Any Bell DSL customers manage to disconnect their phoneline?

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 01, 2005 Posts: 1

Hi,

There was a prior discussion of disconnecting local phone service while keeping DSL. But no one answered my question.

There appears to be some parts of Canada where people can keep the DSL without the phone service, so called "dry DSL". British Columbia is one.

I have begun a long diologue with Bell Canada and have not found a way to get my DSL unbundled from the phone (which they told me I could do when I re-newed my contract last month).

Has anyone cancelled their local phone and kept the DSL in Canada?

Please share this with us.

DSLtom

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 01, 2005 Posts: 10

Do you know if the people who've done it in BC were using Bell and not another landline/DSL provider?

I tried to do it with my Bell line in Quebec, and they said they wouldn't. I didn't feel like messing with it, so I just cancelled everything and went with cable. This was at least two years ago, though - things may have changed.

If it's just policy why they won't do it and not a technical issue (from what I understand depending on their equipment it's quite possible that they can't do it), have you tried speaking with the cancellations people?

If you tell them you're going to cancel everything, but you'll keep the DSL and sign a contract for it if they do, that may help break the policy issue if that's the only roadblock.

Good luck, but after dealing with Bell DSL and their CS for awhile I'd strongly suggest you seek out alternatives.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 29, 2005 Posts: 6

Anyone who does this should make it very clear to the Bell CSRs that there is a particular reason why they are doing it, that they would be happy to stay with Sympatico, or any Bell DSL, but the lack of choice is forcing the decision. When enough customers ask for naked DSL they will offer it. Qwest and SBC both have relented - Qwest publicly, and SBC quite quietly. I think Verizon and Bell South have quietly relented to providing naked DSL also.

Keep at the CSRs. They have a reaon code on their disconnect list. Populate the right code and the business reason will change.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 03, 2005 Posts: 6

What if you have your DSL connection wholesale through another provider? I currently have DSL but not through Bell. However I suppose it does come in to my house on Bell's line? I do not see why they couldn't just keep the DSL on the line and not phone service.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 05, 2005 Posts: 4

I tried unbundling the voice from sympatico, and was told no go.

The made up answer is "your account it tied to your phone #, without it, we can't sell you other service". This is utter BS and a complete lie.

In any case, being unable to resolve this, I cancelled both my Bell voiceline and my Bell Sympatico access.

Rogers stopped charging a $10 fee for customers getting high speed cable without basic cable this January.

So I got cablemodem from rogers, much much faster service, and then slapped on Vonage.

Posts: 5 · Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 9:50 am Post subject:

Its possbile. Through some extenuating circumstances, my phone service was disconnected. However the whole time my DSL ran fine. I am planning on switching DSL providers anyway, and they said none of their customers have ever had a problem. You just need to make sure that Bell knows to leave you DSL card connected for your line.

Posts: 336 · Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 11:11 am Post subject:

Scooby5 wrote:

So I got cablemodem from rogers, much much faster service, and then slapped on Vonage.

Two people that I work with tell me that Rogers high speed internet goes down quite often. Have you experienced this? I feel bad because one of the women that I work with now has Vonage (thanks to me), and she told me that her phone is not always working because her internet keeps going down. She called Rogers and they said they don't know what is causing it, but nothing is wrong with her wiring. It would be interesting to know if others are having this trouble, or if these are isolated cases.

Posts: 508 · Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 1:23 pm Post subject:

I have been with Rogers for my ISP for prolly 3 yrs now, and I don't think it's ever gone down, I seem to remember my brother saying it went down on him once, but that was once and it was fora short time.. we had more problems back when we had Sympatico DSL, it would constantly start to slow down slower and slower, and then we'd have to unplug it and then re-boot it again, and it'd work for a day or 2..

I do not like Rogers for Cell phones, thats why mine is with Bell, but for Cable/Internet, they dont' have any problems, not in my area anyways.. Smile

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 05, 2005 Posts: 4

I'll second what dabones said. My rogers service has been rock solid so far. If this lady is having her cablemodem go up and down she might want to have the RF checked by Rogers.

What I DO notice is that the crap RT31P2 linksys they ship crashes/reboots too often, so I stopped running traffic to it. I had my computers piggy backed on it but not have disconnected them and have the linksys piggyback my Netgear wireless router.

The Linksys doesn't crash when there's no data through it.. that and the annoying interference noise on it which reminds me of the cheap onboard audio chip on PCs where you can hear the harddrive. Seems like Linksys thew together a cheapass voice port on there.

Posts: 336 · Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 2:31 pm Post subject:

It appears as though people outside of the city of Ottawa are not having downtime issues with Rogers. If they can provide 24 hour service in London, they should be able to do the same for Ottawa. I'm across the river in Gatineau and have Videotron for cable high speed. It's fantastic. No down time at all, and it's very reliable and fast.

Bell only allows a small amount of megs for emails too. Another friend of mine switched to Videotron recently because his internet speed was slow using Sympatico. He has commented several times at how much more speed he has now with Videotron, and he is also planning on switching over to Vonage now that he has Videotron. He said the savings with Vonage is fabulous, and getting rid of Bell's land line (which keeps going up in price while services are cut) will be a blessing.

I would not even bother with Voip if you have an internet connection that is constantly bouncing up and down.