Toronto Home Phone Not Working

[Cv77]

Hi, 

Looking for some advice on next steps please.   My elderly parents have Rogers basic home phone and basic cable tv.   Their home phone repeated stops working.  This has happened every couple months for the past 3 years.   

Every time it is an internal Rogers issue, nothing at their house.  

In February 2023, their phone was out of service for 5 days.  They don't have a cell.  They don't have internet or a computer.  They just have home phone.  

The same problem started again either last night or this morning.   Again, an internal Rogers issue.   After I called tech support, tech verified it was a Rogers issue.  They said 24 hours to address it.   It took 5 days last month.   They cannot be without a phone for 5 days.    

They are elderly and in not great health.  They rely on their home phone to work.  They sometimes need help and need to call out to get it.  

I'm wondering what next steps I can take to try to get them more reliable home phone service.   I cannot believe that in Canada our communications infrastructure is so bad as to have this happening constantly.  There must be a better solution.   

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated!  Thanks!

***Edited Labels***

[57]

There is no such thing as totally reliable home phone any more.  Any provider has issues these days and they simply don't provide the infrastructure any more for the kind of uptime we used to have 30 years ago with twisted pair service from Bell. Even Bell doesn't have that kind of reliability any more because their infrastructure to the local neighbourhood is different.

My only suggestion is to find an inexpensive cell phone plan, like Pre-paid BYOD from a provider that has a good cell signal in their area, which might be Rogers or some other provider.  Lots of people give away or sell their older cell phones, so a phone doesn't need to cost a lot and a plan could be say $10-20/mo if used only for "emergencies".

PS. I am a bit surprised that the home phone has had as many issues as you say. The only time my home phone is down is if there's a power failure in my area, or the massive outage Rogers had last July.

[Cv77]

Thank you for your reply.   I am trying to convince them to pay for a "back up" phone system, but they are really reluctant.   They have no tech at all so its an uphill battle.   

Thanks again!    

[57]

If it's only required for a 911 emergency, you don't even need a cell phone plan as any cell, even without a SIM, can dial 911, provided it's kept charged or there's power to plug it in.

[Cv77]

Good point.  Maybe I'll give them my old cell.   (If only I could rely on them to keep it charged.  All their house phones are wired.  )   Thanks much for the tip.   

Unfortunately, they also need to keep in touch with my elderly Aunt.     It is really frustrating that their phone is currently only working for 3 out of the last 4 weeks and that seems perfectly fine to Rogers.   

[Cv77]

Well Rogers told us 24 hours and it would be updated /fixed.   Its been 24 hours and we've heard nothing.   

Not impressed with this level of customer service.   

[RogersMaude]

Good day @Cv77,

Thank you for your update! We appreciate you are taking the time to bring this up to our attention.

We'd like the opportunity to take a deeper look into this in order to ensure your parents' home phone service is back up and running as soon as possible.

Please send us a private message @CommunityHelps so we can gain access to your account and we'd be more than happy to help. To see how our messaging system works, take a look at this blog.

RogersMaude

[Cv77]

Message sent  Thanks

[Datalink]

@Cv77 if your parents have the Arris (?) EMTA, which is the Home Phone modem that connects to the house phone system, I've found that modem to be very reliable.  There is supposed to be a backup battery in that modem from what I remember and just thinking aloud, I've read comments that some systems won't work as advertised when the backup battery eventually fails.  I had one of those modems running for about 14 (?) years and it never failed, so, I'm scratching my head as to why there's an issue with the modem.  Maybe its failing?  That modem, like any powered device shouldn't be in an enclosed cabinet.  I suspect that its sitting in a structured wiring cabinet, where the telephone cabling starts its cable runs to the upstairs rooms.  If that's where it is, that cabinet door should be left open slightly so that the modem isn't cooked.  

Are you a Rogers customer yourself?  I'm wondering if you're aware of Rogers push to retire the legacy equipment and move all of their residential cable customers to the Ignite system which uses a single modem to run internet, tv and Home Phone.  That can present some challenges in terms of connecting the modem to the house telephone cabling.  The tv set top box is very small and only has an HDMI port to connect to the tv, so, for anyone who doesn't have an HDMI port on their tv, that means replacing the tv as well, or running an HDMI to RGB cable converter which may or may not work very well.  

There doesn't appear to be a set date to retire the legacy equipment, but, Rogers is pricing their customers out of the legacy equipment in order to drive them to the Ignite system.  I''d expect 2024 as a drop dead date for the legacy equipment.  It may go as long as 2025, but, any customer on legacy equipment will end up paying more as there will not be any price promotions available for that equipment, compared to the Ignite pricing. 

[Cv77]

Thank you for your reply. 

My initial post said:   Every time its an internal Rogers issue.   Not at their house.   

Not sure why you think its their modem.   

They have a rectangular black modem box in their basement, in the open with no enclosure.  I didn't catch the brand name on it.   

We are not Rogers customers at our home.  Cogeco services our area, and luckily we still have Bell phone copper wiring so our home phone is old fashioned Bell.    Works forever when the power goes out, without a battery!    The day they put in Fibe is the day we chuck our home phone.  Not looking forward to it because that number is connected to absolutely everything (been in the same house for almost 30 years!)  but we will have to deal with it when Fibe comes calling.   

Thanks again.  

[57]

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@Cv77 wrote:

1. we still have Bell phone copper wiring so our home phone is old fashioned Bell.   

2. Works forever when the power goes out, without a battery!   

3. Not looking forward to it because that number is connected to absolutely everything

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1.  Even though you have twisted pair at your home, it's not necessarily copper all the way from the CO. Most of Bell's infrastructure is now fibre to the node, which then distributes the "last mile" via copper in many areas.

2. Have you tried it recently when the power is down?  Try to remember next time.  A lot of times it now goes down because the backup batteries at the node aren't replaced any more since they are expensive and since most people have cell phones for backup.  Especially true when there are longer outages that the backup battery cannot meet.

3. You can always port the number to your cell or whatever you plan to use at that time.

Let us know if you find out the cause of the problem.

[Datalink]

Hi @Cv77, yup you indicated on your first post "Every time it is an internal Rogers issue, nothing at their house."  My apologies.  Keep the rest of the post in mind however as you attempt to renew their services with legacy equipment.  Are you using an XB6 or XB7 modem with Cogeco?  If so, then you'll be ready, whenever you find your parents switching to one of those modems.