Landline phone plans | Your stories | Discussion forum

I kept my $30/month phone line for over 30 years, and I still have it. But it's cheaper now - just over ten bucks a month. Making inquiries about my bill one month, I happened to get referred to the "loyalty and retention" department, and they are usually quick to offer deals.

Last year, that phone company tried to convert me to VOIP, and I protested having to pay for power (and their units are not miserly in sucking it up!) and not having phone service during blackouts. It was a week of hell and no home phone until they sent someone, who said he couldn't install the VOIP because the fiber wasn't installed! Duh. He did something to a box down the street and now my home phone works fine, including during power failures.

Never admit to any business that you have an internet connection or E-mail. Many will immediately deny you services they would like to get rid of.

A WORD ABOUT PARANOIA:

http://www.theregister.com/202...../?td=rt-3a

for an update on a book by Bruce Schneier on invasion of digital privacy. The book was published in 2014, and its revelations are shocking - and what's been added in the last decade?

The book is Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World. He also has a web site with many updates. It's important reading. And, no, I didn't just "wake up" from this one source, which I just read this week. I've been following the issue since the '80s, when the Canadian Parliament first acted to restrict storage of data on Canadians because they knew even then that the US (and probably other foreign powers) were scooping up all data - and later voice information - crossing the US border.

And every intelligence agency in the world ignores their own laws and directives about privacy. Look at the struggles (and failures) descending from the USAPATRIOT act.

Bill said
If you go to Fibe internet your landline goes off copper and has to go thru Fibe, can never go back to copper, they tell me.  

Same here, with Telus. I went Fibre and thought that it was only for my internet and TV. However, everything was switched to it and I cannot return to copper. Or, so they tell me.

I think that they are outright lying, because my neighbour across the street still has his copper. The physical components are still there and fully functional. Telus just refuses to switch me back, IMO.

savemoresaveoften said
Any single service only copper line landline I don't think its possible to get it for $30 or under.

Winnie's $30 is maybe a single service only maybe she can chime in.  

Yes, it is correct.
I have only single service copper line landline from Bell with total price including taxes under $30 for many years.
I'm also at Bell's "Do not call list", so maybe for that very reason they decided not to increase my price.

RetirEd said
Some of my neighbours liked the internet service, but none of them realized the loss of phone service during blackouts.

Do you have so many power outages that this is your main concern to have land line?
That is mine least of concerns. My main concern having Bell was crazy price for miniscule service. Free calls were for ONLY adjacent municipalities, everything else was 'long distance'. Switched to voip through my internet provider. Currently $5/30 days with Canada wide calls.
Now thinking of porting land line to mobile device but am cautious will land line number be able to receive texts and 2FA.
If Anybody did such porting I would like to hear (personal message is OK) as I would have some questions and potential test to do with such person.

CAD: It's odd you should mention that, but only in the last five years has my 'hood had a sharp increase in outages - four last year, two of them major and for more than a few hours. Of course, one couldn't call BC Hydro because the phones were out. Mind you, BC Hydro is always permabusy anyway during an outage.

This is a seriously urban area, not somewhere with vulnerable outdoor lines or crumbling infrastructure. At least one of the outages was clearly resulting from a deafening transformer explosion a few blocks away...

@CAD:

I am in york region and like your said, no major power outage mostly cuz power cables are underground. So unless issues at the transformer station, any outage is brief.
As for VOIP, I use VOIP.ms (name of company) and pay about $2 per month. That includes 911 locationing service, otherwise it will be under $1 a month. It's pay as you go by the minute, but like $0.01 a min or some silly low amount.
I don't really use it, more just to keep my legacy 905 phone number lol.
It does require the user to have good technical knowledge to set up the VOIP initially. Oh and it cost me about $40 to buy the VOIP box and program it to work with them. It works fine on alarm monitoring too.
I won't pay a landline $30 a month as an "insurance". That's a very expensive monthly insurance if u ask me.

Since this thread has turned into a 'landline' thread, stats as of 2021 for landline vs cellphone vs both are reported by StatsCan here https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/5289-landline-use-decreases-amid-growing-cellphone-ownership

There are only a few reasons to have a landline:
-One of them being reliability in some remote areas where cellphone coverage is poor and/or non-existent.
- Another in the case of our extended family is a household with young (<10 yrs old) children who are not yet responsible enough to have their own cellphone.
- For homes with old wired technology such as gate and/or home security systems (in our case)

Our landline is modem based over internet. The built-in battery backup works perfectly well for significant periods of time in event of electrical outages. As mentioned by someone up thread, those batteries do fail after a period of time and ours did after 8? years of usage. Shaw (now Rogers) simply came in and replaced the entire unit at no charge.

When we downsize from our current house, we will eliminate the landline. We have been eliminating that number from all of our "accounts" over time. Only two families in our extended family, one with young kids and ourselves, continue to have a landline.

savemoresaveoften said
But if you live in a remote area, then its a different discussion.

No, I'm in very urban area.

Yes, I do have internet at home also, but prefer, that my landline would not be connected to the internet, so I'm paying less than $30 for that fun.

And, I also have a mobile phone with unlimited internet data (yes, unlimited) and unlimited free long distance (Canada wide).

It's better for me to use landline phone, because it is less EMF exposure, that mobile. I think, that less than $30 is reasonable and I'm happy until Ma Bell will ask me to pay more. Then, I will quit.

savemoresaveoften said
@CAD:

I am in york region and like your said, no major power outage mostly cuz power cables are underground. So unless issues at the transformer station, any outage is brief.
As for VOIP, I use VOIP.ms (name of company) and pay about $2 per month. That includes 911 locationing service, otherwise it will be under $1 a month. It's pay as you go by the minute, but like $0.01 a min or some silly low amount.
I don't really use it, more just to keep my legacy 905 phone number lol.
It does require the user to have good technical knowledge to set up the VOIP initially. Oh and it cost me about $40 to buy the VOIP box and program it to work with them. It works fine on alarm monitoring too.
I won't pay a landline $30 a month as an "insurance". That's a very expensive monthly insurance if u ask me.  

I had VoIP.ms. That is until they failed to protect themselves from a DDoS attack and extorting the company. < = was totally their fault. Was about $12 a month converted to CDN $.

Not sure when your numbers are coming from….voip.ms is in USA dollars.

And is doubtful that will work for an alarm. Son in law is an alarm installer.

DID is 85 cents, and 911 is $1.50 a month. There are lots of flexibile options with VoIP.ms. You have to be inclined to program or pay some one but they are very helpful. See inbound and outbound calling rates below.

For VoIP.ms you will pay more than $2 a month!

Wired alarms with telephone monitoring are as good as obsolete for residential. But they still work…not sure if with Telus fibre. Alarms are becoming all done over the internet. Old wired alarms usually have decent battery backup as well.

Telus on fibre does not offer battery backup for phone service in a power outage. Forces home to have some cellular service.

Shaw years ago had battery back for phone service. Not sure of now.

VoIP box may or may not have battery backup for VoIP service.

A ZTE box with SIM card has battery backup and newer wireless land line handsets have battery back up. So is a good option if battery back up is an option. The ZTE option can allow call forwarding, free 800 number calling and Canada wide calling.

And of course a UPS system from an electronics store could be considered.