You moved to Toronto and kept your old number. Now the buzzer will not call it.
Many Toronto lobby panels only place local calls, so a mobile number from another province can be impossible for them to reach. The panel is doing what it was set up to do, so a repair call will not change it. What works is putting a number on the buzzer that is local to the building, which BuzzMeBro provides while still ringing the phone you already carry.
Live with others? BuzzMeBro puts more than one of you on the buzzer. First month free. Start free
Say you moved to Toronto for work or school and kept your number. Your buzzer has never worked, and nobody has been able to tell you why.
Not sure whether your number is local to your building? Check it free in ten seconds: your postal code and the first six digits are enough.
What is actually happening
When a visitor presses your unit code, the lobby panel places a phone call on a line the building pays for. Any phone line can be set to block long distance. Bell’s Call Control, for example, can block all domestic long distance calls on a home line. A building that does this keeps an entry panel from running up a phone bill.
A 604 number dialled from a Toronto lobby is a long distance call. On a line like that, the panel tries, the call does not complete, and the visitor hears nothing. How the dialling chain works.
How to tell this is your problem
- Your mobile number has an area code from outside the Toronto area.
- The panel does something when your code is pressed, but your phone never rings.
- Calls to your phone from Toronto numbers work normally.
- Your building says the panel is working, and as far as they can see it is.
Toronto’s own area codes are 416, 647, 437 and 942. The 905 region around it adds 289, 365 and 742, and only part of that region is local to a Toronto building. Numbers from other provinces are the ones most at risk. More on GTA area codes and buzzers.
The options, and what each one costs you
| Option | Does it work | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| A local number that rings your existing phone, like BuzzMeBro | Yes | A monthly cost. You keep your number and your phone. |
| Get a new Toronto number for your mobile | Yes | Your number changes, and everyone who has it has the old one |
| Ask the building to allow long distance on the panel line | If they agree | You are asking them to take on long distance charges |
| A landline in the apartment | Usually, since it gets a local number | A monthly bill for a phone that mostly exists to open a door |
A new Toronto number fixes the buzzer. It also costs you the number you have had for years, and every account and contact that uses it.
Keeping your number and fixing the buzzer
The apartment gets a number that is local to the building. The building stores that number for your unit. When somebody buzzes, that number rings your phone, wherever your number is from in Canada or the US.
Your own number does not change and nobody has to be told anything. It also rings up to 4 phones, so anybody else in the apartment with an out-of-town number is covered at the same time. The general version of this problem.
BuzzMeBro finds a number inside your building’s local calling area from your postal code, and tells you before taking a card if there is nothing available for your address. It is $9.99 a month for the apartment. Start free.
From our own door
- BuzzMeBro has run on our founder’s own Toronto apartment door since August 2026.
- We only give an apartment a number local to its building’s calling area, because many panels only dial local numbers. We check that from the postal code before any card is taken.
- A buzz rings the phones on the apartment that are set to ring, up to 4 at the same time, and whoever answers first handles it.
Questions people ask
Why does everyone else in the building have a working buzzer?
Because their numbers are local to the building. The panel reaches those as local calls. Yours is the same panel behaving the same way against a number its line will not dial.
Can my building just allow long distance on the panel?
It is technically possible and it is the building’s choice. You would be asking a property manager to accept an open-ended charge on a shared line for one unit, so a polite no is a likely answer.
Do I have to give up my old phone number?
No. The number that goes on the lobby panel is a separate local number for the apartment. Your own mobile number stays as it is, and it is the phone that rings.
What if I am moving back next year?
Cancel when you go. BuzzMeBro is billed month to month, and the number on the buzzer is the only thing your building ever had to change.
Would a landline solve it?
Usually, because a landline at your address gets a number from the local exchange. It also means paying every month for a phone whose main job is opening a door. BuzzMeBro does the same job for the phones you already carry.
Sources
- Bell Canada, How to use Call Control on my Bell Home phone
- Canadian Numbering Administrator, Canadian Geographic Area Code Relief History