Bell landline?

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 13, 2005 Posts: 13

canuck wrote:

Well, I tried to clarify this by calling Vonage support number, not much help! They seem to be confused on the issue as well. The lady I spoke to didn't seem to know if it would affect my dsl or not. She thought I should keep my existing phone service with bell, just reduce it to basic service, but I am trying to get rid of bills not just add new ones! I was not impressed with the support service, or quality of the call, I hope all Vonage calls are not that crappy, sounded like a one way call, worse than talking on walkie talkies!

canuck,

It is possible to keep your Bell Sympatico HSE without having the landline with Bell. To reiterate what others have said, you will have a dry loop running through your house instead. What this means is that your phone line will be inactive for everything but the DSL service.

I attempted to have this done at my home. I wanted to retain my Sympatico but not have a landline at all. Vonage said they would handle the transferring of my old phone number (with Bell) to Vonage. I told them that I had DSL at my home and wanted to retain it. A week after my phone number was transferred Bell cancelled ALL of my services (Sympatico and my landline). It was a horrible experience to learn that my Internet had been cancelled without my approval. Apparently Vonage didn't handle the DSL issue after all. They just told Bell to cancel everything. At that point I had no Internet and no telephone.

So after a whole debacle with Bell Sympatico concerning my billing, I decided to have the dry-loop set up. They said it would take a week, but it didn't. Two weeks later I had to call and ask them what was wrong, and it turned out to be a disconnection somewhere outside my house. They fixed it in about two business days.

At this point I thought everything was up and running fine, I had Sympatico again and I was quite pleased. The very next day, I was disconnected again and Sympatico had no answers. I've since asked for a refund for the entire month of December and to cancel ALL my services with them. I've been with Sympatico for five years but this type of customer service is ridiculous.

The bottom line for me is that in my situation, in having Vonage as my phone carrier, the quality and reliability of my Internet connection is of utmost importance. I can't handle ANY downtime of any kind because I would be entirely disconnected. With Sympatico, it seemed as if they didn't have their dry loop capabilities or services down effectively. Sure they offered it, but it doesn't mean they're good at providing it.

The worst part about it is dealing with Sympatico. Getting through to them on their customer service phone number took me an average of 20 minutes, and then another 20 minutes just to speak to the right person. I've been transferred innumerable times on every occasion.

For those reasons I've switched to Rogers Yahoo High Speed because if I have trouble I can speak to the local Rogers Communications Centre around the corner. At least that way if I want to complain I can do it in person rather than yelling at my cell phone.

I hope that helps.

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 21, 2005 Posts: 8

Thanks for the reply cBg. I have talked to a few people now at Vonage and bell sympatico. Vonage customer support says its not possible, tech support says its possible if I can get a dry loop setup, and transfer the number. Bell sympatico tech support, said it should be possible, but I should get the dry loop setup first, so I don't lose internet as you stated happened to you. He said I need to phone Bell customer service and ask them to move my sympatico dsl servcie to a dry loop, disconnected from my phone number. This should take 5-7 days, and then I can transfer my number to Vonage, hopefully without issues. The only problem is I won't really know when my dsl has been changed to dry loop, or if this will interrupt any service. I will post the outcome once I have gone through the whole process. Hope this helps others.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 13, 2005 Posts: 13

canuck wrote:

Thanks for the reply cBg. I have talked to a few people now at Vonage and bell sympatico. Vonage customer support says its not possible, tech support says its possible if I can get a dry loop setup, and transfer the number. Bell sympatico tech support, said it should be possible, but I should get the dry loop setup first, so I don't lose internet as you stated happened to you. He said I need to phone Bell customer service and ask them to move my sympatico dsl servcie to a dry loop, disconnected from my phone number. This should take 5-7 days, and then I can transfer my number to Vonage, hopefully without issues. The only problem is I won't really know when my dsl has been changed to dry loop, or if this will interrupt any service. I will post the outcome once I have gone through the whole process. Hope this helps others.

I'm quite sure Vonage will tell you that it's not possible because in the past when they have told customers it would work it hasn't, and they've been left responsible. I know that when I called to give them an earful they said that it's not the first time it happened, which irritated me even more. Basically don't give Vonage the responsibility of dealing with Sympatico because they don't know how.

Good luck.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 10, 2006 Posts: 3

To keep your bell phone number and use sympatico you must follow these steps:
1) you must transfer your phone number to single number reach(http://www.bell.ca/shop/Sme.Sol.Applications.Single.Number.Reach.page),
2)order dryloop dsl (18664045744)

Important.

The scheduling(of disconnect, reconnect and dryloop service)must be done on the same day because when the number is moved to single number reach your phoneline will go dead. Also, mention to the dryloop department that you are moving to single number reach because they need to have a dead line before they can activate service. While they are doing the switchover you may be without service for a portion of the day or only a few minutes.
The ordering of the services may take some time because they may say it is impossible to do this, but stay confident.
All this switchover is free. Then, after doing this, ask to port your number and you will not lose your internet or your phone number.

However, if you don't want any disruption of internet they will say you need to get a second line installed. There might be a charge for this.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 08, 2006 Posts: 1

I am currently using Vonage with Bell DSL dry loop.

When I signed up for Vonage, I wanted to keep my existing number because I was moving and needed to keep my old number so family/friends wouldn't incur long distance charges. I did what Vonage said and let them handle the transfer. I was fine for about 2 days after my number switched over - than I lost DSL as bell turned off my circuit.

I called sympatico and they were useless. They told me I had to call Vonage to get the circuit number. We'll, I was moving in 4 days so I didn't do anything until after I moved. I switched to Rogers but Vonage worked like crap - they must be throttling Voip. I then called sympatico and complained about how I was disconnected at my last residence and why should I not be able to get DSL at my new place. The first person I talked with was a jerk! He said because I am using another carrier they could not hook up a circuit. I told him it was Voip but he didn't seem to think it made a difference. I asked to speak to his supervisor and explained what I wanted. He said no problem. They will run a DSL loop or pair and demark it outside the house. That was done in 3 days and I connected it inside my house and it works great, and I'm not paying anymore than I was before.

Just remember, don't always take what the first person you talk to as how it is. If in doubt, ask for the supervisor or manager.

Good luck.

Darryl.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 21, 2006 Posts: 1

I have exactly the sam experience with cBg, except that I have not decided to change dsl from sympatico to rogers. I am still waiting for sympatico to repair the dsl access. It was horrible with both internet and tel off! I would recommend Vonage to handle the tel number transfer more carefully, or simply tell new customers to change their ISP if they can not deal with bell sympatico issue.

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 28, 2006 Posts: 12

canuck: That's because every line--even dry loop--has a number assigned to it. Dry loop just means there's no phone service on the line. If you don't transfer your number to Vonage, Sympatico will keep your old number attached to that line when you switch to dry loop (or recycle it into the system if they assign a new one).

I just went through the process of transferring my number over to Vonage and getting Sympatico to set me up on dry loop service. The number transfer took 5 days, and I only knew that it went through because my phone line/DSL service went dead. (The Vonage website was 2 days late in notifying me that it went through--I had hoped to be able to order the dry loop service ahead of time.) I had to ask Sympatico to rush the dry loop order through because I had no phone/DSL service, and they were able to do it in 2 business days (the guy said it normally takes a week). So I had no DSL/Vonage for 2 days, but I was able to "borrow" a wireless signal from my neighbour for the time-being. Embarassed

Sympatico told me the only other way to do it was to install another line into my house for ~$75 which would be my new dry-loop line. If you did this, you'd be out a bit of cash but you wouldn't have to worry about being without phone/internet while they reactivated your line as dry loop.

I didn't know about the Single Number Reach work-around that baba describes above. I would follow those instructions first, since it means that you will minimize the time you'll be without DSL/Vonage service and you don't have to order a new line.

Good luck.

Posts: 92 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Aug 01, 2006 Posts: 92

The rest of these posts pretty much covered it, but I will summarize.

If you have DSL and you are porting your number to Vonage, you MUST get a dry loop from your internet provider before the transfer goes through or your DSL connection will drop.

Your DSL provider MUST provide you with this service if you request it due to a CRTC ruling, even if it's difficult to find someone agreeable.

I'm not a lawyer but if you are you can try to make sense of this.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Orders/2005/o2005-415.htm

- Kukk

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 07, 2006 Posts: 12

So has Vonage/Symaptico have all this worked out yet?
I just asked for the dry loop on Monday this week - should take 6 days, and ordered Vonage today - kit should arrive on Friday or Monday...how smooth will the transition be?

Also, once my current number is ported - should I flat out cancel my landline with Bell? Everything should be on the dry loop - right?If not, won't I be charged the monthly rate to maintain that line?

Thanks,

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 28, 2006 Posts: 12

To be on the safe side, you should call Bell after your number is ported to confirm that your landline account has been canceled (and on what date). As long as you have Bell high-speed or better, you won't be charged extra for dry loop -- so no extra charges for that line.

I ported my number first before switching to dry-loop (see post above) so I don't know if you will have any difficulties porting your Bell number to Vonage after you switch to dry-loop.