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I have been with FreePhoneLine for about a week. Service GREAT! BUUUUUTTTT the answering machine went on a funny mode for about a day. When I called my voicemail, the SIP got disconnected; I had to reset it every single time. When I went on the website. that particular tab was BLANK!!! If they have problems at least they should email you automatically!!! I expect. I had issues but they and 24 hrs later they contacted me and help me to solve my issues, they explained me the changes they are bringing to their system. I understand that portion but they should have better customer service by now. Anyways Great service after all!!! I would recommended to everyone, just be patient sometimes. Notes: Web-Site: Guys, A LOT to improve! 3/5 Installation: despite the lack of information from them, the forums are GREAT Call Quality: I cannot denied... 100% and no issues whatsoever Reliability: the voice service so far GREAT Tech Support: Guys YOU DO need a couple of phone lines (there are some "free" LOL) Value for money: 5/5 no doubts now BTW: ATA is Cisco SPA122, no issues. 25Mb network, the only thing is, my modem is connected to the WAN port on the ATA and the LAN port from the ATA to the router, so the ATA will handle the QoS. Both the router and the ATA will have different networks (192.128.15.1 and 192.128.1.1) Regards. member for 9.1 years, 3 visits, last login: 8.1 years ago updated 9.1 years ago
I've been a customer for well over 4 years. Paid a one time fee of $50 to "access config file" basically username and password for my ATA and so far everything works as advertised. I have e911, which i haven't tested yet but it's a plus. Free phone number with it. They did have some call quality issues awhile back but those have since been history. I'm not sure why everyone doesn't switch to them. I don't call long distance, and everywhere i call is within their allowed list without funds in my account. member for 13.3 years, 1906 visits, last login: 6 years ago lodged 9.1 years ago
I ported my landline from bell which cost $80 and included the 'voip unlock code' (which is just the SIP credentials). Took I think a week to activate and port the number. No problems with them after about 2 years of service, call quality is great! Using a Linksys PAP2 & have QoS setup on my router to give priority to the PAP2. Can call anywhere in Canada and not pay a cent, I've setup other family members with this service. Some are out of town, but got them both a local number and a 647 number since they have friends in Toronto so people can call them without paying long distance. All-in-all excellent service, no complaints, would recommend using it. member for 19.9 years, 1143 visits, last login: 147 days ago updated 9.2 years ago
I am providing this review based on my personal experience with FreePhoneLine.ca, which is greatly mixed. If you're looking for a free phone line, this company truly offers it. For the most part it is user friendly, with good call quality. Some calls would get choppy now and then, but would fix themselves after a few minutes. My biggest concern relates to privacy and is why I would not recommend them, ever. I had left the application open to receive calls as anyone would normally do as it acts as a phone line this way. At 5:45 in the morning, I heard a voice coming from my computer next to me saying, "Hello? Is anyone there?". I immediately popped up the app to figure out what was going on, and noticed that a call had become active automatically from a stranger. This stranger was listening into my home for over 10 minutes before they said anything. It was not only the scariest thing ever that has happened to me on a computer, but it was also a complete invasion of my privacy. I immediately quit the application to end the call, and deleted it in fear of a hacker continuing to use it to access my computer through the vulnerability of the software. Do not get this application for that reason alone. (review was emailed from domain me.com) lodged 9.4 years ago
For those who don't know, Freephoneline advertise providing you a free phone number and a software where you can receive and make free call to many cities in Canada. Also, you can buy for $50 a configuration file to use with your own VOIP ATA adapter or buy a preprogrammed adapter for $99. This way, you can use any regular phone work as if you have a regular land line. Many cities are not part of their free cities, so you need to pay long distance fee that are needs to be prepaid. I have been a freephoneline user since 2010 and ditched Bell completely when I bought the configuration file for my Linksys SPA-2102 in may 2011. I spend about $5 a month in long distance using the service and paid the $50 configuration file. Lately I was having some problems with my line. I stopped having a dial tone on a Friday a couple of weeks ago. I called for technical support and was told that they had a server problem and I should reset my ATA two hours later and the problem should be resolved. It didn't resolve the problem, and couldn't take the time to resolve the problem the Saturday, so I didn't have a line for the whole week end. The week later I called and spoke to someone that would do something and call me back after on my cell phone. Never had a call back. Called again and spoke to someone that told me that can't help me as I was not in front of the computer and the ATA when I called. I finally was able to have someone resolve the issue after 4 calls and speaking with 4 different technical support assistants. Last week, I started having the exact same problem. The only difference is that every single time I called to get support it hung up and asked me to call later. Both with French and English support. I sent a service request and was told that my description of the problem was too vague to work on the issue. I replied to look back at the closed service request as I had the same problem as last time. I wrote down every troubleshooting steps I have done and asked to be called back on my cell. 3 days later, still no call. Called service over 10 times using my cell and it always disconnect me. I even tried leaving my phone number to be called back when trying to reach the tech support for client that purchased the adapter. Got an auto call about 20 minutes later and I WAS STILL ON HOLD. Even worst, after waiting another 5 minutes I got disconnected. ARGGH!!! I called back and chose the purchase department. Obviously, this one took my call directly. I explained my problem to the guy and he told me that he could help me as he is also a tech. I explained my problem and he looked into my account. He told me that my problem is that the Follow me setting was enabled and there was no number to transfer to. This is why I was getting directly in the voicemail when calling from my cell. I told him I haven't enabled that feature and even if I would it wouldn't prevent me from getting a dial tone. He told me to open the software and disconnect my ATA to test it. I replied that I was not home, I could start the software, but not disconnect the ATA. He told me probably the ATA was the problem. I told him I have already tried doing what he told and still wasn't able to receive calls using the software. He told me the problem was because someone enabled call forwarding. When I arrived home during lunch time, I disconnected the ATA, started the software and still couldn't receive calls from it. I logged in the software using another account and it worked fine. I verified that call forwarding was not set on and it wasn't. Got back to work to come back about 4 hours later, I called back Fongo. While I was on the phone waiting, I connected back the ATA and to my surprise everything was working fine. Disconnected the ATA and tried the software and everything was OK. I guess that someone there saw my service request reply and resolved the issue. In my 10 years working in the computer and network business, I haven't seen such bad support except when I was threatened by a Dell technician. I know some people would say they advertise free service so I shouldn't expect good technical support, but as I paid $50 for the configuration file and spend about $5 a month in long distance, I think I should at least have some sort of support when I consider that using the VOIP.MS service would cost me roughly the same amount. member for 9.4 years, 1 visits, last login: 9.4 years ago lodged 9.4 years ago
Point fort: Un seul payement de 50$ pour la configuration sip et appel local illimité. Aucun frais de e911 mensuelle Site web bilingue Options inclus : afficheur, boite vocal, conférence à trois, redirection de la ligne. Logiciel gratuit (Windows et Mac). Point faible: Très peu support actif sur leur forum (pour se qu'on paye...). Seulement en anglais leur forum. Aucun logiciel pour téléphone intelligent. Pas de fonction de déactivé les options. Limité à 1 activation de fxs member for 17.3 years, 2267 visits, last login: a few hours ago lodged 9.5 years ago
I cancelled my landline and I regret why I didn't do it sooner. This saves me at least $25 a month and it works pretty well. Compared to other VOIP companies, features are minimalistic. There are no fancy features other than call forwarding and voicemail. However, this is ok given what they charge for the service and the fact their audience is home users not a business. Their free coverage area is pretty good. I support them with international calls as I do want this company to exist for a long time. Remember: next cheapest company to have your own DID in Western Canada, you are looking at minimum $3~ a month including E911 fees AND you have to pay for every minute of outgoing calls. I believe users should support them for this reason alone. I sometimes get registration error but it gets fixed within seconds so I don't think I'm missing any calls. There was big outage once but it was one-time event and not a regular occurrence by any count. Their tech support is based overseas. Most of them sticks to scripts but they can solve most basic issues just fine. Their development and bug fixes are quite slow and they could improve on that. member for 9.7 years, 38 visits, last login: 9.6 years ago updated 9.7 years ago
I've been using this for about a year and now I can write. In simple words, I like it. It is for residential use only therefore lacks some advanced features such as caller ID filtering or callback/DISA/sub-accounts however those are not great importance for home use. Reliability has been good. There was one day outage this year and occasional evening congestion but they appear to be continually working on it. I see signs of growing company, not a status quo. Even with slight annoyance with tech support when needed (overseas), I just have to give this company 5-stars for everything. It is well run, dynamic, young, employees are answering questions on their forum - you just don't see that from bigger guys. Yeah development takes long time but we aren't paying them monthly for service either. With Telus going up to $27/mo, initial investment of $50 + $25 porting(optional) will pay for itself in a few months. No wonder SHAW has to offer their phone for $10 a month. Don't tell me about their "unlimited package" at $30+ as I would never reach that amount with my LD usage with FPL. member for 9.7 years, 7 visits, last login: 9.7 years ago updated 9.7 years ago
I signed up for the forwarding feature 18 months ago. About a year ago I took the plunge and purchased the SIP settings for $50. The annoying thing was that I had to do that over the phone and customer service was only available during work hours. I bought this service as a trial initially and at first the voice quality and reliability was somewhat flaky. Now (for at least the past six months) Freephoneline.ca has become our primary phone line. Our physical home number is now forwarding calls to our Freephoneline. (UPDATE 2012-05-24: you can now purchase SIP settings directly from the website) The only problem we are having is that it sometimes takes over 45 seconds before connecting on outgoing calls but the sound quality is very good (19 out of 20 calls). (UPDATE 2012-05-24: the connection delay problem is more infrequent as of late). I've now purchased a second SIP for my wife to use on her VoIP capable cellphone and setup a the PC software and account for my father for when he travels. I highly recommend this service to Canadians. Best way to get away from Bell. UPDATE 2012-05-24: I've recently ported my home phone number to a third account with Freephoneline.ca and I am finally Bell free  The transfer took about 2 weeks from the day I put the order through by calling Freephoneline.ca; the only real issue I've had with Freephoneline is that every time I've called customer service, I found it difficult to get clear answers to my questions, for example at the time of placing my order to port my home number, the CSR couldn't clearly answer if I could port my number to an existing FPL account without losing my existing FPL number (i.e. having 2 numbers on the same FPL account). So to be safe, I ended up creating a new FPL account before porting my number. member for 19.2 years, 1253 visits, last login: 4 years ago updated 9.8 years ago
(Sept 2011 and Mar 2012 update at bottom) Wow is all I can say. I got fed up with Bell about 5 years ago. $70 per month for a home phone. I switched to my cable company and their home phone offering for $25 per month and all services and LD included. Great deal and the voice quality was good. Time went on and the cable company decided they were going to start treating their customers like the phone companies had been. The $25/mo went to $30/mo, then to $35. Some "promotional pricing" expired and the $35/mo became $45.95. Then another $2/mo took it to $48 per month. I was almost paying the same as I was to Bell 5 years ago. What happened? I sure wasn't getting more service, I'll tell you that. I'd mulled over VoIP several years ago but was happy paying the $25 to the cable company for no hassle. The last $2 increase was the straw that broke the camel's back. I started looking. I found FreePhoneLine.ca and started researching just how it could work. They'd been around for a few years and are owned by Fibernetics and have many business clients across Canada. Here's the deal. They offer a DID for free. This is a phone number that belongs to you once you register. You can use it for free with a softphone client through your computer. This part didn't interest me - I'm looking for a home phone solution. Here's where it gets interesting: For $50, they'll sell you a configuration file - basically a username and password to their SIP server. For $50 you can buy their preconfigured ATA or you can use your own. This allows you to use your existing home telephones to make calls over your high speed Internet connection. You just pick up the phone, get a dialtone and dial as if you had a Bell line. If you want to keep your existing phone number, it's a $25 fee to port your number over. That's it. $125 in up front cost and you keep your home phone number. (Or just $100 and you use the number FPL assigns you.) From there on, there are no costs whatsoever unless you make long distance calls to areas outside their coverage. Almost everywhere in ON and QC is covered. Major areas elsewhere in Canada are covered. Smaller towns in BC, AB, SK etc., aren't covered. These calls cost $0.02/min. See the list of cities at »www.freephoneline.ca/cityListing Downsides? Porting my number took about a month. I had to follow up with FPL several times. It wasn't a big deal but it definitely wasn't as smooth as it could have been. Having said that, when the port finally went through, it was instant. Customer support is good although they are out of the Bahamas and don't always seem to have the most up-to-date information on the accounts. You need a good quality Internet connection to ensure the VoIP will work well. If you're a heavy downloader (read: torrenter) you'll definitely want a router with QoS to ensure that there is always enough bandwidth left over to sustain a voice call. If you don't and you end up saturating your bandwidth, one or both parties on the phone call will start breaking up. I already had QoS on my router and it took all of 90 seconds to enable it and configure it. I would not recommend this solution to anyone who doesn't know how to configure a router single-handedly. An ATA is very similar to a router. I ended up using a Linksys PAP2T. With the default settings, my audio was perfect but the other party on a phone call would complain of hearing their own voice echo. I tweaked a few of the gain settings and the echo has completely disappeared. There are many sites and forums that will help you with this type of troubleshooting but some people just want a solution without any of these types of "hassles". For those people, there is Bell and your cable company. To fix the echo took me about 5 minutes of researching and about 30 seconds to make the fix. The longest part was calling a few people to see if they still had echo. 15 minutes of my time, (and theirs!), is worth it to me for a $0/mo phone bill. If I had known it would be this easy, I'd have made this switch years ago. The quality of the voice calls is equal to a landline if not better and I've had zero downtime in three months so far. Other users have reported downtime a couple of years ago but FPL was in its infancy and has invested a lot into hardware since then. I did a lot of research before signing up and the consensus is that it's a very stable system. FPL doesn't have as many features as some other SIP providers. They're fairly slow to add functionality but seriously, look at the price. VoIP.ms is one of FPL's highly rated competitors who offers a ton of features but you'll probably end up paying around $5/mo. Check out both sites to see which you prefer. tl;dr: Highly recommended; fantastic service for a price that literally can't be beat. Sept 2011 update: Still going strong. Not one single outage so far. Call quality is amazing. Many calls have been in the 2+ hour range. Cost so far (approx 6 months usage) : ~$155 incl taxes. (Includes LD vouchers.) Cost for cable company phone for 6 months: $332 incl taxes. (LD included) Extrapolating my LD usage to a year, I'd be at $166 incl taxes for FPL and $664 for the cable company. Presuming the cable company doesn't raise prices, a 5 year extrapolation gives my total cost for FPL to be $256 and the cable company to be $3320. That's over $3000 difference. What more is there to say? FYI: The reason the FPL costs are increasing is because I use around $10 of long distance every 6 months to areas not included in the free calling. Mar 2012 update: There was an outage around two weeks ago on a Sunday. I only noticed it for about three or four hours but many users on the forums seemed to have issues (complete disconnection) for ten to twelve hours. This was the first outage I have experienced in my time with FPL. The feeling on the forums is that it is related to FPL's partnership with Dell and the vast increase in the amount of users in a short time overloading the servers. It hit at a bad time when all the offices were closed. It took several hours to even notify the FPL staff and I believe it only occurred by chance when one of the FPL staff happened upon a quickly growing forum post with dozens of users discussing the outage. Anyway, all was fixed in the end and it happened on a beautiful sunny weekend so I spent most of the day outside. Keeping the outage aside, the service has been exemplary. FPL has added more calling areas to their included cities list which means that there is only one number I regularly call which isn't a free call. My long distance costs were minimal before but are even less now. I am still extremely happy with the service. I don't remember my Bell telephone line ever going down. My Cogeco phone was definitely less reliable than FPL though. I would usually have three or four major issues per year with it, some lasting for many hours. Cogeco's PSTN gateway (ability to call from Cogeco's network to Bell or other networks) often had chronic issues. Am I biased in favour of FPL? Probably. It's hard not to be once you've used them. member for 15.1 years, 205 visits, last login: 9.5 years ago updated 9.9 years ago
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