Don’t expect telephone calls to all parts of York Region to be local calls anytime soon.

A report prepared by the region’s finance department says it could take as long as five years before Bell Canada would even consider a request to provide local calling between all nine area municipalities.

While much of the southern part of the region is a local calling area and even includes service to Toronto, Newmarket and points north are not part of the area.

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Consumers like flexibility and low cost — telecom firms avoid access issues.
By Clint Swett -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, September 26, 2004

When Shawn Cheris talks on the phone in his Sacramento home, he easily could forget his calls are being routed over the Internet, rather than via SBC’s network.

«It’s crystal clear,» he said of the conversations he has over Vonage’s Internet phone system that’s hooked to his cable modem. «If anything, it’s better than what I had before.»

Although there are about only 1.1 million customers like Cheris in the United States, according to Frost & Sullivan analyst Jon Arnold, experts are predicting that VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) soon will gain enough traction in American households to pose a serious threat to traditional telephone service.

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