Contract with Bell almost up, calling to cancel services paid off

[krysta lynne]

i hate bell. they messed around with me and gave me crappy service for a long time. with cogeco now and have great service. though i do have a $350 start up bill to pay soon, and i had to buy the box for $160. O_o

[AlexVOIP]

VOIP requires an internet connection and uses your existing phone and phone lines (you may need a dry loop line - this is free through Bell). You also have to buy a phone ATA (a little box that makes it all work $60). You simply decide on what service you want, sign up, port your number...your bell account automatically gets cancelled. I use paypal to top up my account every few months...I can go manage all my services online and make any setting changes.

If your internet goes down then you have no phone. This happens but we have cell phones if there are emergencies.

The call filtering alone is worth it.

You are correct firsttimer1969 - however note there are VOIP providers out there (don't know which one you use) which have a feature called FailSafe, in case your ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) loses connection to the VOIP Provider's server internet connectivity is presumed down and calls are seamless/transparently diverted to a pre-configured different number. In many/most cases that's the mobile number. Another good practice is to always have a battery backup to protect your investment and telecommunications thru a power outage.

Agreed the call filtering or call block is an awesome ability - it's ironic but seems VOIP Providers are doing more to stop Telemarketers than what the big 3 Telco folks ever did.

What we see is that people with Bell or Rogers are the ones more eager to switch their Home Phones. Perhaps exactly because of the reasons described in this thread. Businesses/corporations started the switch quite a few years ago.