Looking for VOIP/TV/internet advice for Toronto
November 26, 2021 4:51 AM Subscribe
Moving to Toronto from the 905 area. Want to keep my current number, which I understand I can do if I go VOIP (currently with Bell for telephone, internet, and TV).
Can anyone recommend a VOIP/TV/internet service from firsthand experience? Or is there a rating site out there? What criteria should I use to pick?
Additional question: do I have to abandon my current handset (not from Bell) and go with the VOIP company handset?
Thanks.
Can anyone recommend a VOIP/TV/internet service from firsthand experience? Or is there a rating site out there? What criteria should I use to pick?
Additional question: do I have to abandon my current handset (not from Bell) and go with the VOIP company handset?
Thanks.
And Bell/Roger's offerings have boxes to connect to your various TV's - and they now have apps for streaming on those as well. (Several households in my extended inlaw family have setups from one or the other - and they are happy with the services/choices - of course, the no one is happy when Bell/Rogers increases the pricing after your first year).
Try Reddit's "Canada Cord Cutters" for internet/digital TV recomendations.
posted by rozcakj at 5:57 AM on November 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
Try Reddit's "Canada Cord Cutters" for internet/digital TV recomendations.
posted by rozcakj at 5:57 AM on November 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
Also: check that your Bell number is transferable to VOIP. If you're moving your service to a Bell reseller (so Teksavvy, etc) there's a weirdly anti-competitive clause in the Bell resale agreement that protects certain numbers from transfer. Teksavvy's VOIP page has a number checker.
The quantity of numbers affected by this is quite small, apparently, but our landline is one of them and I'd have to give it up rather than transfer.
posted by scruss at 9:44 AM on November 26, 2021
The quantity of numbers affected by this is quite small, apparently, but our landline is one of them and I'd have to give it up rather than transfer.
posted by scruss at 9:44 AM on November 26, 2021
First about the phones themselves. We used to have a Bell landline setup in our home. So the house was wired for phones to plug in.
Went with Ooma. They provide a device and service. The device connects into my Rogers cable modem/router, just as my wired printer does.
I then went to the box outside my home where the Bell landline wire came in and disconnected it. (Just open the box and unplug the cable) You must disconnect your home phone wiring from the Bell telephone pole.
Then I plugged the phone jack from the Ooma (via a phone cable) into any jack in our home. Now all the jacks have Ooma phone. On the system is an old Radio Shack phone, a simple other phone, and the connection to our Panasonic wireless phones. All works peachy keen, so you don't need any special phone.
Now, I had some trouble with Ooma, including their lying about what I was to receive in the original bundle, and problems with their internal service provider. But it's all been working fine for about a year. I have the Ooma basic plan, about $6/month.
If I had to do it over, I would go with Voip Much, a Canadian company. I fear Ooma, a bit.
Rogers home phone plan, I believe, would have cost about the same as my Bell landline, so that was never an option.
BTW, I was originally with one Rogers modem/router and recently ugraded(?) to Rogers Ignite. Works just fine with either modem/router.
Since I mentioned it, and this is not Reddit where I could be downvoted, "Who was Alexander Graham Kowalski?"
The first telephone Pole. (I'm half Polish, and my other Polish friends like the joke.)
posted by mbarryf at 8:40 AM on November 27, 2021 [2 favorites]
Went with Ooma. They provide a device and service. The device connects into my Rogers cable modem/router, just as my wired printer does.
I then went to the box outside my home where the Bell landline wire came in and disconnected it. (Just open the box and unplug the cable) You must disconnect your home phone wiring from the Bell telephone pole.
Then I plugged the phone jack from the Ooma (via a phone cable) into any jack in our home. Now all the jacks have Ooma phone. On the system is an old Radio Shack phone, a simple other phone, and the connection to our Panasonic wireless phones. All works peachy keen, so you don't need any special phone.
Now, I had some trouble with Ooma, including their lying about what I was to receive in the original bundle, and problems with their internal service provider. But it's all been working fine for about a year. I have the Ooma basic plan, about $6/month.
If I had to do it over, I would go with Voip Much, a Canadian company. I fear Ooma, a bit.
Rogers home phone plan, I believe, would have cost about the same as my Bell landline, so that was never an option.
BTW, I was originally with one Rogers modem/router and recently ugraded(?) to Rogers Ignite. Works just fine with either modem/router.
Since I mentioned it, and this is not Reddit where I could be downvoted, "Who was Alexander Graham Kowalski?"
The first telephone Pole. (I'm half Polish, and my other Polish friends like the joke.)
posted by mbarryf at 8:40 AM on November 27, 2021 [2 favorites]
« Older Tips for flirting when you are very shy? | Spanish-language film: woman with automatic house? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
Ourselves - we use only cable internet - and get our TV via Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, AppleTV+ and grey-market Hulu (technically requires some hoops to jump through in Canada) - and we like this. However - if our internet goes out, we don't have anything (and it is TekSavvy, which uses Rogers - which is the company which typically has outages). TekSavvy has an internet TV service - which we tried, but we are a "Roku" household (Hulu), and it does not work with Roku devices. (Amazon Fire Stick, AppleTV boxes do work)
If you are not techically savvy, you are best to go with Bell or Rogers and their bundles.
posted by rozcakj at 5:51 AM on November 26, 2021