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Costs below are in Canadian dollars, not USD. Phones, Business V. Residential:
- Business:
- Installation: $179.00.
Monthly Charge: $42.00. This includes call waiting, call forwarding, three-way calling, name and number display. If we don't have all those services the charge is $40.40 per month. No charge for incoming and outgoing local calls; but there is an extra $4.00 per month if you don't want to advertise in the yellow pages, which, of course, we would not.
Calls: The long distance calls are In Ontario, $.18 a minute in prime time, $.20 evenings and weekends; anywhere else in Canada, $.20 prime, $.16 evenings and weekends. US: $.25 a minute prime, $.20 evenings and weekends. There is also an $8.00 usage charge, but to be honest I'm not sure if that is included in the monthly charge or not. The interesting thing about the business package—and the only thing that is making me even consider it—is that they sell blocks of time. For example: you can have ten minutes for $.35, however you pay that $.35 no matter if you use ten minutes or one. Still when you consider what you would be paying if, for instance, there was a lengthy long distance call from the States, it might be worth considering. Incidentally, I am told that to have the capability of accepting or making calls outside North America is very expensive.
- Residential:
- Installation: $129.00.
Monthly Charge: $22.31 plus tax. If we want to go with call/answer that would be an extra $7.00 a month, and I assume this also applies to the business; but it might just be cheaper to get an answering machine. No calls outside North America.
Calls: From the U.S., $.25 per minute from Monday to Friday; evenings and weekends, $.20 per min. In Canada, $.20 min, outside of Ontario. Evenings and weekends, $.16. Within Ontario: Daytime $.18, evenings and weekends $.14. If I want to make outgoing calls in Canada, $.10 per min in Canada, $.20 for U.S.; but that's evenings and weekends only. If we want that rate 24 hours a day, we would have to pay an extra $4.95 per month.
If you look at this, the cost of business per month is obviously more expensive; but would that $.35 time block offset this? I guess we have to decide, really, whether we are going to receive or make a lot of long distance calls, and if we do, then the more expensive business line with the time blocks might even things up. If we made or received only a couple of 20 minute calls to or from the US, this would take up the extra $20.00 a month that it would cost to use a business line. I suppose what we have to decide is whether it is better to bring the line into Canada, or cheaper just to leave it where it is.