You moved to Toronto and kept your old number. Now the buzzer will not call it.
Toronto lobby panels dial out on a building line that is usually restricted to local calls, so a mobile number from another province often cannot be reached at all. Nothing is broken and your building cannot fix 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.
You moved to Toronto for work or for school. You kept your number, because everybody does. Your buzzer has never worked properly and nobody has been able to tell you why.
This is one of the most common buzzer problems in the city and one of the least diagnosed.
What is actually happening
When a visitor presses your unit code, the lobby panel places a phone call. It places that call on a line the building pays for. Buildings restrict those lines to local calls, because an entry panel that can dial anywhere is an entry panel that will eventually dial somewhere expensive.
A 604 number in a Toronto lobby is a long distance call. The panel tries, the line refuses, and the visitor is standing there listening to nothing. How the dialling chain works.
How to tell this is your problem
- Your mobile number has an area code from outside the GTA local calling area.
- The panel does something when your code is pressed, but your phone never rings.
- Calls to your phone from any other Toronto number work perfectly.
- Your building says the panel is working, and as far as they can see it is.
The GTA local calling area covers 416, 647, 437 and 942 in the core, plus 905, 289, 365 and 742 around it. Numbers from anywhere else are the ones 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. |
| Port your mobile to a GTA number | Yes | Your number changes, and everyone who has it has the old one |
| Ask the building to unrestrict the panel line | Rarely | You are asking them to take on long distance charges |
| A landline in the apartment | Yes | A monthly bill for a phone that exists only to open a door |
The second one is what most people end up doing by accident, a year later, for unrelated reasons. It works, and it costs you the number you have had since high school.
Keeping your number and fixing the buzzer
The apartment gets a number that is local to the building. The building points the buzzer at that. When somebody buzzes, that number rings your phone, wherever your phone number is from.
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 fixed at the same time. The general version of this problem.
BuzzMeBro finds a number inside your building local calling area from your postal code, and tells you before taking a card if there is nothing available for your address. It is $11.99 a month for the apartment. Get your number.
Questions people ask
Why does everyone else in the building have a working buzzer?
Because they have GTA numbers. The panel line reaches those as local calls. Yours is the same panel behaving exactly the same way against a number it is not allowed to dial.
Can my building just allow long distance on the panel?
Some can and almost none will. You are asking a property manager to accept an open-ended charge on a shared line so that one unit can keep an out-of-province mobile. Expect a no, politely.
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 exactly as it is, and it is the phone that rings.
What if I am moving back next year?
Cancel when you go. BuzzMeBro is month to month, and the number on the buzzer is the only thing your building ever had to change.
Would a landline solve it?
It would, because a landline in your apartment is by definition local to the building. It also means paying every month for a phone whose entire job is opening a door. BuzzMeBro does the same job for the phones you already carry.