http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/telecom-spat-leaves-thousands-of-canadians-without-full-phone-service/article28276391/ posted:

Telecom spat leaves thousands of Canadians without full phone service
CHRISTINE DOBBY - TELECOM REPORTER
The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016 8:55PM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016 1:21PM EST

A dispute over unpaid charges claimed by a supplier has left thousands of Canadian customers of the NetTalk Internet phone service without the ability to receive calls except from fellow NetTalk subscribers.

NetTalk.com Inc. is a Florida-based company that began selling a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephone service in Canada in January, 2013, offering customers the ability to “port” their existing landline phone numbers to its service.

In order to access Canadian phone numbers, VoIP providers must work with regulated telecom providers that connect into the public switched telephone network.

Markham, Ont.-based Iristel Inc. has been providing that service for NetTalk but alleges the U.S. company owes it $2-million in unpaid bills. On Dec. 30, Iristel sent NetTalk a notice that it was planning to disconnect the numbers by Jan. 15 and warned NetTalk to port the numbers to another Canadian provider before that time.

Iristel and NetTalk differ on whether those arrangements were properly made before that date, but for several days, NetTalk customers in Canada have not been able to receive incoming calls from non-NetTalk customers.

The companies, or individuals from the two companies, are also involved in separate litigation against each other, according to Iristel CEO Samer Bishay, and the situation over the Canadian phone numbers has escalated into both sides publicly trading accusations through Facebook and website posts.

Iristel said about 75,000 Canadian customers have been affected, but in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday, NetTalk says “approximately 27,000 is the accurate number.”

“The money they say we owe is being disputed and currently being litigated,” NetTalk said in the e-mail, which was signed by chief operating officer Nick Kyriakides. NetTalk also emphasized that its customers have had unimpeded access to 911 services. It says it plans to continue offering the service in Canada.

In an e-mail to customers on Sunday, NetTalk said outgoing calls have not been affected and that it is trying to resolve the situation.

“I want to assure Canadian customers that they’re not going to lose their numbers. I just ask for patience,” Iristel’s Mr. Bishay said in an interview Tuesday.

Iristel said in a statement on its website Tuesday that NetTalk customers will be able to port their phone numbers to a “reputable Canadian service provider” once a solution sanctioned by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is worked out. It said it hopes to resolve the situation “within days, not weeks.”

Patricia Valladao, a spokeswoman for the CRTC, said the telecom regulator is aware of the “contractual dispute” between NetTalk and Iristel as well as the concerns of NetTalk customers.

“The CRTC does not generally get involved in contractual disputes between parties. However, we have reached out to the relevant parties in order to facilitate discussion so they may be able to limit the disruption that has impacted Canadian consumers in the past few days,” Ms. Valladao said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday.

She said the CRTC has taken steps in the past to make it easier for customers to switch service providers and keep their phone numbers when they do.

“However, the customer does not ‘own’ a number and there are no guarantees a number can be retained by a customer as there are circumstances in which a phone number may not be transferred to a new service provider,” she added. “Impacted customers should contact NetTalk to discuss their existing service or contact an alternative service provider if they wish switch providers. We encourage them to mention to the new provider that they would like to keep their current number.”

There were 694,000 VoIP telephone lines in Canada – representing about 4 per cent of all local telephone lines – in 2014, according to the CRTC. Dozens of VoIP providers, such as MagicJack, Ooma and Vonage, operate in Canada and typically offer service at a low annual rate.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Jan. 20 to include comments from the CRTC.

Methanar posted:

Antioch posted:

Aww, I was just talking with her yesterday about a billing issue and she was really nice.

Methanar posted:

Coxswain Balls posted:

She's a billing and sales rep, so it's not surprising for them to not know what IPv6 is offhand without some assistance. I'll let her know you appreciated her help!

Methanar posted:

Methanar posted:

Methanar posted:

The Sweetling posted:

I wish there existed a company as reliable and professional as start.ca but without the bullshit bandwidth caps.

The Sweetling posted:

I wish there existed a company as reliable and professional as start.ca but without the bullshit bandwidth caps.

The Sweetling posted:

Because they're Bullshit. Here's a great market niche for ISPs: do something your competition DOESN'T do, like charge for caps.

The Sweetling posted:

Because they're Bullshit. Here's a great market niche for ISPs: do something your competition DOESN'T do, like charge for caps.

Less Fat Luke posted:

I don't think Bell or Rogers allow resellers (or whatever the correct term is) to do that.

ChubbyThePhat posted:

As stated before, residential IPv6 isn't really a thing from Shaw; at least in Edmonton. My friend had to jump some serious hoops to even get it set up with Telus.

originalnickname posted:

IPv6 isn't a thing from Shaw anywhere, business or residential. It's coming soon(tm). I don't believe that their CMTS even handles ipv6, so if you want it, it's either Telus (or someone else) or tunnelling for an internet ipv6 connection.

Dallan Invictus posted:

This is why basically every reseller (and maybe a couple of incumbents - I know a fair number of Rogers' current Internet plans are unlimited but I haven't looked at Bell/Shaw/Telus?) a) offers unlimited plans, and b) charges extra for them compared to capped plans. Do Beanfield/Novus/the other condo-fibre ISPs have no capped plans at all?

8ender posted:

I don't know about the others but where Start.ca has fibre presence in London, Ontario their plans are amazing. Gives you an idea of what the market might look like if everyone had a fair shot at the last mile.

8ender posted:

I don't know about the others but where Start.ca has fibre presence in London, Ontario their plans are amazing. Gives you an idea of what the market might look like if everyone had a fair shot at the last mile.

8ender posted:

I don't know about the others but where Start.ca has fibre presence in London, Ontario their plans are amazing. Gives you an idea of what the market might look like if everyone had a fair shot at the last mile.

ChubbyThePhat posted:

Oh I thought they offered it exclusively to business clients, but I could be mistaken. I'd have a backup 6to4 tunnel anyways cause you never know. My buddy runs his IPv6 through Telus though, so that's the only hands on experience I have with it from ISPs.

slidebite posted:

You could move to Olds where the community got so frustrated by Telus dragging their feet deploying anything better that absolute bottom-tier ADSL so a few years ago so they said "gently caress you" and community funded their own fibre network.

1GBup/down and 2TB cap for $120? Yes please.

Nitr0 posted:

I visited the team over there and the network actually started as something that the Major 3 could come in and sell services on. Unfortunately about half way through the build they all changed their minds and thus O-Net was born. They have a pretty unique model with their town and I couldn't see this working with other little towns.

Alberta has a major advantage with the Super-Net http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/supernet.cfm. This is pretty much the only province where a private company can lease fibre access to get bandwidth in tiny towns. In any other province it's all owned by Telus & Bell which fucks over any other ISP.

Mr. Apollo posted:

A bit of a random question. But does anyone know any Rogers installation techs? I have a technical about the installation process of Rogers whole home PVR and I'm getting conflicting answers from Rogers CSRs.

Specifically, I'm wondering if the Rogers tech just needs access to the panel with the amp and the splitters or if they need to access every room in the house with a cable box.

DariusLikewise posted:

If everything is good with the wiring around the house and you have a lazy tech, no.

If the tech is thorough or there's any signal issues at any outlet in your house then year they will probably go check the splitters first.

Mr. Apollo posted:

A bit of a random question. But does anyone know any Rogers installation techs? I have a technical about the installation process of Rogers whole home PVR and I'm getting conflicting answers from Rogers CSRs.

Specifically, I'm wondering if the Rogers tech just needs access to the panel with the amp and the splitters or if they need to access every room in the house with a cable box.

Sixfools posted:

We need to put in a moca filter at the point of entry to the home so the neighbourhood cannot see your recordings. Some amps have moca filtering built in. After whole home is provisioned on our laptops all boxes need to be reset till they are all shaking hands and the house shows up.

Edit: If you have a pvr running on SARA whole home will not work. Reps are dumb and do not know this so if your PVR is a non-rental 1st gen 8642 or lower you are SOL

JustAwful posted:

Oh Teksavvy. It was a good 5 year run with literally ZERO issues up til now, but over the past few months with policy changes, price increases, and for the past month what is becoming increasingly unreliable connection (bandwidth drops in the evening and atleast FOUR outages in the past week) I am going to atleast *start* looking for something else.
Wouldn't have minded the price increase but I can't even stream Netflix reliably in the evening anymore, and my phone data usage is through the roof because the internet outages are getting more frequent (apparently some of them were Ontario wide?).

I will probably give them a few weeks to see if they can get this slowdown/outage crap straightened out but in the meantime I may as well browse to see what's out there since I haven't really looked at other ISP's since I moved here 6 years ago. I know some of this poo poo is out of TSI's hands, but it doesn't justify having me pay for something that ultimately isn't working.