So anyone else irritated by the bell touch tone service fee

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Ivan Avery Frey <ivan.avery.frey-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>

| Call Bell up and say "x company is offering this rate and it includes touch
| tone service. Would you be willing to give touch tone service for free?"

"regular" phone service has regulated tariffs.  One of them is Touch
Tone.  As far as I know, they cannot give you a discounted rate on
regular phone service.

Bell does offer an unregulated home phone service.  This is so they
can get out from under regulation.  I think that it is currently
cheaper than the regulated service AND they can play discount games.
I think that they call it something like "Home Phone".

On the regulated service, they do not offer new customers pulse-only
lines.  Old customers are grandfathered, but they have over the years
tried to trick those customers out of pulse-only.

A few years ago Bell tried to eliminate the non-touch-tone service.
All the grannies and I rose up and wrote the CRTC so Bell did not get
its way.

I switched to the unregulated service due to the enticements of a Bell
campaign.  In the process, they lied to me and I've ended up with
touch-tone service.  I don't really care enough to get outraged
because the price went down (for a while?) anyway.  Touch-tone is a
little nicer (some of our handsets have awkward ways of switching
between pulse and tone in the middle of a phone call, something
frequently necessary).

All phone companies have intricate charges and try to disguise them.
It makes it very difficult to compare them.  Even between their own
product lines.

If you want cheap, VoIP from a million different companies beats any
of the old-line telecoms.  Reliability (however you define it)
probably remains better with the old companies.  Why?

- VoIP depends on your broadband connection.  That is generally less
  reliable than old POTS.  Then add to that the shifting sands of
  small providers.

- Rogers uses IP over cable, but a private bit of the bandwidth that
  is reserved (I think).  They have UPSes built into their
  installations.  They even seem to come around with a generator when
  the power is disrupted to their on-pole distribution amplifiers.

- Bell's (old-fashioned) system has enormouse lead-acid batteries
  in the Central Offices to carry through power failurse.  Their
  systems have traditionally been engineered for reliability.

- resellers of the above two systems ought to be just as reliable.
  On the other hand, it might be that the service process is poorly
  articulated (report to reseller who then passes it on to actual
  provider).  I've certainly found that with third-party ISPs.
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