mjanovitz

I have been looking at various services we are likely to be signing up to when we move to Toronto (got passports back today complete with Visa!)

I have been looking at TV Packages, internet access, mobile phones and landline phones. I quite like the look of Rogers for TV, mobile and internet but they don't seem to do landline phone service, for some reason i thought they did. I know Bell offer a service, is there anyone else I could look at?

Does anyone have any comments about Rogers?

Any information would be most appericated

Thanks

Mark and Sue

dbd33

We have Roger's for internet and cable television. I think they're a dreadful company to deal with but, until recently, we didn't have a landline so there was no alternative. Bell is also a difficult firm to deal with. A conversation with them, as best I recall :

"Hi, I'm interested in getting a phone in my house"

"You'll need a line"

"Yes, how much is a phone line"

"$10 a month"

"Is there a connection charge"

"Yes."

"How much is the connection charge"

"$150"

"So it's $150 and then $10 a month"

"Yes"

"I don't think that can be right, is that the whole cost ?"

"Yes"

"Wait, I used to have a phone it was about $50 a month without using it"

"You're including the local something cost"

"Well, yes, I want to know how much it is to have a phone"

"Where are you ?"

"In Toronto"

"I don't know how much it is in Toronto"

"But you're the phone company"

"So, I'm not in Toronto, give me a number"

"What ?"

"Tell me a phone number in Toronto"

"(416) 364-6572"

"Oh, you want a business line ?"

"No, I just want a phone in my house"

"But you gave me a business number"

"You asked me for a phone number, not the number of the sort of phone I want. I see now"

"Why don't you just sign up and when we send the bill you'll know how much it is ?"

There's no such problem with Rogers, they just charge whatever amount they see fit to your credit card. No one answers the phone at Rogers so, unless the bill is massively wrong, it's not worth fighting with them.

We get about twenty telemarketing calls a day on the landline, which is why I didn't have one for years, and very few on the cell, so the only case I can see for having a landline is if you anticipate having a lot of long inbound calls.

mjanovitz

I did consider the possibility of not having a landline phone as we don't really use the one we have in the uk that much. The line rental is often 3 to 4 times the total cost of calls. Would there be much of a cost difference to relatives calling us from uk if we had no landline and also for us to them?

Another possibilty i thought of for speaking with relatives is telephone calls over the internet, is this service have much availability in toronto.

Thanks

Mark and Sue

dbd33

I don't think there's any difference in price to the caller whether or not they call a landline. In fact, I'm sure there isn't. For calls the other way, it depends on the package and/or discounter you use, the cell will be more expensive but, in my case, not prohibitively so as I make relatively few calls. I've tried voice over internet here but found it to be a bit of gimmick as yet.

gooding

We have everything with Telus. Phone internet and mobile. And cable with Shaw.
Both were great getting it all set up. We needed service and they give it to us.
I pay all bills on line, can order the cable up and stop it when ever I want.
Shaw came out and put two new connections in and charged about £20 for the job. he was there for about 2 hours as he had to crawl through the house etc,. ( new house)
We had Rogers mobile and it was pants, could never get through to anyone when we had problems. never bothered trying them for anything else.

dbd33

We have Bell mobile phones. The roaming service is better than Rogers, not sure about Telus. The Bell phones work in Newfoundland, Arizona, all manner of places but not at my house in Mississauga. I've complained to Bell and they have me take the phones to their shop for checking. The shop is, of course, not in Mississauga.

Ruslan124

If you have broadband internet, I can highly recommend Vonage. It costs about $45 a month for unlimited North American calling and the rates to the UK are very cheap. Check out www.vonage.ca. The call quality is excellent, just as good as a normal landline. There are cheaper plans available and you can also buy a virtual number in London (UK not Ontario). A virtual number allows a UK caller to call the London number you have bought and it will be automatically transferred to your home phone. The caller only pays for the cost of dialling London and not Canada. There are many more excellent features with this service.

Two caveats, at the moment these VOIP telephone services do not have a 911 service. They are just starting to be introduced. It is not a problem if you have a cell phone. The second caveat is that if you lose teh internet service you cannot make or receive calls. This has never happend to me in the 3 years I have been with Videotron.

My bell service with a Local only calling plan (this is the cheapest available) was $37 a month with no calls.

yorkiebar99

Hello there!
I can tell you that in Toronto for a basic landline(without any features or long distance) it is usually around 23$/month before tax.
As for other companies there are Bell,Sprint,Primus(they are the major ones) but you have to check each individually to make sure that they are available at your address. But landlines are up for a big change.
VOIP is going to hit big time in the next couple of months. Deals with all the companies are popping up all over the place

Internet warning....if you do a lot of downloading as about the caps. They often say that they have a soft cap but they can be real buggers about it.

What sort of long distance calls do you plan on making? North America/UK? There is a $5 plan for 1000 north American Minutes available with both Bell and Rogers which they often don't tell you about.
Its great to hear that you are shopping around.....keep calling the same companies back and tell them what the competitors have offered you because you will see that they will always try to top it.

Always ask about: system access fee
network charge
activation charge

Whatever you do, don't sign up over the internet because they wont show you the best deals.

Can you guess what i do for a living???!!!!

CalgaryAMC

Forget the phone company. Vonage -- I can't recommend it highly enough.

Pretty Flowers

I don't have a landline over here. My broadband is through cogeco, and I have a city fido package which gives me free calls throughout the whole of the GTA. This costs $60 ish a month, excluding text messages... Reception is good, apart from in my office for some reason...

I don't really see the point in having a landline, as there's only me and the cats, and they have never mastered answering the phone.