Ontario is switching off the copper. What happens to your buzzer?
Carriers are retiring copper phone lines across Ontario, and Toronto entry systems that ride on copper have to be replaced or converted. For residents in those buildings the buzzer may stop working with little notice. Buildings whose lobby panel simply dials a phone number are unaffected, because that panel is placing ordinary calls that will keep working.
Plain old telephone service is being switched off. Carriers across Canada have published decommissioning plans and the regulatory friction that used to slow it down has been reduced.
For most people that is a story about their parents home phone. For a Toronto building running an entry system on copper, it is a deadline.
Which buildings are exposed
Older Toronto entry systems were wired through the phone lines running to each apartment. Those systems assume a live copper pair and voltage on it.
Newer telephone entry panels do something different. They dial a number over the building line. That call will keep working however the underlying network is delivered. The difference, and how to spot yours.
| System | Exposed | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Entry system wired through apartment phone lines | Yes | The building has to convert or replace it, and there is a date on it |
| Hardwired lobby to apartment handsets | No | Building wiring, not carrier copper. Unaffected. |
| Lobby panel that dials a phone number | No | It places ordinary calls. Nothing changes for you. |
What to ask your building
This is a reasonable question to put to a Toronto property manager or condo board in writing, and a useful one to have on record.
- Does the entry system rely on analog phone lines from a carrier?
- Has the building received a service discontinuance notice for those lines?
- What is the replacement plan, and what is the date?
- Will the replacement dial residents phone numbers, or keep in-suite handsets?
If your building is already on a dialling panel
Then none of this touches you, and the useful thing is what number sits in the field for your unit. A panel that dials will keep dialling.
If you have been keeping a home phone line alive purely so the buzzer works, that is worth revisiting now rather than after a disconnection notice. What that line is costing for one job.
BuzzMeBro replaces that with a number local to your building that rings the mobiles everyone already has, for $11.99 a month, up to 4 phones. Nothing to install and nothing on copper. Get your number.
Questions people ask
Will my buzzer stop working overnight?
Not without notice to the building. Carriers give a notice period before discontinuing service, and it goes to the account holder, which for an entry system is the building rather than you. That is why asking early matters.
Is this the same as Bell removing home phones from apartments?
Related. It is the same copper being retired. The part that affects buzzers is the entry system riding on those lines rather than the phone in your kitchen.
My building says it will replace the panel. Should I wait?
Ask for the date and whether the new panel dials resident phone numbers. Building projects move slowly, and knowing the answer tells you whether to solve your own buzzer now or in a year.
Does a VoIP line fix a copper-based entry system?
Usually not. Systems that expect voltage on a real copper pair do not behave on VoIP, which is exactly why buildings are facing replacement rather than a swap.
What is the version of this that does not depend on my building?
A dialling panel with a number stored that rings the phones you already own. BuzzMeBro provides that number, local to your building, with nothing installed in the apartment and no copper anywhere in the chain.