The landline question

Whether your buzzer genuinely needs a home phone line, what a building means when it says it does, what a line costs you for one job, and what happens as the copper gets switched off.

Getting a home phone from Bell or Rogers for the buzzer
What a carrier can and cannot do about your buzzer, the question to ask before ordering a line, and why the answer usually lives with your building instead.
4 min read
Your building says you need a landline. What to ask next.
The one question that settles whether your Toronto building is right, why superintendents say it when it is not true, and what to do with either answer.
4 min read
Your buzzer is dialling a number that no longer exists
A recorded message at the panel usually means the stored number was cancelled. How to confirm it, and what to have the building store instead.
4 min read
Cancelling your home phone without losing the buzzer
The order to do it in, what to confirm with your Toronto building first, and how to make sure the door still opens on the day the line goes dead.
4 min read
Ontario is switching off the copper. What happens to your buzzer?
Carriers are retiring copper phone lines across Ontario. What that means for Toronto buildings whose entry systems still ride on them, and for your unit.
4 min read
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. How to check what your building actually runs before you order a phone line.
4 min read
Two kinds of Toronto intercom, and why only one can ring your phone
A handset on your wall means one kind of building. A panel that phones you means another. How to tell in thirty seconds, and what each one lets you do.
4 min read
Can a landline ring two phones when the buzzer calls?
Extensions, forwarding and simultaneous ring, and why none of them get a Toronto buzzer to reach two people who are both out of the apartment.
3 min read
Paying for a home phone line so the door opens
What a home phone line in Toronto actually buys you when the only thing that ever calls it is the lobby, and the three questions worth asking before you renew it.
4 min read
Will a VoIP line work with your apartment buzzer?
VoIP works with a lobby panel that dials a phone number and usually fails on a system wired through your apartment line. How to tell which one you are dealing with.
4 min read