Voip or Land Line ? ( Canada ) in VOIP Tech Chat http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r21499432 en Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:04:19 EDT Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:04:19 EDT Re: Voip or Land Line ? ( Canada ) http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21502461 Gwai Lo Dan :
said by Ndxik :

I'm just moving .. And i wonder if could use Voip instead of local phone company ...

any Voip provider offers free local phones ? ( same as local operarator )

PS. Im in Canada - Ontario - Stoney Creek
I am down the road in St. Catharines and recommend ciktel. They have a promo for $7.77/month (but prepaid for a year) where you can get a Hamilton number with free calling to Toronto, Vancouver and other major Canadian cities (in addition to free local calling). Check www.ciktel.com.

I bought an ATA from them today (the Linksys RTP300) for $50 and it seems like a great deal.

Their focus market is Chinese though, so be ready for the phone to be answered in Mandarin. They will switch to English if your Mandarin is poor :D]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21502461 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:32:35 EDT Re: Voip or Land Line ? ( Canada ) http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21501274 edmidor : I wouldn't include Acanac in the recommended list. Do just one google query - you'll see why.

I remember there was bramatelecom.com, I haven't seen anything bad about it yet.

I would say go with voip.ms - their Canadian rates are unbeatable, and quality is more the decent.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21501274 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:29:18 EDT Re: Voip or Land Line ? ( Canada ) http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21500904 PX Eliezer :
said by DracoFelis See Profile :

However, even with the cell phone, I still think that it's very cheap "insurance" to have at least one "backup" VoIP provider, for those times your primary VoIP provider is down for any reason.
Excellent advice!

For a backup VoIP provider, as DracoFelis said, could consider Pay-As-You-Go outbound plans. Because this is just for backup, you can choose to not get an inbound plan.

For this backup, you could consider:

Callwithus (good service, low rates, no monthly fees, no minimums, no 911 but no 911 fee either).

CallCentric (great service, good rates, their Pay-Per-Call plan has no monthly fee or minimum, there is reasonable 911 fee of $ 1.50 per month)

Similar outbound services from Voip.MS (pay as you go with great rates, no monthly fee, no minimums, 911 is optional)

And Pay As You Go Calling from Inphonex.com, a one-time deposit of $ 9.95, to be used for calls within a year, no 911 on this plan.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21500904 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:37:05 EDT Re: Voip or Land Line ? ( Canada ) http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21500701 DracoFelis :
said by PX Eliezer See Profile :

I do think that if your home has pretty decent electric and internet services,
That reminds me. I forgot to mention that a cheap UPS (backup power) for your networking and VoIP equipment (including your phones, if they are powered) can do wonders for your VoIP "reliability" (especially if/when your area is known for frequent, but short, power outages).

For example, in my home my main networking equipment (DSL modem, router, and a couple of my 10/100 switches), my VoIP equipment (a LinkSys SPS3102, and an older SPA3000), and my (multi-handset) wireless phone "base station" are all on UPS power. While that power won't last for a really long power outage, it does mean that my VoIP is pretty much immune to short power outages of a few minutes or less (and the few second power outages, while the power company switches some circuit, are pretty much totally ignored at this point). In fact, I've actually had a few minute (total house) power outage in the middle of a call (while I was on a wireless phone handset, no less), and the VoIP call continued without interruption (on a wireless handset, no less).

So just like anything else computers, a small UPS or two can be handy "insurance" with VoIP.

said by PX Eliezer See Profile :

So I think that if someone has cellphone plus VOIP, that's decent.
True.

However, even with the cell phone, I still think that it's very cheap "insurance" to have at least one "backup" VoIP provider, for those times your primary VoIP provider is down for any reason. And with cheap PAYGO (pay as you go) accounts being so common. the cost is very minimal. After all, with a lot of PAYGO accounts your only cost (assuming you already own your own VoIP adapter equipment) is the small initial prepay amount to open the account (until such time as you actually need it as a "backup", at which point you will pay the small per minute usage charges during the "backup" period).

NOTE: The "trick" here, is to make sure that your "backup" (or backups, if you want more than one) is an entirely different company than you normally get VoIP service from. The hope being, that if/when your primary VoIP company is "down", your "backup" may still be up and working, allowing you to continue using the phone uninterrupted (at the low expense for the minutes you use on your "backup" provider)...]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21500701 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 12:29:18 EDT Re: Voip or Land Line ? ( Canada ) http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21500571 PX Eliezer : What a series of great posts!

emoci, excellent info! I did want to ask, would inphonex.com also be on your list?

mgraves, great comments. I do want to note that the free 411 service from Google, 1-800-GOOG-411, is now available in Canada. I don't think that anyone should have to pay for 411.

To the original poster, one (Canadian) company I use myself is Voip.MS and I think that they are very good. Great rates, good service, 911 available.

N9MD as usual has sage advice. I do think that if your home has pretty decent electric and internet services, that you don't have to worry about VoIP reliability that much, as long as you go with a good company. The reliability of traditional phone service (POTS/PSTN) is probably going to be decreasing anyway. But it certainly is a good idea to have a cellphone as backup.

(Regarding having a "low rate" standard POTS/PSTN phone line as a backup, I think that in most states and perhaps in much of Canada, that's something that's no longer an affordable option. As the POTS/PSTN phone companies bleed more customers, the companies just raise and raise their rates and extra fees and pass-through taxes. Same as the US Postal Service. It's a death spiral).

In my small business, I deal with clients personally, and I see that lots of the people under age 40 have NO phone in their house, either POTS/PSTN or VOIP. They have cellphones only!

So I think that if someone has cellphone plus VOIP, that's decent.

Fewer and fewer people will pay for the triad of cellphone and VOIP and POTS/PSTN.

]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21500571 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 11:49:13 EDT Re: Voip or Land Line ? ( Canada ) http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21500436 N9MD : DracoFelis and emoci ... as always ...have made excellent presentations for your consideration, Ndxik ... with no intent from me to slight the useful comments from our other BBR colleagues.

Keep in mind the overriding issue or reliability when you consider replacing PSTN with VoIP. PSTN works when your home's electric power goes out in a storm. On the other hand, VoIP becomes useless if
• your home power goes out,
• your modem or adapter or router get fried by an electric surge,
• your ISP (broadband service) has a technical problem,
• your VoIP provider's servers or switches fail
• your VoIP provider suddenly goes out of business without notice,
• your VoIP provider's upstream vendors (CLEC, server farm, etc.) crap out (with reference to the recent wide area outage suffered by Level 3 Comm, a major CLEC).

My suggestion to all VoIP vagabonds is to either maintain one "low rate" PSTN line in the home ... or alternatively, have a cell phone that works in the home and is always charged.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21500436 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 11:15:39 EDT Re: Voip or Land Line ? ( Canada ) http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21500277 emoci : Any VoIP provider can offer service regardless where they are, as long as they offer Canadian Numbers...so you need to consider:

-Offer Canadian Numbers
-Can they port your current number
-Check GBU for results

The question is this: Are you ready to completely ditch the landline...
-VoIP can do quite well but it isn't yet at the point of replacing a landline (in terms of reliability, 911 etc.)
-Is it just you or is there family that will be using it too (when kids and wife/older parents are involved it may be harder to convince/get them used to VoIP)
-A VoIP line + backup CellPhone is not a bad combination
-How will you be getting internet, eg.in the case of DSL, if you do not have an active phone line there is an extra fee for a DRY DSL line with most providers in Ontario (which you'll need to consider when calculationg your savings by going VoIP ... if you have DSL of course).

For Canadian service providers the list usually includes:
VBuzzer.com
Voip.ms
Link2Voip.com
Les.net
Unlimitel.ca

(Adding upon other's suggestions)
CallCentric
InPhonex

(Other Possibles)
Acanac
FreePhoneLine

Also may want to review »[General] VoIP providers with LNP Support

(And DracoFelis beats me to it :D)]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21500277 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:34:59 EDT Re: Voip or Land Line ? ( Canada ) http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21500246 DracoFelis :
said by Ndxik :

Plan that will give me same stuff as land line and will be cheaper ...
You can get close to the ease of use of telco/POTS lines (for example, many of us use our VoIP directly from "normal" phones), and you can often do it cheaper. However, there will always be differences, some of them limitations of VoIP.

In general you will NOT get the reliability of a telco line. Think more along the lines of the reliability of a cell phone. Which is why having some "backup service" (for example, a cell phone you can use if/when you have to) is a good idea IMHO. However, one nice feature of VoIP is that (to some degree) you can provide your own VoIP "backup" (assuming your internet is still up), by signing up with multiple providers. The idea being, is that if/when your "primary" VoIP company is down (for any reason), you can then (assuming they aren't also down) switch to a different company to continue to get the calls through. With the right adapter, properly setup ahead of time, this can be very easy (for example, in my home I only have to type an extra 1 in front of the number, to force my VoIP phones to call out via my alternate "backup" VoIP provider).

NOTE: A no monthly fee (prepaid) "pay as you go" (you pay for the minutes you use) account can often be a really cheap "backup" provider to setup (for when your primary provider is down for any reason). Because many of these accounts can be setup for as little as $10/US pre-pay, and thereafter you only use up your credit balance for the minutes you actually talk on that account (which if this is your "backup" company/account, will likely only be when your primary VoIP is down for some reason).

The choice of going with PAYGO or an "unlimited" plan, really depends upon your calling usage. If you use less than say 1000 minutes per month calling, you are often better off just paying for the minutes you want to use, instead of paying the fees for an "unlimited" calling plan.

One disadvantage of VoIP vs POTS, is that there really isn't any notion of "local area" per se. So, in general, expect to spend the same cost to call across the country as it costs you to call across the street! Now, it might not cost much to do either, but (in general) VoIP doesn't have any notion of "free local calls", unlike POTS.

As others have said, you don't need to get all your service from the same company. For example, you can (if you choose) easily get an inbound phone number from a different company than you get your outbound calling service from (in fact, if you don't care where your inbound number is technically located at, there are even companies that will give you an inbound number in their region "for free"). Also, I like to combine (on the same adapter/phone) both the "paid services" (used to call others on the telco) with the "free services" (which give you the option of calling, or being called by, other VoIP users totally free over the internet) on the same adapter/phone. By combining both "free" and "paid" services, you can get some of your calls (even some "international" ones) totally "free", while still being able to make discounted calling to "normal" phones.

Finally, there is the "geek factor" here. In general, VoIP can be more of a hassle to setup initially than POTS, because you have to do all the work to buy and configure the equipment. So you have to ask yourself, if you feel up to the challenge. Yes, there are some companies (Vonage probably being the best well known) that claim that their service is more or less "plug and play". However, to get that "convenience" you have to pay more to those companies than you will likely pay to a provider that has you supply the equipment. And the other thing you generally lose with such (they supply everything) providers is the flexibility to "mix and match" the features of multiple providers (or otherwise set things up as you like them).]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21500246 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:22:32 EDT Re: Voip or Land Line ? ( Canada ) http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21500084 mgraves1 : You can go the VoIP route if you like. Be certain that you aware of your 911/411 situation. Some VoIP providers do no provide 911 or 411 service. If that's the case, you should check if your household insurance provider has conditions about this. Some do these days.

Cable vs Land-line isn't really about VoIP at all. That's just a question of choosing your preferred carrier.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21500084 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:11:45 EDT Re: Voip or Land Line ? ( Canada ) http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21499808 Test99 : Check the gbu. Some of the companies listed there offer service in Canada.

Two companies that work well for me and provide service in Canada are VOIP.ms and InPhonex.

If you don't make a lot of calls, a pay-as-you-go plan where you pay a low per-minute rate may cost less than an "unlimited" plan.

Sometimes it makes sense to sign up with more than one provider. For example, you might like the features one provider offers on incoming calls, but prefer another provider's rates for outgoing calls. If so, look for a multi-line adapter or IP phone.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21499808 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 04:05:49 EDT Re: Voip or Land Line ? ( Canada ) http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21499519 anon : No No sorry for bad explanation ..

Thats what im looking for ... Plan that will give me same stuff as land line and will be cheaper ...

CIA.com offers nice plan Cable + VOIP ( free local calls but I never heard about them]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21499519 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:54:06 EDT Re: Voip or Land Line ? ( Canada ) http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21499494 Test99 :
said by Ndxik :

any Voip provider offers free local phones ? ( same as local operarator )
Are you saying you would consider VOIP only if it was free, otherwise you would choose a land line?

Why not consider VOIP services that are not free but cost less than a land line?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21499494 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:39:37 EDT Re: Voip or Land Line ? ( Canada ) http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21499464 usa2k : »"FREE" VOIP phone service in Canada

I only glanced at the year-old thread]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21499464 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:27:30 EDT Voip or Land Line ? ( Canada ) http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21499432 anon : Hey Guys,

I'm just moving .. And i wonder if could use Voip instead of local phone company ...

any Voip provider offers free local phones ? ( same as local operarator )

Or you think I should stick with land line ??

PS. Im in Canada - Ontario - Stoney Creek

Thx for help :)]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21499432 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:11:52 EDT