[Discuss] VoIP in Victoria

[Murray Strome]

I tried New Wave Telecommunications, which is a Victoria based company if I remember correctly. It worked OK, except for the fact that I have a monitored alarm service which does not support VOIP, so I had to forget about it. I could have kept my existing phone number with them. I found that the quality of the voice on the incoming side was as good as Telus, but people we called said that our voice quality was not quite as good.

I am now using Shaw for telephone service. The quality is as good as Telus, customer service is MUCH better than Telus, but reliability is slightly poorer than Telus (we have had two outages since we switched, whereas the only time Telus was down in 13 years was when someone drove into the utility pole near our home and knocked it down, breaking the power, telephone and cable lines). The alarm monitoring system works well with it.  We use other services for long distance (YAK and JustDial). There is little difference between the cost of our plan with Shaw compared to the New Wave equivalent. I believe their rates are comparable with any other services. It is possible that you will be unable to get a 250 number if you don't already have one. I was looking into a new line for someone else recently and was told the 250 numbers have run out, and new phones need a different area code (but still local, of course) -- I forget what it is.

The website for New Wave Telecommunications is:
http://newatel.com/index_ca.html

I found them to be very friendly and helpful.

Murray

----- Original Message -----
From: David Frey <dpfrey at shaw.ca>
Date: Monday, July 20, 2009 5:13 pm
Subject: [Discuss] VoIP in Victoria
To: "discuss at vlug.org" <discuss at vlug.org>

> Soon I will require a land line in Victoria.
> 
> I'm guessing that some sort of VoIP configuration will work best 
> for me,
> but I would consider a traditional PSTN line as well.
> 
> Requirements:
> - A 250 number
> - Inexpensive to call and receive calls from Vancouver and Victoria.
> - Good sound quality
> - Voicemail
> - Caller Id
> 
> I don't need a solution that is completely idiot proof to 
> install, but
> it needs to be easy to use.
> 
> What are my options?
> 
> Thanks,
> Dave
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