Do you need a landline for your buzzer in Toronto?
Most Toronto buildings do not need a landline in your apartment for the buzzer to work. Modern entry panels dial out on the building own phone line to whatever number is stored against your unit, and a mobile number works. A landline is only genuinely required by older systems wired through each apartment phone line, which are becoming rarer as copper is retired.
This is the question people arrive at after being told by a superintendent that they need a home phone. Sometimes that is right. Usually it is a habit left over from a system the building no longer runs.
The honest answer depends on one thing
There are two kinds of entry system in Toronto. One dials a phone number, the other connects two boxes over building wiring. Only the second ever involved apartment phone lines. How to tell which you have in thirty seconds.
| Your building has | Landline needed | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A lobby panel that phones you | No | The panel dials on the building line to one stored number |
| A handset on your apartment wall | No, and no mobile either | It is building wiring, not a phone system |
| An entry system wired through apartment phone lines | Yes | The system rides on the line your apartment pays for |
What a building often means by landline
Two other things get called this, and neither one needs you to order anything from a phone company.
The first is that the number stored has to be reachable from the panel, which dials on a line restricted to local calls. A mobile from outside the GTA fails that test and the building reads it as a mobile problem. The real cause.
The second is that the panel is old and has only ever had landline numbers typed into it. That is a habit rather than a requirement, and a mobile number goes into the same field.
What a line costs you for one job
A basic home phone line in Ontario is a real monthly bill for a service whose only purpose, in this case, is opening a door. It also solves the problem for exactly one person, since the handset sits in the apartment.
Anybody who is out when the buzzer goes is no better off than they were. What that costs in a shared apartment.
The alternative if your panel dials out
Store a number that is local to the building and rings the phones people already carry. That satisfies the panel, needs nothing installed, and rings everybody rather than one wall.
BuzzMeBro finds a number inside your building local calling area from your postal code and rings up to 4 phones on it for $11.99 a month. If your building genuinely runs a hardwired system, none of this applies and a phone line will not help either. Get your number.
Questions people ask
My superintendent says I need a landline. Are they wrong?
Often, but ask rather than argue. The question to put to them is whether the entry system is wired through apartment phone lines or whether the lobby panel dials out. Most Toronto buildings are the second, and the second needs nothing from you.
Will a VoIP line work instead?
For a panel that dials a number, yes, because it is just a number to call. For a system wired through the apartment line, usually not, since those systems expect voltage on real copper.
Does the building charge me for using the panel line?
No. The line the lobby panel dials on belongs to the building and is part of running the entry system. That is why a dial-out panel costs you nothing to be reachable on.
What happens when Bell retires the copper?
Buildings running entry systems on copper have to replace or convert them, and many are getting notice now. A dial-out panel is unaffected because it is already placing ordinary phone calls.
If I skip the landline, what goes on the panel?
A number the panel can reach as a local call. A GTA mobile works. If more than one person lives there, BuzzMeBro gives the apartment one local number that rings every phone rather than picking a winner.