How do I switch to VOIP in Ottawa?

October 25, 2007 2:58 PM

I need help understanding how to switch to a VOIP service, with bonus points for recommendations about an ISP in Ottawa that can provide dry loop DSL.

My ISP (Primus) keeps pushing their VOIP service, so I assumed that they now had dry loop DSL available. They don't - the customer service agent recommended that I switch to a different ISP to get dry loop DSL, then come back to them for VOIP!! Not gonna happen.

But, I still want to VOIP somehow, and realise I will have to switch ISPs and give up the email address I've had for 8 years. I can live with that. So, which ISPs can you recommend for me to get dry loop DSL in Ottawa? I think Sympatico can, but the whole reason for getting VOIP is to get away from Bell. I also don't want to go to Rogers for cable internet. (Primary motivation is to save money over my existing Bell bill.)

Next, I need help understanding how this would all work, as I've not found any clear guides despite a lot of looking. Important: I want to keep my existing phone number.

Is the process:
- apply for dry loop DSL on my existing phone line/number from a new ISP (would this kill my regular Bell phone service? that would be ok - I have a cell phone I could live with for the time there was no access on the main home number)
THEN WHEN IT'S ACTIVE
- apply for VOIP through Vonage or whoever, using the existing phone number?

Am I missing something? How long should all this take? How long would I be without phone service? What other information should I know?

posted by valleys to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

My experience trying to do this in Toronto in the spring was that Bell would furnish a dry loop only if I was willing to use Sympatico. I've heard people get a dry loop and get a different ISP but I couldn't get Bell to agree to that. In the end my determination was that if I wanted VOIP and didn't want to be a Bell customer I had to use cable internet, so in the end I just got cable and a cell phone.

What's frustrating is that the lines are their infrastructure anyway, so they make money off you if you use them, even if you're paying Primus. Grr.
posted by loiseau at 4:58 PM on October 25, 2007

You don't need to get Bell to agree to anything any more than you do to get a regular DSL service from another ISP. You just call the ISP and buy the service -- dealing with Bell is the ISP's problem.

I use teksavvy.com and they're the best ISP I've ever encountered, with the best tech support I've ever seen (from any sort of business). They can do dry DSL and they have service in Ottawa.

I think your plan is a little more complicated than necessary. First, "dry" means a line with no dial tone, so if you requested it on a line that has dial tone and nobody caught the contradiction, who knows what would happen. Also, I'm not sure why you'd wait until the dry loop is set up to start the VOIP service (especially as you say that you don't mind going without a landline briefly)

Call teksavvy. They can have you using their DSL service by the end of the phone call if you like. They will also know the best way to transition smoothly to the dry DSL service.
posted by winston at 7:18 PM on October 25, 2007

(Note, when I say "They can have you using their DSL service by the end of the phone call if you like. " I'm assuming you already have DSL service on your phone line)
posted by winston at 7:19 PM on October 25, 2007

seconding teksavvy - I also use their dry DSL service after finding that Magma / Primus wouldn't support it.

A small warning: if you're a fan of live music, you might want to have a backup ISP as they're having "issues" with TicketMaster (TM is blocking many of their IPs for some reason).
posted by lowlife at 5:56 AM on October 26, 2007

Another vote for Teksavvy. Recently switched over: great tech support, and reliable connection. For VOIP issues, check out metafilter posts by dorian. For VOIP, I've started using Callcentric and their pay-per-use service. Good features, working smoothly so far. Thanks to MeFi user dorian for his advice with my VOIP journey.
posted by huron at 10:59 AM on September 29, 2008