Home Phone provider! Rogers ultimatum.

[hobb3s]

I just recently got a message in the mail telling me that Rogers will be switching my phone over to a cable modem phone off my analogue line or I won't have phone service anymore. So I'm going to cancel all my accounts at Rogers and move my phone, television, and internet to new providers.

Does anyone have any insight on any phone providers other than Bell or Primus?
Non-VOIP, I would like to stick with analogue lines. I live in Ottawa.

I've decided on internet services with a local company, and I'm still researching new television options.

[Anonymouse]

I've had good luck with Teksavvy for home phone, who uses the Bell infrastructure. I save a couple of bucks a month over the Bell prices.

There was a hiccup at the beginning when I had no dial tone, but it was Bell's fault and it was corrected within 18 hours. Since then, I've had no complaints.

I also have my DSL internet with teksavvy, which has been similarly flawless.

Overall, my bill with teksavvy is $76.32 after tax, which includes phone, unlimited Canadian long distance (possibly US too, I forget) and internet. The same services with Bell would be over $90.

[RaidZero]

If you don't mind VoIP (which you already had if you were a Rogers Home Phone customer) and no 911, then vbuzzer.com is pretty good. I found them on this forums and got the special offer 1 year for $25 for a Toronto number. The quality is decent.
I used to pay $35 a month to Bell for a basic phone line and now I pay a twoonie and I even have caller ID and all the features. For 911, I got the $50 cell phone from Petro Canada with $5 credit. The credit is good for 6 months. In total, for 6 months I paid $12.5 for the Vbuzzer.com number, $55 for the Linksys VoIP adapter and $50 for the cell. Total $117.5, that is three months of Bell service. For the next 6 months, I will be paying $12.5 for Vbuzzer and $10 credit for the cell, in total way less than a month with Bell.

[Whitedart]

I just recently got a message in the mail telling me that Rogers will be switching my phone over to a cable modem phone off my analogue line or I won't have phone service anymore. So I'm going to cancel all my accounts at Rogers and move my phone, television, and internet to new providers.

Does anyone have any insight on any phone providers other than Bell or Primus?
Non-VOIP, I would like to stick with analogue lines. I live in Ottawa.


Rogers aquired equipment in Bell central offices when they purchased Sprint, but appear to be moving all customers over to their cable voip service, so they no longer have to pay fees to Bell for each landline.

The only other company I know of that has some equipment in Bell Ontario COs is Primus, but that is limited to specific areas/exchanges.

[Justin C]

Also www.teksavvy.com and www.wightman.ca

[monomono]

I had the same notice (delivered by registered mail no less).
Since Robbers has been providing me analog phone service, there's no way I will pay the same for a VOIP-like equivalent.
They offered some kind of rebate ($150 I think) which funnily enough is roughly equal to how much Bell will charge to reconnect the analog line, which you will need to do if you ever want to go back to analog service, since Rogers will physically cut the lines when installing their modem.
I have signed up with Teksavvy.

[prying eyes]

You dont need to pay for 911....read more

http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080525/OPINION03/805250347/1005/opinion

It seems to me it would be a good idea to give your elderly parent your old working but unregistered cell phone, so they could call 911 in an emergency. The cell phone should have a much further range than the home pendant type monitors, which are good to only a few hundred feet from the in-home base unit.

While used mainly at the home, an unregistered cell could also work for 911 while shopping or taking a trip, as long as you get a signal. You'd have to make sure the phone is always charged, and the elderly person would have to stay on the line with the 911 operator to give their location. It is not advised to program in auto-dial 911 and/or to disable any auto dial 911 feature, as it is too easy to make accidental 911 calls with these features. Carrying an unregistered cell phone could save a life.


If you don't mind VoIP (which you already had if you were a Rogers Home Phone customer) and no 911, then vbuzzer.com is pretty good. I found them on this forums and got the special offer 1 year for $25 for a Toronto number. The quality is decent.
I used to pay $35 a month to Bell for a basic phone line and now I pay a twoonie and I even have caller ID and all the features. For 911, I got the $50 cell phone from Petro Canada with $5 credit. The credit is good for 6 months. In total, for 6 months I paid $12.5 for the Vbuzzer.com number, $55 for the Linksys VoIP adapter and $50 for the cell. Total $117.5, that is three months of Bell service. For the next 6 months, I will be paying $12.5 for Vbuzzer and $10 credit for the cell, in total way less than a month with Bell.

[Hambone]

You still get 911 service with "Rogers Home Phone".

[fortunekitty500]

I got a letter from them a couple of weeks ago too. I'm so pissed. When I signed up with them a few months ago, I specifically requested POTS as I hated the fact that the phone only had 6hrs backup in case of power outage.

I live in an area where I can't switch to Bell or anyone else. GRRRRR....

[sillysimms]

I got the same letter from Rogers about a month ago. We were only with Rogers for phone since we were former Sprint landline customers.

As soon as I got the letter, I also called TekSavvy and made arrangements to get a landline through them.

[lochlan651]

I got a letter from them a couple of weeks ago too. I'm so pissed. When I signed up with them a few months ago, I specifically requested POTS as I hated the fact that the phone only had 6hrs backup in case of power outage.

I live in an area where I can't switch to Bell or anyone else. GRRRRR....

When was the last time you had a power outage for more than 6 hours?
Enough times to worry about it?

[sillysimms]

When was the last time you had a power outage for more than 6 hours?
Enough times to worry about it?

There are other reasons not to want Rogers Home Phone. That's just one of them.

For us, the condo buzzer system is not compatible with Rogers Home Phone. As well, if you want to use DSL internet most times you'll need to pay for a dry loop as Rogers cuts/disconnects the standard landlines unless you specifically make arrangements and are very clear you have DSL. Even if you do this, it still may not work. Happened to my neighbours and now they ended up having to use Rogers internet to avoid the dry loop DSL charge. If you ever want to switch back to a landline, there are fees involved from Bell to fix the wiring.

For me, I'd much rather use a reliable old landline. It would be one thing if Rogers had amazing rates but they don't. I don't respect a company that raises their fees by increasing their System Access Fee to $5.95/month just so they can still advertise the same rate and put the SAF in small print at the bottom.

[AudiDude]

There are other reasons not to want Rogers Home Phone. That's just one of them.

For us, the condo buzzer system is not compatible with Rogers Home Phone. As well, if you want to use DSL internet most times you'll need to pay for a dry loop as Rogers cuts/disconnects the standard landlines unless you specifically make arrangements and are very clear you have DSL. Even if you do this, it still may not work. Happened to my neighbours and now they ended up having to use Rogers internet to avoid the dry loop DSL charge. If you ever want to switch back to a landline, there are fees involved from Bell to fix the wiring.

For me, I'd much rather use a reliable old landline. It would be one thing if Rogers had amazing rates but they don't. I don't respect a company that raises their fees by increasing their System Access Fee to $5.95/month just so they can still advertise the same rate and put the SAF in small print at the bottom.

There is no such thing as a "Condo Buzzer" system that is not compatible with Rogers, only bad installers. As an aside, with Bell, if the door entry system fails, so does your service because it passes through the system. Has this ever happened? You bet it has.

With Rogers, you are in control, if the wiring in the wall goes bad, or the door entry system fails, just plug right in to the modem and wait for the problem to be cleared.

If you want to switch back to Bell, there is no wiring to "fix", because there is nothing broken. The wires must be reconfigured, there is nothing maimed and mutilated about them. If Bell charges you, thats between you and them, Rogers does not charge and I don't think that it is fair that you blame Rogers because Bell does. You would have to inform Rogers that you intend to keep your DSL because they would have no way of knowing you have it.

Most new "reliable old landlines" are fed from remote NGDLCs where fibre carries the signal to the area (maybe the basement in a condo, or maybe a hut at the side of the road in Weedwacker Ontario). Either way when the electricity goes out, all fed from the remotes run off the battery racks at the remote. Life expectancy of the batteries depends on how much people talk. Neighbours talking drain the batteries for everybody and there is no way to stop it. With Rogers if you have a electrical source (generator) you can stay up indefinitely, which is not the case with Bell as you cannot access the batteries (unless you are an employee). When the big black out hit, Bell lost piles of customers when the remote NGDLC/DLC batteries were exhausted.

Rogers "amazing rates" are in their bundles, not pricing the services individually. Bell does deep discounts for six months and then regular going rate for the remainder of your contract.Usually they get very aggressive before they raise the rates and then you are stuck in your contract at higher rates than you expected. If Rogers does the same thing, you never see the full rate increase if you are bundled because you see the increase minus the percent you saving. I calculated three scenarios. One was full price for two years with an increase after 6 months.The next was a 6 month deep discount, plus the same rate increase for the remaining months. The third was a percentage off with a price increase after six months.

The last one (which simulated the bundle discount) was the cheapest, followed by the deep discount model, followed by no discount. Each option was separated by abot $150-$170 the cheapes being Rogers.

[sillysimms]

There is no such thing as a "Condo Buzzer" system that is not compatible with Rogers, only bad installers. As an aside, with Bell, if the door entry system fails, so does your service because it passes through the system. Has this ever happened? You bet it has.

Our condo corporation sent a memo to all owners advising that those in the building that have switched over to Rogers Home Phone have not been able to use the buzzer system and if you do so and the buzzer does not work, you have to meet your guests in the lobby as security will not let them in. It happened to my neighbours and despite the fact their buzzer doesn't work, Rogers has told them it does???

If anyone wants Rogers Home Phone, that is fine. I have no problem with it. But it isn't for me. As for DSL, there are plenty of people on DSL reports who had no idea their DSL would not work until after Rogers did the install. It may be between Bell and the customer if they charge for rehooking the wiring, but the fact is yes they do and that's an expense I'll avoid by keeping a traditional landline.

If you or anyone else wants RHP, that is fine. It will never be for me. I want a traditional land line. To each their own.

[AudiDude]

Our condo corporation sent a memo to all owners advising that those in the building that have switched over to Rogers Home Phone have not been able to use the buzzer system and if you do so and the buzzer does not work, you have to meet your guests in the lobby as security will not let them in. It happened to my neighbours and despite the fact their buzzer doesn't work, Rogers has told them it does???


I'm not telling anybody to get Rogers, or Bell. As someone who has worked for all the larger providers in Ontario, who used to prewire buildings, who has installed the interface for enterphone and who is frequently fixing telecommunications equipment, I can tell you that any provider can work with the door entry system. Your condo corporation sent out a memo because you probably live in an older condo where there are no labels on the door entry system. As soon as a tech moves a wire incorrectly there are no labels to assist them in proper reconnection.

Switching back to Bell doesn't always help either because the skill for repairing such problems was lost with the advent of DSL. Bell never had reason to deploy techs to apartments after DSL, whereas before, techs were needed to install second lines for dial up access. Bell now just left every apartment connected from 2000-2005 and let go some of their techs, because they were not needed to connect/disconnect customers. Enter 2005 and Rogers now disconnects Bell and causes truck rolls to reconnect the customers.Bell is mad and makes sure to charge anybody to come back to Bell to teach them a lesson. The condo corporations had 5 years of no enterphone issues, and forget that before that (2000 and down) there were issues galore.

Now between Bell and your condo corporation (who wants you to stay with Bell so that nobody touches the door entry system) posting notes, everybody tries to make Rogers look worse than they are. I fix enterphone connections and will be doing so today and wednesday. Most of the fault lies with poorly labeled and poorly installed older systems. I have seen newer systems that use the wrong connectors which change the wiring layout to non standard and confuses the less experienced techs and they might be unlabled as well.

I have seen Rogers force the condo corporation to remove such documents and print a retraction in their "memos" because what was said isn't true. People want choice, and the only reason why the condo corporation gave out the memo was to discourage the tenants from making any changes that may cause them grief. Back in the late 90's a lot of condo corps went with a dialer system that phones you instead to eliminate all the trouble calls they were getting from the tenants. There was no Rogers at the time, only Bell.

[AudiDude]

If you or anyone else wants RHP, that is fine. It will never be for me. I want a traditional land line. To each their own.

My whole point in mentioning the "traditionial landline" at all is that there is no way to guarantee that you will get one or that it will stay up. An NGDLC or a DLC is a digital loop carrier. You are misinformed thinking because you have Bell service, you are not on a DLC. IF you are, you do not have the power backup of anybody connected to the central office and just assuming you are and telling others that everybody is connected to the CO is wrong and misinforming.
Bells HUGE July 16th 1999 outage and the big blackout proved their service is not infallible as they would have you think. I worked on for Bell on July 16 1999, and spent most of the day in a restaurant as getiing work done was hopeless. Self employed during the blackout, allowed me to drive around and see that Bell and many other providers had pockets of no telephone service.

[sillysimms]

I'm not telling anybody to get Rogers, or Bell. As someone who has worked for all the larger providers in Ontario, who used to prewire buildings, who has installed the interface for enterphone and who is frequently fixing telecommunications equipment, I can tell you that any provider can work with the door entry system. Your condo corporation sent out a memo because you probably live in an older condo where there are no labels on the door entry system. As soon as a tech moves a wire incorrectly there are no labels to assist them in proper reconnection.

Switching back to Bell doesn't always help either because the skill for repairing such problems was lost with the advent of DSL. Bell never had reason to deploy techs to apartments after DSL, whereas before, techs were needed to install second lines for dial up access. Bell now just left every apartment connected from 2000-2005 and let go some of their techs, because they were not needed to connect/disconnect customers. Enter 2005 and Rogers now disconnects Bell and causes truck rolls to reconnect the customers.Bell is mad and makes sure to charge anybody to come back to Bell to teach them a lesson. The condo corporations had 5 years of no enterphone issues, and forget that before that (2000 and down) there were issues galore.

Now between Bell and your condo corporation (who wants you to stay with Bell so that nobody touches the door entry system) posting notes, everybody tries to make Rogers look worse than they are. I fix enterphone connections and will be doing so today and wednesday. Most of the fault lies with poorly labeled and poorly installed older systems. I have seen newer systems that use the wrong connectors which change the wiring layout to non standard and confuses the less experienced techs and they might be unlabled as well.

I have seen Rogers force the condo corporation to remove such documents and print a retraction in their "memos" because what was said isn't true. People want choice, and the only reason why the condo corporation gave out the memo was to discourage the tenants from making any changes that may cause them grief. Back in the late 90's a lot of condo corps went with a dialer system that phones you instead to eliminate all the trouble calls they were getting from the tenants. There was no Rogers at the time, only Bell.

Thank you. I will pass this on to someone on my floor who has not been able to use the buzzer system since switching to Rogers.

In this case, the building issued the memo after complaints from several people about Rogers. In the situation with my neighbours they have repeatedly phoned Rogers about this for help and Rogers is telling them that their phone is compatible with the buzzer system and the buzzer is working (even though it is not). Due to this issue the management issued the memo. They do have a contract with Rogers for television so are not against using Rogers but heard several complaints from people who had RHP.

I personally am not telling anyone not to use RHP. I however was only with them by default since we were former Sprint customers. I don't want their digital phone which is why I switched to TekSavvy as soon as I got the letter from them.

I will pass this info along and hopefully after 6 months, my neighbours will find some way to get their buzzer working.

[AudiDude]

Thank you. I will pass this on to someone on my floor who has not been able to use the buzzer system since switching to Rogers.

In this case, the building issued the memo after complaints from several people about Rogers. In the situation with my neighbours they have repeatedly phoned Rogers about this for help and Rogers is telling them that their phone is compatible with the buzzer system and the buzzer is working (even though it is not). Due to this issue the management issued the memo. They do have a contract with Rogers for television so are not against using Rogers but heard several complaints from people who had RHP.

I personally am not telling anyone not to use RHP. I however was only with them by default since we were former Sprint customers. I don't want their digital phone which is why I switched to TekSavvy as soon as I got the letter from them.

I will pass this info along and hopefully after 6 months, my neighbours will find some way to get their buzzer working.

Tell anybody who can't get their service working to call the Office of the President. Collectively if possible. Then inform them of the memo that has circulated. Ask them if it is true that it is incompatible (they should say "no") then tell them multiple people are having issues and the corporation may be considering exclusivity with another provider. This should get you a qualified senior technician who will be able to fix all the problems (except Bell customers, yes there are some that have had issues for years and will lie and say the have Rogers to finally have their issues fixed).

When all is done, ask them for the number to the area manager to have and call if another issue arises. Then it will only take a phonecall to remedy the situation. The only way it shouldn't work is if the door entry system was broken. You can PM me if you need more instructions, I'd be glad to help.

[sillysimms]

Tell anybody who can't get their service working to call the Office of the President. Collectively if possible. Then inform them of the memo that has circulated. Ask them if it is true that it is incompatible (they should say "no") then tell them multiple people are having issues and the corporation may be considering exclusivity with another provider. This should get you a qualified senior technician who will be able to fix all the problems (except Bell customers, yes there are some that have had issues for years and will lie and say the have Rogers to finally have their issues fixed).

When all is done, ask them for the number to the area manager to have and call if another issue arises. Then it will only take a phonecall to remedy the situation. The only way it shouldn't work is if the door entry system was broken. You can PM me if you need more instructions, I'd be glad to help.

Thanks very much for your advice. I will pass this onto my neighbour and if they have any questions I'll send you a PM. Thank you!

[myapple]

My whole point in mentioning the "traditionial landline" at all is that there is no way to guarantee that you will get one or that it will stay up. An NGDLC or a DLC is a digital loop carrier. You are misinformed thinking because you have Bell service, you are not on a DLC. IF you are, you do not have the power backup of anybody connected to the central office and just assuming you are and telling others that everybody is connected to the CO is wrong and misinforming.
Bells HUGE July 16th 1999 outage and the big blackout proved their service is not infallible as they would have you think. I worked on for Bell on July 16 1999, and spent most of the day in a restaurant as getiing work done was hopeless. Self employed during the blackout, allowed me to drive around and see that Bell and many other providers had pockets of no telephone service.
During the 2003 blackout, I had telephone AND internet service from bell. I didn't have power for my DSL modem, but I used my laptop and sympatico dialup account...and it worked fine. Switched to sprint in 2005 for better LD rates and eventually became a RHP customer.

Since receiving this "go digital or cancel" letter, I have decided to switch back to bell for home phone service. Bell was offering first 3 months free, next 9 months @ $10 off, and no activation fee (normally $55). call this bell number for the deal: 1-877-449-0774

[videonerd]

Despite my $23/month rate with no SAF on RHP, I just switched to Teksavvy today. Don't fix what ain't broke. I've had enough outages with cable-related items (digital cable and before Teksavvy DSL, calbe modem) ... I don't trust Rogers. I had phone service throughout the 2005 blackout and cell-phone tethered Internet on Telus.

[hobb3s]

Thanks everyone,
I ended up switching to techsavvy for my phone, it was cheaper and the long distance was a better rate $0.026/min ( not a big deal as I mostly use skype ). As soon as it's finalized I'm switching to NC Freenet for my internet access. I like their policies and the price is $15 cheaper than rogers.
As I would like to totally leave rogers, does anyone have a recommendation for television? (in the ottawa area) I used to live in Toronto and there were a few more than rogers and bell, but I'm not sure what's available in Ottawa.