to SWITCH or NOT to SWITCH

In our side of the world... there are only 2 major telecom players... BELL and ROGERS.
DSL is virtually a monopoly of BELL since they OWN all telephone lines and dry loops. I may choose a third party provider like YAK, ACANAC etc. which offers about $10 a month lower monthly rate but guess what... unless you are connected to a BELL telephone service, they would need to lease the telephone line from BELL that delivers the signal to your home, you end up paying another $10 to lease the line which leaves you paying the same fee for switching to a lower priced service.

We have a Rogers home phone which gets its signal from some kind of modem they install in your house. You use the same phone jack, enjoy low long distance rate and even get free call if you call another Rogers telephone user anywhere in Canada. The disadvantage is... since they do not run on Bell line, you do not have a dry loop unless your DSL is from BELL. This combination has been the setup I had in the past 3 years until BELL advised me last month that if I was to renew my DSL, I will need to pay $20 more than my usual rate. You see, BELL had been running new advertisement on their new corporate image... fastER, bettER, clearER... what they did not put in their billboard ads is that the rate is now highER and expensivER!

I called the Philippines to CANCEL my service with BELL internet... yes, the Philippines... I was lucky because I could have reached India, Pakistan or any other part of the World and speak with the representative who would be staring at the details of my personal information including CREDIT CARD numbers etc... Although I RELEASED myself from the tyranny of BELL internet service, switching to YAK will not make sense due the reason I gave earlier so I decided that if I switch my ROGERS home phone to BELL, that will give me more flexibility to use third party provider free from the monthly lease for dry loop. Perfect Solution!

I once again called and spoke with a Filipino who was very helpful and immediately signed me up for the SWITCH and sales order which will authorize BELL to cancel my ROGERS and transport my current telephone number. Talk about PARADOX... I am signing up with BELL telephone because I need to be able to GET OUT of BELL internet... it's like going inside a room to push myself out of the room... EVERYTHING SETTLED I thought.

Less than an hour later, a representative from BELL business office called back to say that they were unable to transport my number from ROGERS for reasons she cannot explain. I discussed it with my wife if the inconvenience of changing the phone numbers will be worth it... to name a few, I would have needed to update the information with all Banks, all government ministries, insurance companies, utilities, schools, office records and right there and then... I had to CALL OFF the switch.

My only choice is sign up for a new account with BELL internet when my cancellation takes effect next week or go with ROGERS. I tried the latter, as a new ROGERS internet customer, I received $10 off from the monthly rate for a year and another 10% savings for my home phone and mobile phone as a BUNDLE discount. I am now BELL free, hooray!!!

but... I am now officially a hostage of ROGERS for the next 365 days... I knew that the word BUNDLE sounded really suspicious...
talk about FREEDOM of CHOICE!