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fluffybunny
@206.172.31.x

fluffybunny

Anon

VOIP in BC

Whats a good VOIP provider in BC ? A lot of providers (Vonage etc) seem to have negative reviews.
Anyone know a good/reliable VOIP provider which will give me a 604 number ?

JC_
Premium Member
join:2010-10-19
Nepean, ON

JC_

Premium Member

»voip.ms/
jobr
join:2004-10-21
Halifax, NS

jobr to fluffybunny

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to fluffybunny
Is it important that the number be 604, rather than 778? voip.ms only seems to have 778 numbers. Apart from JCohen's suggestions, you could also check out »www.acrovoice.ca (based in Victoria) or »www.thespout.ca (Edmonton).

EDIT: actually voip.ms does have some 604 numbers, just not in Vancouver itself.

bbbc
join:2001-10-02
NorthAmerica

bbbc to fluffybunny

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to fluffybunny
To put it politely, VoIP.ms customer service sucks. I would suggest Callcentric since they have a Telemarketer Block, »www.callcentric.com/feat ··· er_block , that doesn't ding you any money / usage by filtering solicitation calls.
grand total
join:2005-10-26
Mississauga

grand total to fluffybunny

Member

to fluffybunny
Anveo is a good provider too. They may have 604 number available.
bjlockie
join:2007-12-16
Ontario
Technicolor TC4350
Asus RT-AC56
Grandstream HandyTone 702/704

bjlockie to bbbc

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to bbbc
said by bbbc:

To put it politely, VoIP.ms customer service sucks.

They've responded quickly to every ticket I've opened.

bbbc
join:2001-10-02
NorthAmerica

bbbc

Member

said by bbbc :

To put it politely, VoIP.ms customer service sucks.

said by bjlockie :

They've responded quickly to every ticket I've opened.

They have not responded quickly to me and were a complete nightmare for port-ins and port-outs. I was a customer of theirs for years. I can rave, but I think my threads from the start of the year (in VoIP forum) illustrate the problems with the Mexican company (people seem to think it's a Canadian outfit).
Cloneman
join:2002-08-29
Montreal

Cloneman to fluffybunny

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to fluffybunny
I might have an ignorant perspective, but anytime you're paying 3$/month for a service, having any customer service at all is a bonus.

I'm also of the opinion that any service that costs 500$/month or more should have bend-over-backwards-fix-it-yesterday service, but that too is a sometimes a big generalization.

TypeS
join:2012-12-17
London, ON

TypeS to fluffybunny

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to fluffybunny
I had Vonage for some 3 years, and aside from sometimes getting someone who had too thick an accent to really understand (outsourced support to w/e third world country), the service was reliable. Can't remember when I had downtime that was their cause.

YMMV I suppose though, everyone has had different experiences with different companies.

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz to fluffybunny

MVM

to fluffybunny
The problem with Vonage is that it's extremely expensive for VoIP. Their cheapest plan is $25/mth. Yes, it includes unlimited US/Canada, but do you actually need that? If you used 1000 minutes a month, half inbound and half Canadian outbound, voip.ms would charge you $8.59/mth. Less if you don't use 1000 minutes a month.

Rubbing salt in the wound, Vonage has smaller non-unlimited plans as cheap as $13/mth... but only in the US.
taraf
join:2011-05-07
Ottawa, ON

taraf

Member

Agreed, Vonage is *way* overpriced. They have TV marketing, and folks tend to think of them first because of it, but there are significantly cheaper options out there.

I don't have any experience with voip.ms, but my own service is with Fongo, which is the same company as freephoneline.ca. The service is very reliable and a fraction of the cost of Vonage. ($5/mo for Fongo, FPL is free but it has no customer service/tech support beyond the forums)

I have no idea if they have 604 numbers, but I know they have 778 numbers.

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz to fluffybunny

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to fluffybunny
FreePhoneLine also requires that you pay them $50 if you want to use a telephone or a smartphone to make calls, and calls outside of their list of cities isn't free.

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
taraf
join:2011-05-07
Ottawa, ON

taraf

Member

That $50 is a one time fee. And you're right, if you're calling outside of their free calling area, it isn't free, but the majority of phone numbers in Canada are in the free calling area. For numbers outside the calling area, the rates are quite low.

If you want to play that game though, the Fongo app for your smartphone *is* free, and will work to make and receive free phone calls. It's got the same list of free calling numbers as FPL, and the same rates and "world credit" system for paying for calls that are outside the free calling area. If you live in a reasonably large city (or in Ontario/Quebec) and all of your calls would be to free numbers, then you *can* get a free Canadian phone number and never pay for phone service with them.

El Quintron
Cancel Culture Ambassador
Premium Member
join:2008-04-28
Tronna

El Quintron to fluffybunny

Premium Member

to fluffybunny
I've had VoIP with voip.ms for years, it's mostly a back up service for my landline, but I haven't had any problems with them.

As far as number porting is concerned it seems to be a rather challenging task that can held up for a number of reasons, the first of which is usually malfeasance from incumbent players, and secondly incompetence by newer providers.

Porting my cellphone number from Virgin Mobile to WIND was a exercise if frustration to say the least, as I was one of their first customers. Fast forward a couple of years and it was pretty painless for my friend who moved from Public over to WIND.

I'm going to go ahead and assume that VoIP.ms' porting procedure is pretty rudimentary which is why anything but a simple transfer is going to run into all sorts of nonsense.

EQ

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz to taraf

MVM

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said by taraf:

If you want to play that game though, the Fongo app for your smartphone *is* free, and will work to make and receive free phone calls. It's got the same list of free calling numbers as FPL, and the same rates and "world credit" system for paying for calls that are outside the free calling area. If you live in a reasonably large city (or in Ontario/Quebec) and all of your calls would be to free numbers, then you *can* get a free Canadian phone number and never pay for phone service with them.

Google offers unlimited free long-distance calling to anywhere in North America, and can be used on smartphones via the Hangouts app.

cybersaga
join:2011-12-19
Selby, ON

cybersaga to fluffybunny

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CallWithUs has 604 numbers available:
quote:
1604200 - NEWWTMNSTR
1604210 - NOVANCOUVR
1604229 - WVANCOUVER
1604245 - NEWWTMNSTR
1604256 - NEWWTMNSTR
1604259 - VANCOUVER
1604484 - VANCOUVER
1604628 - VANCOUVER
1604757 - VANCOUVER
1604800 - VANCOUVER
They let you see the full numbers they have available and pick which one you want. I have an account with them only because of their phone number lookup, but I don't actually use their service.

I use Anveo primarily. They say they have 604 numbers for Vancouver only. Anveo can be a little difficult to setup at first, but it's the cheapest I've found and has lots of flexibility. Once it's setup, it just works.