I have a few questions about home phone service

[lavalamps]

1 - Can I use my cordless handset base unit or does it have to be a regular old fashioned phone

2 -Can I  still use my 2 cordless handsets as well?

2- Can I use my stand alone fax machine to send and receive faxes?

Thanks in advance,

[57]

My phones are 9 years old and no longer available.  Here's a review of one of their phones. It has an indicator on the display that says "New VoiceMail" and it also has a flashing light on the top of the handset.  This light is not very bright during the day, but is very visible at night.  Usually most phones also give you a "stuttered dial tone" when you have a voicemail message.  This Panasonic also has a VM button that comes up when you have VM to easily dial the appropriate number with one button press once programmed.  This person does a pretty good job of explaining all the various features.

https://turbofuture.com/consumer-electronics/my-favorite-cordless-phone

Do not believe the specs on the internet without visiting quite a few sites and getting corroboration..  I always try to get the specs off the box, or (perhaps) from the Panasonic Website.  If I'm not sure, I contact the manufacturer.  Search for "message waiting indicator" and make sure this is relevant to voicemail and not to phones that have built-in answering machines (which I believe you don't want).

Edit - apparently some of the newer phones no longer have a flashing light, only the "New VoiceMail" on the display, probably along with the stuttered dial tone.

[mhm45]

Thank you. This was very helpful.

[DominicB]

Rogers Home Phone, IGNITE or OTHERWISE is not comparable to Bell Canada's DMS system, which Northern Telecom invented.  IGNITE is the equivalent of two dixie cups and string are far as home phone goes.  I was looking for THREE carrier grade analog inputs into a BCM50e, and Rogers could not do it with Ignite or the older system.

The service that used packet cable was kinda OK, but they messed up in a lot of places, because the Arris modems were not DMS line cards.

Rogers initially used Nortel CS2000 Compacts when they launched Home Phone back in 2006, but it's not the same thing.  However, Bell is scrapping the Digital Multiplex System and in my opinion you are better off with a cell phone and no landline because security and battery and call features are NOT THERE, not with Bell or Rogers.

Thank IP -- which kills everything it touches.

If Rogers cannot give me OSI DS, which was standard on all Bell lines except Centrex EBS, 1MMS, ISDN BRI ... that speaks volumes.  I have equipment that can do fancy stuff and they won't alter the firmware in the Arris modems to
do that.  It's only two lines of code that must be changed.

They disabled pulse dialing when there was no reason to do so.

Providing an open switch interval of 850ms on farside disconnect and bypassing standard timing was normal for us.
Call Waiting automatic suppression so you could use a fax was normal to us, but alien to them.
The ringing voltage is inadequate.  No dialable directory number delivery.  NO BATTERY.  One line only on IGNITE.
You cannot activate features via VSLE on ADSI phones -- instead you must go to their web portal.

They didn't even license the good stuff, like SAID -- speech activated intelligent dialing, Who's Calling (not Caller ID), talking call waiting ... none of it. Deluxe Call Waiting Options was never put in either, and neither was MADN SCA for simring on cell and wireline.

UGH.