A friend of mine recently asked about VOIP services in Canada. Like me, he started with Vonage but has decided to look elsewhere. We both live in Vancouver and want a local 604 number. I discovered that at this point, there aren’t a lot of options. Thus began a search for services that support Canadian area codes.

I found that Mark Evans, a Canadian technology blogger, has a nice list. I’ve added a few names to it here:

• Shaw Digital Phone: BC & Alberta (select areas)
• Rogers Home Phone: BC (select areas), Ontario, probably elsewhere but they make it hard to find out. You have to enter your postal code before they’ll tell you.
• Primus TalkBroadband: Canada-wide, select cities
• Vonage: Canada-wide and the only one I think that includes the adaptor for free
• Zingotel: BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec
• Bell DigitalVoice: Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton
• babyTEL: BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia
• Telehop Broadtalk: Ontario
• AOL Canada TotalTalk: BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia
• Cogeco: Ontario,Quebec
• SpectraVoice: Ontario, Quebec
• Videotron: Quebec
• unitz.ca: Canada-wide
• DigitalVoice: BC, Alberta

Added Sept. 25:

• Unlimitel: BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec

 

I just noticed that Gizmo Project offers three Canadian area codes for CallIn numbers:

416 Toronto, Ontario
418 Quebec City
819 Quebec

I’m not sure if these are recent additions, but great news anyhow for Canuck Gizmo users (like me). Hopefully, they’ll get to BC eventually.

GrandCentral works like a charm forwarding to my Gizmo number. I am also lucky enough to be one of the first to beta test a Canadian GrandCentral number, which means this service will be even more practical for me to use. I’ve been wanting a local number for awhile; Gizmo only offers Canadian area codes in Manitoba and Ontario. Skype offers none at all.

So when you call my GrandCentral number (778-785-6755), I’ve set up GC to forward to Gizmo. What I haven’t quite figured out yet is the voicemail. My Gizmo calls that are ignored/unanswered are bumping to GrandCentral voicemail, which is fine. However, I also have Gizmo voicemail activated, so I get an email and WAV file from Gizmo with nothing “in” it so to speak.

I think this a little bit of the untidiness you see when one app is not fully intergrated with another. See Alec’s post. For more reviews on GrandCentral and Gizmo, see Andy, Garrett Smith, Ken Camp, and Paul Kaputska.