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Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: k2p2p
  • Cost: $22 per month
Good Price, service as stated, no lock-in required, no cancellation fees
Some info missing in paperwork re VM dial in numbers, but otherwise very good
More impressed than I imagined with ease of use, price, set-up ..what a difference from Bell.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Hello,

Recently I ordered Vonage in Canada. I promptly cancelled, due to
issues with incorrect information from start to finish. The time trying
to resolve the issue(s) was too lengthy.

I went looking on-line for an alternative, and found it with Babytel.
Since sign-up to babyTel, I have had exactly what I expected for
slightly better pricing than Vonage, and no customer cancellation fees.
The option of renting the phone box was good for me, in case I didn't like the service. Set-up was so easy, especially for a non-technical person.

I don't plan on cancelling, and highly recommend babytel. As a note, I cancelled Bell Canada, due to extended service related and billing errors and the expense, that eventually had my writing to the President of Bell Canada. The response from the Bell head office was - too bad. The Vonage sign-up, was turning into one of those and I simply cancelled.

(review was emailed from domain kpmg.ca)
lodged 17.6 years ago

ahamel
join:2004-09-19
Grand-Mere, QC

ahamel

Member

Babytel en français

Babytel is great.
I was with Vonage (2 years) and I had a lot of problem.
I am with Babytel (6 months): no problem, better sound quality, less whistles and bells but lower price.
Je recommande chaudement babytel qui, pour les francophones, a un avantage non négligeable: le service est offert en français. J'en suis ravi.

Review by docbill0 See Profile

  • Location: Stoney Creek, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $17 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 3 days
Quality line, working features, excellent tech support, good price. Can
Small feature set and no unlimited plan for USA calling.
Happy for now
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Review of www.babyTel.ca. A Canadian VoIP Company.

I ordered the service on a Sunday, and the hardware arrived via FedEx on Wednesday. I was pleasantly surprised, as I had not realized the box had already been shipped. However, when installing I ran into technical difficulties. The box could not connect to Cogeco's DHCP service. Unfortunately no manual was included, so I had to disconnect the box and login online to read the documentation to try and find the problem. After trying the obvious configuration changes, I decided to brave technical support. The phone line range directly to the technician, and he answered on the first ring. The technician then called me back so I would not need to pay for a long phone call. After various attempts, he finally suggested we place the azatel onto a spare port of my D-Link router, instead of connecting directly to the cable modem. That did the trick.

I am quite pleased the line quality. This particular unit will can use regular phone line as a backup, so I can dial 911 through my residential line. After making a few test calls, I found out toll free numbers count against my 500 minutes, so I configured the box to use the backup line for toll free numbers as well. The temporary voice mail pin did not work, but I dropped an e-mail and it was reset by morning. I've tested and phone voice messages arrive on my gmail account within seconds of completing a call.

Overall I am happy, but I will use the line more before referring friends.

Initial costs: $129+GST for setup fee and hardware.

-- Update --

BabyTel nolonger offers the $16.95 plan for bussiness, but they are still honouring the plan for existing customers. The old $16.95 plan counts all incomming and outgoing minutes. The new $16.95 residential plan only counts outgoing minutes. Babytel still offers excellent customer service.

-- Update -- Oct 9, 2005

After eleven months my Aztel stopped working. I called babyTel, and they debugged and fixed the problem. Two months later, the same problem occured but this time they couldn't fix it. BabyTel sent me a new Linksys for free. I was expecting to have to argue with them because the warrentee had run out, but they offered the replacement without a word from me. The linksys is much better than the Aztel, but I would still recommend the Aztel since you can get the Admin password to program it for another service if need be. The linksys is hardware locked to use babyTel.

BabyTel now offers all the same services as the other guys, including 911. I am still quite pleased with their service.

member for 19.9 years, 16 visits, last login: 18.4 years ago
updated 18.4 years ago


soupalognon
@51-131-66.mc.videotr

soupalognon

Anon

911

Hello, i would like to know exactly how you automaticly switch to Bell Line when you dian 911 or 1-800xxx

i'm trying to program the Speed Dial but if i enter *99911 it's not working, i get a busy tone, it's not even trying to use the bell line.

So i would really appreciate if you can teach me how to program the Azatel unit.

Regards,

Soupalognon
docbill0
join:2004-04-29
Stoney Creek, ON

docbill0

Member

Re: 911

As far as I can it just 911 without any escape character should work. As for 800 numbers you can program them but I found it more convenient just to hit star 99 wait a few seconds and then dial the number.

Sorry can't be more detail but it's been several months since I've looked at the manual.

Bill
docbill0

docbill0 to soupalognon

Member

to soupalognon
It seems within 60 days all VOIP services in Canada must offer 911 services directly. So in a another two months this won't be an issue. Maybe I'll finally be able to switch my residence line to VOIP as well.

Bill

Review by babytelrevie See Profile

  • Location: St John'S, NL, Canada
  • Cost: $24 per month
  • Install: about 80 days
Good avaibility for Canada
No Virtual Numbers
Good service for the Price.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I was looking a lot of website of Voip company and I was unsure if the quality was good.
I decided to look all the company of VOIP in Canada and give a try to this new technologie. I was looking for a reliable and cheap Voip Service.

What made me go for Babytel :

- 14 days money back guarante.
- Unlimited plan for only 24.95$ CAD (Vancouver, Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener, London, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Halifax, Calgary and Edmonton are FREE)
- They are using SIP
- They allow you to use Asterisk.

So far so good.
It taked me 1 minute to configure X-Lite to try the service. It was weird the first time to receive a real phone call on the computer. Since this time, we have installed a Asterisk server that connect to babytel service. I bought a Budge Tone - 100 (GrandStream) that connects to my asterisk server. With this set up I am able to do everything I want : forwarding, voice mail, extension, etc. If you understand what I am saying, I haven't bought the Babybox adaptor ( Adaptor like vonage offer ) to plug my phone in ( Babytel sell or rent this adaptor ).

The quality of the line is very good. No one where able to tell me that I was on a diffrent line. The only problem I have it was my internet connection speed. When I was downloading too much, the phone line was cutting. But this is not due to Babytel, but to my internet connection. They only way to be sure there is no cutting, is to plug the adaptor of babytel directly on the Cable Modem (Or DSL Modem).

The only thing I hate from Babytel, there are no virtual number. I have talk with the people of babytel, and they say they will offer this option, but they don't have a schedule for now.

I recommend this provider to every one. Help a small company !!!



member for 19.1 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 19.1 years ago


AmiCalmant
@rocler.com

AmiCalmant

Anon

Virtual numbers are here

I just subscribed to BabyTel tonight after a friend of mine invited me. I can tell that one year after the above post, virtual numbers are here:

» »tinyurl.com/8932h