VoIP Accessible? Hardly.
My girlfriend and I are planning on moving in together in September, and I’ve come to the conclusion that we needs to find another option for our phone service. Why? Well, the $100 charges for long distance on my cellphone bill is one reason. Another is the fact that VoIP has come a long way in the last few years, and the idea of unlimited long distance for a (relatively) small monthly fee is very aluring.
How’s it work? Here’s a little description:
Basically you have a handset (resembling a normal phone) and a gateway, or “call server,” for you calls to be routed though. You connect your phone to your call server, and the server to your broadband connection, and voila! Voice over IP phone access!
Of course, It isn’t really that easy. The call server does a lot of work inside of it’s little box, like placing calls, monitoring the status of your call, and a bunch of other stuff that I don’t even know (To read more about VoIP, check out HowStuffWorks.com’s article , and also give the links at the bottom of this post a once-over), but to make use of all this crazy technology you’re going to need a provider.
There are several companies out there that offer decent coverage in Canada, and here are those that I’ve found:
Vonage seems to be the standard here in Canada for VoIP access as they service almost every province. The problem? They do not offer local area phone numbers for the provinces of Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, and, you guess it, my home province of New Brunswick. Though this really doesn’t suprise me, since this province always get shafted (Yeah, shut up Dan), so it leaves me with having to look for alternatives.
Total Talk is an AOL company that provides internet telephone service in Canada. They offer decent rates, comparable to Vonage, but I haven’t heard much about them in regards to quality of service. They service all provinces, but you cannot get local dialing numbers in the provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, PEI, Newfoundland/Labrador, and, of course, New Brunswick.
Other Providers: Voip.net / Broadvox Direct They service all provinces, but you cannot get local dialing numbers in the provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, PEI, Newfoundland/Labrador, and, of course, New Brunswick.
So what’s this all mean? I’m SOL as far as VoIP goes in my province. I cannot get a local area code (506) with any of the major providers, and I would imagine that all the smaller providers just lease access from the larger providers out there.
I guess I’m just going to have to sit back and wait for my local provider to get off their ass and offer us something great for once, or wait for Vonage to risk offering VoIP access to one of the poorest provinces in Canada.
Looks like I’m stucks with a conventional phone for now.
Voip-Calculator - Lots of general info about VoIP
voipchoices - Lots of info about VoIP
VoIP Providers List - A list of VoIP providers in Canada.
Skype - Computer-to-computer communication using VoIP technology.
3 Comments
I live on the NS/NB border, and have no issue with getting a 902 number from Halifax.
I can still call people with some plans without limit,,, so I can call my friends.
In addition, they can call me and I can call them right back.
I am afraid I am not the biggest fan of the monopolizing NB carrier - was paying $72.40 a month for service ; paying in advance for 500 mins I may or may not use. (Not to mention the headache of trying to figure about apporx how long I had been on the phone for!)
I also have friends in the UK, and it is alot easier to call them cheaply through VOIP things than the landline. I do not have a VOIP carrier right now,,, but am doing some shopping.
~C
Wish NB gets Vonage!
I live in New Brunsick Too, Does anyone know why New Brunswick is excluded from VOIP local service???