I have been a vonage user for more than two years now and have loved
paying $25 for unlimited national calling.  However, I am moving to
Dubai in a few weeks but still want to "somehow" use my vonage service
to not only make and receive calls from my home phone, but also make
"vonage" calls from my mobile in Dubai to the US.  Sounds somewhat
strange, but I'm thinking there might be some way to call a US number
through my vonage ATA in Dubai and have it go through to the US as a
normal vonage call in my $25/month plan.  Being able to do this both
ways is the ultimate goal.  I'd like people in the US to call my local
Vonage number and have it ring my mobile in Dubai at the same price as
the vonage call.

Here's the there is a rumor that the government telecom monopoly,
Etisilat, is shutting down VOIP services (they already blocked skype),
but I know people who are still using vonage.  For how much longer I
don't know, but that is a big factor in the equation.  How can my
first goal be accomplished knowing that voip might be shutdown.

I know there's somebody out there that can do this.  I've been in
forums all night and I can kinda grasp how to do it, but I need it
explained to me in thorogh detail  - step by step(ie. What equipment I
should buy, what modifications do i have to make, etc, etc, etc.)

This is muy muy importante so google's cap of $200 is well worth it to
me.  I'd go higher if they'd let me.

thank you and I look forward to some genius'

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Clarification of Question by rasalibre42-ga on 23 Dec 2005 20:44 PST

Here's some sites I've been browsing around that should give a good head start.

http://voxilla.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-1241-view-next.html
http://www.sipgate.co.uk/user/index.php
http://sipcpe.com/fxGSM-faqs.html

I just want to say that I was in Dubai from Aug. to Nov. 2005. I was
usging Skype all the time. Etisilat only block skype's offical
website. I believe you still can using your skype service at Dubai.

It's not so much skype i'm interested in, but the way voip calls can
be sent to mobile phones

According to several articles on the net, VOIP is currently illegal in
the United Arab Emirates, including Dubai.  However, this may change
this coming year, according to this article:

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/business/2005/September/business_September653.xml&section=business&col

jbf777
Researcher
Google Answers

I am living in Dubai. I am using service which provide voip service
for USA at the cost of US$0.0190 per minute and if I want to use call
back service, I will give a miss call to my trigger number provided to
me and then a call will receive back which will ask me the number I
wish to call to. I can receive this call back to my mobile, my
landline and even to any part of the World. From UAE, I will be
charged US$0.2867 per minute for a call to USA. If this suits you, I
can be contacted anytime. I will take you directly to the official
place of this call back supplier where you can personally see there
presentation and apply for your account.

I'm not exactly sure what you are talking about with this callback
service.  Can you explain more

khurrum-ga suggestion of the callback service sounds like it may work.
You could also do your own call-forwarding service with asterisk@home
and a SIP termination service.

So you would forward you vonage # through asterisk and have it dial
out a sip termination provider to dial your mobile.

Vonage ATA -> Asterisk -> SIP -> Your mobile
Asterisk http://www.asterisk.org/
Other info http://voip-info.org/wiki/
SIP Termination example  http://connect.voicepulse.com/

If you want to do this I could gather the config files for you.

I am fairly good with computers, but I would need a little help
getting this working. Can you provide?

I don't understand what exactly you are trying to accomplish -- your
terms mobile phone and home phone are a little too nebulous.  If you
just want to be able to make and receive phone calls from your Vonage
ATA device while in Dubai, pack it up and take it with you.  When you
are there, configure it on your high speed net connection the same or
similar way you did at home.  It should not matter that  you are out
of the country.  If you clarify exactly what you want to do a little
more, I'm sure we can figure it out.

You can! Using VoIP services, mobile calls can be routed to your
intended callers using your Mobile-to-Mobile minute plan.

1 First off, this entire concept relies on having an Unlimited
Mobile-to-Mobile plan with your mobile phone service provider. This
will be the basis for all of your incoming and outgoing calls, so
purchasing the cheapest plan available with this option is desired.

2 Now that you have your Unlimited M2M rate plan, you will need
another mobile phone to call. This phone's purpose is to relay
outgoing calls to your VoIP service and forward incoming calls to your
main mobile phone. So any cheap phone that works with your service
provider will suffice. For call clarity, make sure it can recieve
calls with a fairly good signal near your High-Speed Internet
connection. Also, make sure you add some type of Family-Talk plan
option to your mobile phone package.

3 Mobile-to-Mobile is set. Now you need a VoIP provider. Since we are
trying to do this as cheap as possible, I would recommend SunRocket.
They will let you prepay $199 for the entire year which locks in a
rate of $16.58/month. If you use the promo code WBFOGQ, you get two
(2) FREE cordless phones.

NUMBER PORTABILITY:
Most VoIP providers give you the option to have a main number and a
second virtual number. I would recommend that you port over your
current mobile phone number to this second virtual number so your
friends will call your VoIP. (See below on how that call gets
forwarded to your mobile phone.)

4 Communications are setup, now we need the interconnect hardware. We
need to take the mobile phone call data to analog POTS data before our
VoIP can use it. To do this, you will need a Dock-n-Talk Cell Phone
Station or something similiar.

5 Finally, we need to control were our VoIP call will go. So when you
call your 2nd mobile phone using M2M, you need to redirect the call to
your intended destination. The Sipura SPA-3000 was designed
specifically with this in mind. When it receives an call from you, it
then asks you were you would like to redirect it. (Very similar to
using a calling card.)

Email me for diagrams

Don't know if you can Skype but if Skype talk is possible, here's the
solution for you

1) Vosky Call Center - Assume you have a computer with broadband and
telephone land line close to the computer. This is all you need to
enable two way calling. With this setup, all these combinations are
possible
a) Skype(Your Friend!) -> Skype(on your computer) -> Landline ->
External number(You!)
b) Your mobile number -> Landline in Dubai -> Skype on your computer
-> Skype Contact(Your friend)

This is the most economical solution I have discovered after a few
days of intensive research. I'm sure within a few months, there will
be many more manufacturers of this kind of hardware. For enterprises,
Popular Telephony has a product Peerio ONE+ONE which is a
VoIP+Traditional PABX in a telephone box.

Cost of Vosky call center = $70
Cost of Peerio 1+1 = $250

Hope this helps.