sell to more people in more places.

* Certain limitations may apply

Using Phonebooks

The first thing you need to do is to create a new phonebook to store the numbers you want to be able to send messages to. In the user portal, go to the SMS tab at the top of the menu bar, and then go to Phonebook tab on the bottom of the menu bar. From there, you can manage existing lists or create a new list.

When you create a new list you can then add the phone numbers to the list. While this works, it does require someone to manually add the numbers to the list whenever you want to add a new contact.

Auto-Subscribe to List

The new auto-subscribe feature allows users to send a shortcode message from their mobile device to be added to the list. If someone wants to be added to the Marketing list, they could send a text message to 99629 with the message Contest. To set this up you first need to go to the Keywords tab and create the keyword to use. The next step is to go to the Manage tab at the bottom of the menu bar. In the form is a new option to Auto Subscribe to list. Select the keyword to be used and select the list to be added to.

Once this is setup you can now have messaging in your marketing material like “To be entered into our contest, text contest to 99629 from your mobile device“. This is just one simple example of how this can be used to build notification lists. In areas with school closures due to snow, parents can be notified if the school is going to be closed for the day. Colleges are using this to notify students of important notices and emergency alerts.

Email to PhonebookOne of the difficulties we have seen when working with bulk SMS lists is having to get customers to log into the portal, navigate to the right area, select lists, and send messages. With the new email-to-phonebook feature, authorized email addresses can send an email to the list name 

This allows you to manage and send text messages to your lists anywhere you are. It will text the email subject to the list of your choice.

Create a Phonebook list

First you will need to create the list to hold the phone numbers you want to send to. This function is in the user portal, use the SMS tab on the top of the menu bar, then go to the Phonebook tab on the bottom of the menu bar, use the form to create a new phonebook list.

Authorized Email Addresses

Before someone can use this function, their email address has to be authorized. To do this, go to the user portal, use the SMS tab on the top of the menu bar, then go to the Email to Send tab on the bottom of the menu bar, use the form to add authorized email addresses.

Sending to the list

For example:
If you were a teacher you could create a list for the parents of your students called “students”.

Now if you wanted to announce homework for this list of students you would do the following:

• Open your email client
• Put the To: students@mailmysms.com
• Put the Subject: Hello parents, your student has homework in his math class today. Please make sure he brings it in tomorrow.
• Now send your email 

To send a message to the phonebook list, send an email from an authorized email to <listname>@mailmysms.com.

Your email should look like this:

To:	students@mailmysms.com
Subject:	Hello parents, your student has homework in his math class today. Please make sure he brings it in tomorrow.
Body:	(blank)

Email To Text Without Lists

This function allows you to send text messages to a list of numbers not part of a pre-created group  In order to use this feature, the email address that is sending the message must be in the authorized email list as shown above.

Say you want to send a text message to a group of people who you don’t have a list for. 

Example:
You have a group of customers who you need to send an emergency text message to. Their numbers are 303-300-3000, 949-777-3333 and 303-999-3333. 

• Open your email client
• Put the To: send@mailmysms.com
• Put the Subject: We have an emergency at our building and will not be able to accept customers on site right now

In the body of the message put the phone numbers of your customers, line by line. 
This means type the customers phone number, then hit enter, and type your next number. 

Your email should look like this: 

Summary

Hopefully these new features will allow greater flexibility for you and your customers for using the Vitelity SMS and Shortcode services. Be sure and let us know how you are utilizing these features and if you have requests for any new features you would like to see added.