nfitz

Personally, I wouldn't touch Bell Canada with a barge pole - though much of that relates to decades of horrid experiences relating to my land line and calling card in Ontario and Quebec. In comparison, I've found Rogers quite helpful on the telephone - with none of the "I'm a monopoly, I can do whatever I want" arrogance of a traditional phone company.

A couple of factors to consider are do you want a land line (most don't these days, but I've suffered through too many long power failures, where the phone line still works, but the backup power for other types of phone systems have failed)?

And do you want mobile service in your house? There are often dead zones, even in quite dense urban areas, which vary between companies. Oddly, both my office and house seem to get erratic mobile coverage from my provider - which suits me fine, I'd sooner people call the land line, and really only use the mobile if ... well, mobile. In particular, there is one site outside where I have to visit frequently for work, where because of the topography one of them is very poor, but we are almost standing under the tower for the other - so it's a bit of a no-brainer (for the work phone at least!)

dbd33

I don't think there's much to choose between these two dreadful companies though, AFAIK, Bell hasn't done any negative option billing.

I'm puzzled by the power comment though. I haven't had a landline for a long time (20 years, maybe) and have been through lots of power cuts lasting multiple days, a couple a year or more, without it being a problem for the mobile phone. The battery lasts for hours and, by then, we've started the generator. The fridge and sump pump are concerns but not the phone. I don't see a use for a phone in a power cut but, if it was important and I had no generator, I could charge it in the car (until the petrol runs out).

nfitz

Sure they have. When they switched over the rules about telephones, so that you could buy them from Bell, or a store, rather than having to rent from Bell, they automatically put everyone in the rental program, rather than giving them the cheaper option of buying outright. And then there is the way they imposed the touchtone fee on everyone. Not to mention the more recent "Network Charge" which they made out to be a mandatory fee they had to charge - which is not true at all. My YAK long-distance bill is normally less than $1 a month, over Bell lines, I still have Bell service for my home phone, but no long distance plan, and no network charge.

You had me wondering there, until you said "generator". Well, yes, if you have a generator you are golden. It's not a great option in downtown Toronto though!

If you've got a land line, you keep at least one phone around that doesn't require any additional power!

The last time there was a good one, the phone line was very useful to dial into my Internet provider and get network connectivity. I guess that probably won't work next time. But in long-term cuts, it's useful for communicating with family, work, etc. Haven't had one in a while, but having lived in Montreal, I'm somewhat paranoid.

dbd33

OK, but in Toronto I only experienced one power cut that went for days; the one that took out much of New England. The rest of them were short enough for the mobile phone to still work.

Vinny17

If available in your - take a look at FIDO. I think it is owned by Rogers, but better priced.

not2old

compare to

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on