Topic 'Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)' in forum 'Canadian Broadband' - dslreports.com

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Wed, 23 May 2018 17:40:18 EDT

nekkidtruth posted :

said by Anon35023 :

Caller ID can't be set on the SPA112. Display name can, but can also overridden at voip.ms, which allows caller id to be set.

I was able to set my display name with the SPA112. I don't have the device running right now and can't remember the exact setting, but I do know I was able to set it as I had changed it multiple times over the years.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Tue, 22 May 2018 10:54:00 EDT

anon posted :

said by Cloneman:

I don't think most phones and analog adapters have a function to alter the caller ID, I think you need a provider that has a specific option to set it, otherwise you have to run it through a PBX which is inconvenient and costly

Caller ID can't be set on the SPA112. Display name can, but can also overridden at voip.ms, which allows caller id to be set.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Mon, 21 May 2018 22:44:02 EDT

Cloneman posted : good to know that Obi supports it. Another strike for Polycom phones in my book, a platform designed to sell consulting apparently.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Mon, 21 May 2018 22:39:17 EDT

cleacy1972 posted :

said by Cloneman:

said by cleacy1972:

It's not your voip provider that sets your callerid information, it's the ATA you're using. You'd have to look into the settings to see if your hardware supports doing that.

That obihai equipment does it does mean any hardware should be able to. That some hardware might have chosen not to allow that setting to be changed was the manufacturers decision.

Voice Services -> (Service Name) -> CallerIDName

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Mon, 21 May 2018 20:20:23 EDT

Cloneman posted :

said by cleacy1972:

It's not your voip provider that sets your callerid information, it's the ATA you're using. You'd have to look into the settings to see if your hardware supports doing that.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Mon, 21 May 2018 19:32:45 EDT

cleacy1972 posted :

said by Cloneman:

Do any of fongo/fpl/ooma allow you to set a custom a outgoing callerID number?

It's not your voip provider that sets your callerid information, it's the ATA you're using. You'd have to look into the settings to see if your hardware supports doing that.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Mon, 21 May 2018 19:01:11 EDT

Cloneman posted : Do any of fongo/fpl/ooma allow you to set a custom a outgoing callerID number?

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Mon, 21 May 2018 10:50:39 EDT

Yroc posted : I have used Freephoneline for over 10 years and since 2011 I have been using Google voice. Both have been very reliable.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Thu, 03 May 2018 19:57:14 EDT

anon posted : you can use PayPal with a us address.. no tax at least.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Tue, 01 May 2018 17:11:54 EDT

Rickkins posted : Voipmuch.ca.

All you can eat $9.45 a month, all in.
Rock solid.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Tue, 01 May 2018 13:40:51 EDT

AsherN posted : Their costs are mainly in USD

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Tue, 01 May 2018 12:52:20 EDT

The Flash posted : The thing I don't like about voip.ms is they charge USD and taxes on top of that even though they are based in Montreal.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Tue, 01 May 2018 10:55:07 EDT

Cloneman posted : Speaking from personal experience, there's definitely something off about people who've been on the same forum since 2002.

I'm sure Jordan Peterson could explain. Something Something pleasure island...

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Tue, 01 May 2018 09:42:44 EDT

En Enfer posted :

said by CrankyGuy:

Oh FFS ! VOICEMAIL ! Program your failovers to voicemail !! (I did mention this as an option). And you can setup e-mail notification whenever you have a voicemail, so when the service comes back, you know there's something waiting... (I "assume" you have an e-mail address).

"Anytime" can be whenever and wherever there's internet service. Home or you can go to your favorite McDo, Tim's, Starbucks or anyplace with free Wifi, with your laptop, tablet, cellphone without a SIM card (I "assume" many canadians have one of those).

said by CrankyGuy:

and your suggestions are ludicrous given that none of them are useful to me at this time nor would they have been useful to me during the Internet/Cable TV outage!

This is a PUBLIC FORUM, this is not a private message. So, ok, nothing was helpful to YOU, boo-hoo! I don't know anything about you or your life, but I do detect some narcissist personnality disorder...

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Mon, 30 Apr 2018 21:04:17 EDT

Trev posted : As a casual observer, you do live up to your name ;)

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Mon, 30 Apr 2018 19:31:04 EDT

CrankyGuy posted :

said by En Enfer:

The failover options can be set anytime.

By "anytime"... what you actually mean... is "anytime while your Internet service and that of the VOIP provider is functional". Again you "assume" that I have an alternate number that I want my VOIP service to failover to... and your suggestions are ludicrous given that none of them are useful to me at this time nor would they have been useful to me during the Internet/Cable TV outage! You also "assume" that my Grandma is still alive and lives in the same building as I do... both of which are wildly incorrect!

said by En Enfer:

Any decade and generation : Go out !

Thanks... I did go for a nearly 3 hour walk during Rogers extended Internet/Cable TV outage. I'm about to retire soon and don't need advice from you on what to do with my leisure hours! You do what you want on your time and I'll do what I want on my time which at this point of my life doesn't necessarily include just watching TV!

Don't bother replying to this post as I have no more time for your unhelpful and/or mocking suggestions/comments.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Mon, 30 Apr 2018 15:34:13 EDT

lbob912 posted : That is not too bad. 60/36= $1.67/month for unlimited calling within Canada.
I guess for older people this would be an easy solution.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Mon, 30 Apr 2018 14:20:19 EDT

anon posted : Here is other plan from Cannet . $60 for 3 years phone service but you need get their internet plan first.

»forums.redflagdeals.com/ ··· 2187941/

I used their service long times ago when it's $10/month. Now I get rid of my home phone line and moved my old number to Fongo.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Mon, 30 Apr 2018 13:15:24 EDT

MFido posted : LOL

100% with you!

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Mon, 30 Apr 2018 12:09:56 EDT

En Enfer posted :

said by CrankyGuy:

You are assuming that one has a cellphone to fall back on and that one has access to failover options. To satisfy your nitpicking:
I'll also note that your home VOIP ATA solution will likely only work as long as your ISP service is functional.

"Assuming" is the keyword. You can make it ring to any phone number, terrestrial or cellphone. It can also be upstairs grandma, friendly next door neighbour, or your winter house in Florida. Doesn't matter. The failover options can be set anytime.

said by CrankyGuy:

- In any case... being forced to only watch OTA HDTV on limited channels instead of being active via Internet is not my idea of a fun Saturday afternoon/evening!

Poor generation... The internet is out and it's the end of the actual world !!!

2010s : You can play anything from your PVR. No network required, unless it's a cloud-PVR...
2000s : You could play a DVD/Blu-Ray or a downloaded movie.
1980s-1990s : You could watch VHS tapes.
1960s-1970s : You could go out, movie theater, the drive-in.
1950s : Afternoon TV was uneventful...
Any decade and generation : Go out !

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Wed, 25 Apr 2018 19:21:41 EDT

CrankyGuy posted : You are assuming that one has a cellphone to fall back on and that one has access to failover options. To satisfy your nitpicking:
I'll also note that your home VOIP ATA solution will likely only work as long as your ISP service is functional.

Re CN Tower:
- Not all Toronto HD stations are located on that tower IIRC... who knew!
- For some of us (YMMV - observations are based on my actual experiences), depending on building type, location, apartment facing etc... we may not be able to get Toronto HDTV OTA signals even though we may be able to get several from Buffalo. Some signals are dependent on the orientation of the antennas and/or gain settings. I've been wondering whether living too close to the CN Tower may cause an overload condition.
- In any case... being forced to only watch OTA HDTV on limited channels instead of being active via Internet is not my idea of a fun Saturday afternoon/evening!

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Wed, 25 Apr 2018 14:44:06 EDT

Davesnothere posted :
Anveo :

$2 (sometimes less, depending on location, IIRC) monthly for the DID (your incoming number)
$.80 monthly for 911
Incoming calls are FREE
Outgoing calls to almost all of Canada (from your Canadian number with them) are about half a cent per minute, and about a full cent p m to call most of USA.

They offer new local numbers almost ANYwhere in Canada, same with porting in your existing number, and some of the providers already mentioned fall FAR short in this regard.

MANY calling features, of which my fave is 'Press Key', where incoming callers (if not pre-whitelisted by you) are prompted to press a certain key, else your phone does not ring and the call gets dropped.

This alone blocks 99+% of telemarketers and anyone else who calls using an autodialer, as it cannot comply.

You can still look in the web portal call log, if you are curious as to who and how many have been blocked.

They are BYOD, but they support helping setup some popular ATAs.

Pay in USD, but no HST.

PayPal accepted.

I'm a satisfied Anveo customer for 5, 6, whatever # of years it is now. :)

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Tue, 24 Apr 2018 19:59:45 EDT

En Enfer posted :

said by CrankyGuy:

I'll also note that any VOIP solution will only work as long as your ISP service is functional

Not entirely true.

VoIP.ms has failover options : Busy, No answer, and Unreacheable. Obviously, the ATA ain't communicating with the server when internet is down, so under the Unreacheable tab, you select a routing : route to another ATA (ex: the VoIP app on your cell, uses data), call forward to another number (ex: your cellphone), a ring group, send to voicemail, play a recording, hangup, etc.
You can apply such rules for each number, or you can filter CallerID numbers (ex: if callerID from mommy and ATA unreacheable, call-forward to my cellphone number).

As for a 7-hours Rogers outage, no TV, downtown Toronto... yeah, that CN tower was initially built as an antenna TV transmission tower... who knew !

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Tue, 24 Apr 2018 19:32:43 EDT

Trev posted : AcroVoice has a $25.95/mo plan that's ok for home business use.

You'll get an ATA as part of the required hardware but are welcome to request SIP credentials for a secondary phone, though no support is provided for it.

You'll also be able to send & receive SMS and receive incoming MMS with this service.

This is business grade service.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Tue, 24 Apr 2018 08:33:12 EDT

taraf posted :

said by reviep:

+1 for Fongo if you want more support or freephoneline.ca if you are willing to go DIY

Another +1 for Fongo. I've had them for more than 4 years now, and have never experienced an outage that wasn't caused by my home Internet. I could absolutely have saved money by going with FPL (which is actually the same company), but the peace of mind of having somebody to help me out if things go pear-shaped is worth the 5 bucks a month.

Also - the price hasn't gone up since I got the service.

One thing to keep in mind with Fongo though - they bill calls to 310- numbers. It's a ridiculously low rate, but it costs me a few cents every time I order pizza from that line. (I just call those numbers from my cell phone to avoid that)

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Mon, 23 Apr 2018 19:32:52 EDT

CrankyGuy posted : I'll also note that any VOIP solution will only work as long as your ISP service is functional and even that can be impacted by an incumbent's network outage. Case in point, my Start Internet was out for 7+ hours on Saturday afternoon/evening due to an outage on Rogers infrastructure (no internet, no cable TV) in downtown Toronto (and maybe elsewhere too).

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Mon, 23 Apr 2018 19:28:15 EDT

CrankyGuy posted :

said by Michael9009:

...

Fongo Mobile app is free to use and only requirement that I know of is you have to use the app at least once every 90 days or the number is reclaimed (they are supposed to send you an email before that happens but that may not always happen if my Mother's report about the number I set up for her being out of service is accurate). IIRC, the $5 per month charge is if you want to use an ATA to connect to their service.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Mon, 23 Apr 2018 15:33:34 EDT

reviep posted : +1 for Fongo if you want more support or freephoneline.ca if you are willing to go DIY

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sun, 22 Apr 2018 21:50:40 EDT

Zyzomys posted : I have used FreePhoneLine.ca since February 2017 and have had absolutely zero issues. I set my mother up with VOIP.ms and I don't think she has ever paid more than $3.50/month - and she is happy with VOIP.ms service.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 21 Apr 2018 23:03:42 EDT

Michael9009 posted : As a free service, I’ve had two lines with freephoneline.ca for seven years. No issues. The service works like a charm and I’m very happy with freephoneline.ca. I use the VoIP service with a Cisco SPA122 which I programmed myself.

If you’re not too technically inclined to set up your ATA yourself, I’d recommend Fongo, which is the same company as freephoneline.ca but the service costs $5/mo.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 18:48:52 EDT

Gwai Lo Dan posted :

said by cleacy1972:

said by Gwai Lo Dan:

How did you get 3 lines? I was thinking of porting a 2nd line to them and setting it up on my ATA, but saw in their terms that a person is limited to 1 number.

The limitation is 1 number per email address. Create a gmail account, then register number#2 with email address#2, etc.

I'd asked them ahead of time if this was going to be an issue (since i'd end up paying for sip settings on all the accounts with the same credit card anyways) - Response i'd received was that it wasn't an issue my doing that, and very common.

Thanks.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 18:09:22 EDT

En Enfer posted :

said by VHS:

The caravan (is the unlimited minutes OP wants).
The charger (is all the bells and whistles of voip.ms you propose)

Your analogy doesn't make sense in terms of comfort.
On the day an elder's phone number is ported from Bell to VoIP, you only need to unplug the Bell demarc and plug the ATA in a jack to provide the tone on all existing phones. Elder sees no difference between the old and new service... until there's a power outage, or an internet outage, whatever, not the point. Your analogy between a caravan and a charger is like if you removed all phones from the house except one and told the elder, from now on, the phone is located in the same room as the ATA. Not practical.

About the caravan... When you traveled and installed at the camping site for 2 months but you suddenly need to go to town for groceries, 10km away... maybe you should have instead opted for a roulotte, and a pickup.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 17:10:21 EDT

anon posted : > I see the Obi202 (has 2 uniquely addressable phone ports) on sale a couple times
> a year around $50.

The SPA-112 also has 2 RJ11 phone ports, and are individually configurable in terms of SIP / voip provider. Price is always $50 at Canada Computers.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 15:29:54 EDT

bw5745 posted : Cheap unlimited local outbound calling plans are hard to find because they are not lucrative plans for VoIP providers. The providers have to pay for every single outbound minute to their wholesale providers. If too many 4h/day grandmas subscribe to Tektalk at 9.95$/mth, Teksavvy would be losing too much money and would have to raise the price. Local vs. Canada-wide costs the same at the wholesale level so limiting the calling area does not save them any money.

Fongo/Freephoneline is the exception because Fibernetics is a CLEC. If you are in the free calling area, they actually have hardware in your neighbourhood. They can keep their calls on their own network and not have to pay someone else to connect your free calls.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 15:20:46 EDT

cleacy1972 posted :

said by Anone00e8 :

> > Don't take cisco spa122, which is a failed product. Go with old SPA2102.
>
> Don't use any cisco products, use grandstream.

The SPA-112 (which is $10 cheaper than SPA122 because it's not a router) works perfectly for me. I've even sent/received faxes through it. I have direct experience with 5 of them in operation for the past 6 months. Note that there was a firmware upgrade for the 112/122 last August.

I've been using Obihai equipment for a few years now, and highly recommend it. I see the Obi202 (has 2 uniquely addressable phone ports) on sale a couple times a year around $50.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 15:14:36 EDT

anon posted : > > Don't take cisco spa122, which is a failed product. Go with old SPA2102.
>
> Don't use any cisco products, use grandstream.

The SPA-112 (which is $10 cheaper than SPA122 because it's not a router) works perfectly for me. I've even sent/received faxes through it. I have direct experience with 5 of them in operation for the past 6 months. Note that there was a firmware upgrade for the 112/122 last August.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 15:07:36 EDT

cleacy1972 posted :

said by bjlockie:

said by cleacy1972:

Freephoneline is unlimited free throughout Canada

Even for business use?

That I honestly couldn't answer. You'd have to take a look at their terms of service to see if there's any restrictions on 'unlimited'. All I could say for certain is i've never had any issues with normal usage.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 14:31:55 EDT

anon posted : >i keep hearing good things about VoIP-MS how much is unlimited canada and usa long distance?
> i run a business and want to have a flat rate long distance and not pay per minute even if its cheap/low

I run a business also. A business that makes a one-of-a-kind $$$ product that is sold all over the (first) world - even a few in China. We have few sales in Canada, about 40% to the US. Flat rate long distance is of no concern to us for one reason: We conduct the vast majority of our sales and support communication is by email (and sometimes skype). Voip.ms per-minute pricing (of about a penny per minute) is peanuts compared to what we used to pay for a few business POTS lines from Bell, let alone the paltry amount of long-distance minutes we put on it. Looking back at this - one month of Bell charges will be the equivalent (now) of 5 years charges on voip.ms.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 14:19:16 EDT

Viper359 posted : see above your reply. I think I am now becoming a blind old fart

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 14:18:14 EDT

bjlockie posted :

said by Anoncd2dc :

Don't take cisco spa122, which is a failed product. Go with old SPA2102.

Don't use any cisco products, use grandstream. :-)

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 14:16:38 EDT

bjlockie posted :

said by VHS:

Not sure why you guys keep mentioning voip.ms when the OP clearly stated he wants unlimited.

I think there unlimited is limited in the fine print.
OP wants to run a business so the # of minutes needed per month is necessary.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 14:13:40 EDT

bjlockie posted :

said by cleacy1972:

Freephoneline is unlimited free throughout Canada

Even for business use?

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 14:02:41 EDT

cleacy1972 posted : >Requirements:

>Canadian DIDs with number porting, unlimited Local Calling.

It was listed as a requirement, and immediately prior to that he referenced (and excluded) voip.ms as not meeting the requirements.

>VoIP.ms and similar (Callcentric) are often recommended but don't offer unlimited service for people running a home based business or just retired people who talk on the phone 4 hours a day.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 13:57:15 EDT

Viper359 posted : .

edit because i am clearly going blind

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 13:45:03 EDT

cleacy1972 posted :

said by Gwai Lo Dan:

How did you get 3 lines? I was thinking of porting a 2nd line to them and setting it up on my ATA, but saw in their terms that a person is limited to 1 number.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 13:14:41 EDT

anon posted : i keep hearing good things about VoIP-MS how much is unlimited canada and usa long distance? i run a business and want to have a flat rate long distance and not pay per minute even if its cheap/low

how about phongo how much are they for canada usa long distance?

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 12:46:59 EDT

anon posted :

said by Oinktastic:

For instance, Koodo appears to have a phone plan right now for $5/month that includes Canada-wide calling. »www.koodomobile.com/phon ··· me-phone

Typical Robellus shlock (in this case, Telus). Read the fine print.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 12:33:00 EDT

Gwai Lo Dan posted :

said by cleacy1972:

I have 3 lines with freephoneline.ca setup on two obihai 202's. They've been active almost four years now.

How did you get 3 lines? I was thinking of porting a 2nd line to them and setting it up on my ATA, but saw in their terms that a person is limited to 1 number.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 12:00:52 EDT

VHS posted : Maybe I should try and clarify:

The caravan (is the unlimited minutes OP wants).
The charger (is all the bells and whistles of voip.ms you propose)

I just want a van so I can fit my family and camping gear into but yet you propose a charger because it's hemi powered, slick rims, leather seats with embroider logo, etc. There maybe more cool features (voip.ms) in the charger but I just need more room to store things and fit my family into so I need a caravan (unlimited minutes).

But if you still disagree, that's fine.

Re: Canadian Unlimited VoIP options in 2018 (Residential)

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 11:46:33 EDT

nekkidtruth posted :

said by VHS:

I don't know about you but if I were to walk into a dealership and asked about getting a caravan for my family, and the salesman would push me to get a charger instead (for extra horsepower), I'd be pretty frustrated and walk out. Same thing applies here.

Hardly the same thing. We're just going to have to agree to disagree.