11-29-2019 02:41 PM
Hi, I am on Strata Council for a 39 unit building in Vancouver. We are upgrading our intercom and working with TELUS business solutions section. There is a lot of confusion about local calling area and what this means. We have people who have want to use their cell phone with the new intercom but their prefix is not in our local calling area, e.g. 604-833 is in New Westminster. And according to TELUS Business, this would be a long distance call. When talking with owners now, I am told that they have a local home cell phone number within the local area code, so what am i talking about when i say this is a long distance call. is home phone service and business phone service that different? where can i find out something about this online on the TELUS pages? I have looked at https://localcallingguide.com/index.php and http://www.thedirectory.org/pref/ so I know how to figure out what is local calling and what is not. but i need an explanation for people. thanks. thomas quigley, Vancouver
11-29-2019 03:46 PM
Vancouver to New West is long distance?
12-03-2019 02:18 AM
Certainly in a home phone situation, whether landline or cell, it isn't. But it seems that in the business phone area, it is not in the same exchange.
11-29-2019 09:04 PM
While I'm not sure if this is the case, here is some background info:
Cellphone local calling areas are much larger than landline local calling areas. In my area the landline local calling area is my city, and the rural area immediately surrounding it. My cellphone local calling area includes cities over 100 km to the east and some, but not all to the west, as well as the rural areas between.
A business (landline) local dialing area might be smaller again, and with regard to a condo, may have the expectation that only local exchange numbers are considered local to the facility - in the old days, all residents would have had a local exchange landline number, so no long distance charges between the switchboard and the homeowner's phone.
According to this website, Vancouver and New Westminster are different exchange areas, which may be the issue you are running into, rather than a Long Distance Tariff issue.
It may well be that the condo association has the choice between absorbing and reassessing long distance charges, or expecting each homeowner to maintain a minimal landline service.
Hope this helps a little bit, or points you in the right direction for questioning your supplier.
12-03-2019 02:16 AM
Thank you, this is helpful.