DSL and Dry Loop

[Geoffrey]

I have requested my Bell number to be ported over to fongo. I am unclear if I have to call Bell to request a dry loop, or will Bell know enough to give me a dry loop when the porting request comes across? I'm concerned that if I call Bell and request a Dry Loop, they will take that as a request to cancel my home phone service. How does this work? I have ordered the service and provided my LOA for porting. Just not clear if I have to still call Bell to advise on the dry loop. Any advice or help is welcome.

Thanks

[seagame2001]

Let Fongo works on your porting request first when you receive email from them and say porting is completed

Then you request dry loop for safe side

[Geoffrey]

Thanks. I will wait for the email. Is there any way to check that my order was received? Thanks

[godot2012]

I am ready - finally - to drop Bell. But I did not want to port my Bell number.
I am not sure how this works. If I call Bell to diconnect my phone and I don't have a dry loop onplace I could be without phone AND email/WEB connection for days. Need help to figure this out.

Thanks

[Jake]

I did what you are about to do, which is basically to drop bell phone and just use the FPL number I set up and tested for a while.

All I did was cancelled my phone, it still left a connection for my Internet and I didn't notice any change what so ever. I think they do this enough to know that if you have Internet then you need a connection so they make provisions for such.

I wouldn't worry too much and just let them sort it out, but as you know this is Bell, so anything could happen!

[godot2012]

A nice lady at the Bell store said exactly the same. That is untill she found out that my Internet provider (on DSL) is not Bell but 295.ca. At that point she was not sure.

When I contacted 295.ca, they said that they will arrange a dry loop for me, I should just go ahead and cancel my phone. But when I asked how do we make sure that I am not without any service - potencially for days - she was not sure.

It seems that if you are getting DSL/Internet from Bell there is no charge for the 'dry loop'. (More likely it is built into Bell's DSL/Internet charge.) But when you are getting 'wholesale' DSL and disconnect your phone there is a monthly dry loop charge ($12.37/mo HST incl - source 295.ca). Folks at 295.ca told me that they will add that cost on top of my monthly $33.33 (tax incl.) Internet fee. There will also be a one time "setup/installation charge" of $40.95. Realistically I can't blaim Bell. They are still responsible to maintain my wire line from their CO to my house. INany case my monthly cost wil rise frfom 33.33 to 45.70/mo with 295.ca. This is about the same as Bell's cheapest intenet offer, BUT I have higher data transmission allocation (unlimited?). So 295.ca is still a better deal. (Netflix; youtube, etc)

[Jake]

The unlimited bandwidth is why I am with SuperSpeed (295/worldline/whatever they are called now). I worked out that over 3 or 4 years they worked out about the same price, but with unlimited bandwidth so Superspeed won in the end.

Where I am I have very little in the choice of high speed, in fact it is either the lowest DSl speed, or explorenet (which I tried and now hate the company for).

The dry loop does push the price a little high, but it is worth it for the bandwidth.

[godot2012]

Got mail-today from Bell. Because I have their phone - lol - they offer HS Internet of Fibe for $39.35 (+HST!) /mo. That comes to about $80/mo for Bell phone and Internet combo deal. As opposed to $47.50 for 295.ca + FONGO. What a deal!!

Still, I would like to know how to avoid not having any type of connection during cut over.