Shaw Digital Phone Review (January 2008)

[shawguy]

My Shaw Digital Phone Two Year Review - Updated: January 2008

Hello

I have now had Shaw Digital Phone for two years now, and further to a post of mine in February 2006, I have since taken the original post and added to it to provide a more complete review (original post found HERE). This following document is what has been created and is a complete review of all the services and features of Shaw Digital Phone and my experiences, opinions and reviews of each. I thought I would like to share with all of you, so here it goes:

How did you obtain phone service from Shaw?

I simply called in to my local Shaw office. When I called in they asked me several questions, such as did I want to keep my number, How would I like my phone number listed in the phone book, or would I wish to be not listed in the phone book? The Cable bill was in my name, and the phone was not, so I was able to keep my phone number listed the same way it always has been, but I got the address portion removed from the phone book. Shaw was very helpful to make sure that everything was the way I wanted it and always confirmed before proceeding to make any changes.

You have the option of having your phone number listed in the phone book and 411, not in the phone book and on 411 only, or not in the phone book and not on 411. There is no charge to change the way you want it listed unlike MTS (local phone company) who charges even if you would like your address removed from the listings. Shaw went over all the calling features, benefits and prices while on the phone, and asked if I had any questions.

I would say from when I started talking to them to when I hung up was a good 20-25 minutes. Reminder: if you are calling to get phone service and want to keep your number, have a current phone bill in front of you as they will need some of the information from your current bill with your old provider. If you want to keep your current number, the porting process takes a minimum of 7 days, but if you want a new number, you could have phone service next day (depending on availability of service techs to be able to make an appointment)

NOTE: Something to watch out for if you are taking your existing phone number with you. Shaw Port Facilitation Department in Calgary calls me 6 days before my install date and tells me that they are having trouble getting MTS to accept Shaw's application to take my phone number as my information I gave Shaw does not match what MTS has on their records, and Shaw is telling me I will have to re-book my appointment due to they need at least 7 business days to be able to successfully transfer a number in the porting process. I tell Shaw that if they have to re-schedule my appointment I will not be getting their phone service for another month and a half, and they agree that if I call MTS and get the information to them ASAP they will rush my request and keep my same service call date. I call MTS.....the reason the rejected Shaw's application.......I gave Shaw Last Name - First Initial and MTS had it on system as First Initial - Last Name.....therefore the lesson to be learned is make sure your information you provide Shaw with matches exactly as your current telephone bill

The Installation Process

The installation time can vary from anywhere from ten minutes to two hours depending on your setup. They unhooked all my lines from where they came into the house with MTS, extended the lines about two feet where they put a new wire housing, and then mounted the modem to my basement roof, they kept all the wires nice and neatly and they are securely attached to the wall. As you all know the modem has battery back-up and requires an electrical outlet, so Shaw has these 6-outlet electrical wall taps which they use. Shaw used to take off your electrical outlet face plate, and screw their new 6 outlet wall tap right into the wall, so it could not be removed by simply pulling on it, but they have since changed their policy and simply just plug it into your wall socket, and you can remove it at any time. The phone modem is the property of Shaw, you do not own it, and Shaw will install a new phone modem at your new residence, as they cannot re-use the old one….until they reformat it back at their warehouse, as I was told that, the Shaw Digital phone modem, once installed is fixated to that residence, and if you move that Shaw Digital phone modem to a new house and happened to call 911, it will show your old address still. If you move and do not return the Shaw Phone modem, you could be charged a fee I was also informed. If you are unable to access your phone modem, Shaw will come and remove it for free, but you must inform them in advance.

During the installation, they will check the signal strength, at my old house it was determined that the signal to my house was too strong coming from outside, so he had to install a resistor between the modem and the cable. Usually it’s the opposite, poor signal, but apparently I had excellent signal strength at my last residence – Good to know.

After they were done installing the phone, he did a test call to show me that my phone still worked, he checked all the phone jacks in the house to make sure they were still working, and he gave me my Shaw Digital Phone user guide. Just after he walked out my door, I was trying out the phone, and I was hearing a clicking just after I picked up and my phone was saying “extension in use” like someone else was on the line, so ran outside and he was just taking off and I flagged him down, and he came back into the house. He tried my phone and it was doing the same thing, and he had no clue why it was doing that – and he was playing around with it, and was getting ready to start to diagnose it, when just as quickly as it started, it stopped. He said at the time he had never heard or experienced anything like it – and it hasn’t happened since which was odd.

When I signed up in 2006, your first month’s service payment was due when the installer was there and was payable by cash or cheque, which was no big deal, and this is just because Shaw bills one month in advance, so you didn’t have a double bill the following month. As of currently, Shaw seems to have promotions where the first month is free, so this probably is not an issue anymore and eliminates the need to have the payment due when the installer arrives.

What type of Digital Phone Modems does Shaw use?

When I first got the service in Feb 2006, I was given the SBV5120 Motorola Modem. This modem I had no complaints about overall. I had some problems at the start with not being able to use *69 at first, but this was resolved, and I will explain more in features section. The SBV5120 had a backup battery PB1000 which would give eight hours of stand-by and six hours of talk time. Note: the battery was an external unit that plugged in between the Shaw Phone Modem and the power outlet. Also something to note, it appears this version of modem is no longer listed on the Motorola website, meaning they no longer supply this product, but I know Shaw has a bunch and they still use them in certain areas.

When I moved from my old house to my new house in the summer of 2006, I called Shaw and was advised that I should remove the modem (if possible) from my old house and bring it to my new house, only the modem and power cord. So I did and the installer at my new house took the old one away and gave me a new modem which this time turned out to be a SBV5220 Motorola Modem. Well let me just say that out of all the modems I have used, this one was the worst. Let me just say though I did have this modem in summer 2006 till almost spring 2007 and this was before apparently they did a firmware update. But the problem I had was when I was trying to dial out; it would tell me the phone number I was calling was not in service. Then I would dial the number by dialing 1-204 in front of it and it would work fine. When this didn’t work, I also could not dial 611 for repair, so I had to use my cell phone. The SBV5220 has an internal battery and has a second battery compartment for the use of a second battery but to my knowledge Shaw only supplies one battery. The one battery can supply six hours of stand by and four hours of talk time, and in theory if you add a second battery you can double those numbers.

Long story short, after three service calls, Shaw eventually brought a refurbished SBV5120 back to my house and set it up. After a while I also had a small issue with this modem where someone would call my house, and my phone would not ring, and the person who called me would get what sounded like a fax machine answering, so that person would hang up call again, and it would do it again, and then the third time they called it would connect to me and my phones would ring. Because I was having issues now with the SBV5120 which worked fine and better than a SBV5220, they asked me to hold out and wait for the new Arris modem to come out. The first or second day that they were done their testing in Winnipeg and launched the modem in the field to be used for new installs, I received a phone call and they set a service call for four days later on the weekend and I received the Arris Touchstone TM502G/H Telephony modem.

Since February 2007, I have had the Arris Touchstone TM502G/H Telephony modem and this is the one I still have to this date. I have had no problems with this modem, and I noticed that this modem also works with pulse dialing, something I know at least the SBV5120 did not allow for when I had it (who knows it may now…wouldn’t be able to tell you). In May I had to have Shaw come out for a quick service call because I had a power outage and soon learned that the battery in my modem was a dud, and they came out a couple of days later and swapped the battery for a new one, and I have since tested it by unplugging my modem from power and seeing if it still works. I recommended to everyone I know to do this at least once, just to make sure, as you hate to find out when the power really does go out.

Out of the three modems that I have had experience with, I would rate the Arris as the best modem of the three, followed by the SBV5120 with the separate battery pack, and lastly the SBV5220, but note that those are just my preferences based on my experiences. I was told by technical support that the Arris modem is almost always used now when alarm systems are present, as it seems to work best with alarm systems out of the three. This could be hear say, but I thought I would include that info for everyone.

According the Arris website, the Touchstone Telephone Modems have two battery back up options. It appears Shaw is providing customers with the five hour battery back option (or three hours of talk time), but there is also a larger battery that will fit into the same compartment that allows for ten hour back up (or six hours of talk time).

Calling Features

In this section I will talk about my experiences with all the calling features that Shaw currently offers and my opinion on each one (if applicable). For detailed instructions on how to use any of these services, call Shaw for more info, or see the links part at the end of this review for links to the user guides and the Shaw website.

Voicemail (*98)

Definition from the Shaw website: “Voicemail answers your calls when you are away from home or talking on the phone. Your personalized greeting is played and the caller’s message recorded for you to listen to later.”

When I first got phone service in Feb 2006, I kept this service for a whole two days after I got the phone service. It wasn’t bad, but was finding that the Shaw voicemail was not notifying me of new messages like it should have been, Shaw states on their website that;

“When you have a new message waiting, you will hear an interrupted dial tone when you pick up the receiver, or your phone’s message-waiting light will be flashing (on phones with a message-waiting light feature). You can still make and receive calls when you hear the interrupted dial tone.”

I was not getting an interrupted dial tone nor where any of my 4 phones that have the message waiting light feature, they were not lighting up. I called 611 and they asked me what type of phone I had and I gave him 1 of my phone brands – and of course his response at the time was “oh we are having trouble with that brand of phone at the moment with the message waiting light” and then I stated…well why would that affect my not getting an interrupted dial tone, and he stated, oh it does…and then I said…ok you can cancel my voicemail service!

I re-added the voicemail service to my account in spring 2007, thought I would give it another try, and it was still doing the same thing it was doing before (as stated above), it was not lighting up when I had new messages, or not giving me the interrupted dial tone, so I called technical support in Winnipeg who again stated it must be a problem with my phone, so I called BC tech support (as I have had better experiences with them before for internet problems…but that is another story) and they opened a ticket number and sent my problem to a level two tech in Calgary who called me back, and I have no idea what he did, but after a couple of weeks with trial and error, he called me and asked me to try it again, and success it worked! I was very happy that my service was now working as it was promised.

Note: Shaw Voicemail can store up to 20 messages at up to 5 minutes each and can be stored for up to 7 days. Also should you wish to shut off voicemail temporarily you can now do so using the online portal on secure.shaw.ca under manage digital phone features, or if you wish to shut off this service permanently you can call Shaw and it will be removed in twenty four to ninety six hours depending on how many requests they have. It could then be re added at any time in the future, but the same time frames would apply.

One thing I am glad Shaw added about a year ago, is the ability to bypass your password which you can do by going into your personal options by pushing four, then two to manage your password, and then two for password prompt options and then press one to skip the password prompt. This will only skip your password if you are accessing your voicemail from your home phone line. I turned that on, so other family members could access the voicemail without having to enter the password every time. Of course if you wanted to turn the password prompt back on you would do the same, except at the last part instead of pushing one you would push two to turn it back on.

Did you all know but in addition to your local access number for voicemail (282-1099 in Winnipeg), Shaw now has a toll free number that will work anywhere in Canada or the US, and this was very helpful when I went to BC this past summer for two weeks to be able to check my messages while I was on the go and not have to dial long distance, the number is 1-866-656-7429 and just type in your ten digit phone number followed by the # key and then it will ask you for your password.

For anyone wondering, Shaw tells you that in order to access your voicemail externally (not on your phone line) to call the local access number, but if you simply call your own number and when the voicemail kicks in hit the * key once…you can access your voicemail. If you make a mistake on your password or accidentally hit the * key twice it will ask you for your voicemail number. Make sure you enter your 10 digit number, as I found that when I just entered the 7 digit number, it would never recognize my password….which I found odd, but when I did the 10 digit number, first try I was in.

Overall since I got the message waiting light to work on my phone line, I am very happy with Shaw voicemail, and now with Voicemail to E-mail where it allows you to receive a copy of your voicemail to your e-mail inbox, I think it’s a great service. For more info on Voicemail to E-mail, see the online customer care part of this review at the end of the calling features.



**CONTINUED BELOW**
For the second part see HERE
For the third part see HERE
For the fourth part see HERE

[shawguy]

**CONTINUED FROM LAST POST…..**
For the first part, from which this one is continued from see HERE



Call Forward (*72 to turn on, *73 to turn off)

Definition from the Shaw website: “Call Forward redirects your incoming calls to another phone number. You can forward calls to any local number you choose.”

Always has worked the way it is supposed to since day one. One thing to note is, when you forward to another number, that party must pick up. If the answering machine answers your call that is still fine, as long as something picks up.

To turn the service on dial *72 followed by the ten digit phone number. To turn it off dial *73. The only downside to this service on Shaw, is that on MTS your phone will ring once and then send the person off to where they are being forwarded (voicemail, another number, etc), which acts like a reminder you have call forward on, but on Shaw your phone will never ring, and if you don’t check by pushing *73 to see if its off already, you may never know.

If you dial *73 and the service is already off, it will give you the following message: “The feature is already successfully deactivated.”

Call Display (When dialing out; *67 to block, *82 to unblock your information)

Definition from the Shaw website: “Call Display shows an incoming caller’s name and telephone number (if available) on a caller ID-equipped phone or caller ID unit.”

When I receive local calls, It has my area code (204) in front of all my numbers now, where as with MTS it never had an area code unless it was a long distance number calling. Also when someone calls you, it is always in the format of first initial then last name (example: A Smith), unless they have their full name displayed (Albert Smith). What I have noticed is that when a person who is using MTS calls you, it will show up in the following format: A SMITH, whereas when someone on Shaw phone calls you, it will show up as: A Smith. In case you missed it, on MTS the whole caller ID info is capitalized, whereas on Shaw, it has upper and lower case letters, as long as your phone can display upper and lower case letters. This is also true when I call someone on MTS, my name shows as upper and lower case letters. This must has something to do with the way Shaw programs the caller ID information into their system to be sent out, but it is a great way to know what phone provider someone is using before you even pick up the phone.

3-Way Calling

Definition from the Shaw website: “ The 3-Way Calling feature lets you talk with two other people in one call.”
Like stated before, works exactly as Shaw states it should. No need to dial *71 before you dial the third party. Call the first person, then just push link and call the second person, push link again and you’re connected to all three.

Note: As long as you remain on the line, either one of the other participants can hang up and you can continue to talk to the remaining person. Also during a 3-way call, Call Waiting will not work. The caller will be routed to Voicemail (If you have this service through Shaw). Also all extension phones must be hung up in order to use 3-Way Calling.

Call Waiting (*70 to temporarily disable on a per call basis)

Definition from the Shaw website: “With Call Waiting, you’ll know if another call is coming in when you’re already on the line. And if you have a caller ID phone, the names and numbers of incoming calls will be displayed when you are on the phone.”

When I first got Shaw digital phone I noticed that when someone was calling you while you were on the phone, the beep for call waiting was very loud, with the newer Shaw Phone modems, another major improvement I noticed is that the beep that occurs on your line when you have another caller calling you, it is definitely not as loud as it used to be. The Arris modem is not as a loud of a beep as it was on the SBV5120 and therefore I am very happy for that.

Originally when I got the service in Feb 2006, I stated the following; “A downside I have already noticed, is the fact that say for example someone calls you, and you decide that you do not want to be interrupted, you cannot disable call waiting once you are already on the telephone, you would have to end your call and re-call that person, by first dialing *70 first to disable call waiting for that one call. This is one major difference between call waiting on Shaw and MTS, as on MTS you can push link and dial *70 and it will disable call waiting and take you back to your original call.”

Well I just went and tried it recently, and apparently you now can do this. If you are on the phone and you do not want to be interrupted, simply push link and you will hear a dial tone, dial *70 and you will hear a new dial tone and then it will automatically connect you back to your original call in a couple of seconds, and now if someone calls you, they will go directly to voicemail (if you have Shaw voicemail) or a busy signal if you do not have voicemail. This is a very nice feature, especially if a family member from overseas calls you or an important business call. Good Job Shaw.

Please note that if you use *70 to disable call waiting on a per call basis, call waiting will be active again once you hang up the phone, you must dial *70 each and every time you wish to disable call waiting when on a call.

Note: Call Waiting can be removed from your line should you wish that you do not want it, and you would have to call Shaw and they will have it removed from your line in twenty four to ninety six hours depending on how many requests they have. It could then be re added at any time in the future, but the same time frames would apply.

Overall I like call waiting and it is very easy to use, and it’s nice that you will see the name and number of the person who is calling before you answer (your phone must be capable of doing this) and I like the fact that it now works like MTS call waiting.

Call Return (*69)

Definition from the Shaw website: “With Call Return, you can dial the last number that called you whether you answered the call or not. Call Return works with most direct-dialed calls from most areas.”

When I had MTS I never used this feature as why would I pay 60 cents to find out who the last person who called me was when I have caller ID, but since its Free on Shaw I had to try it out.

When you dial *69 it states; “The last incoming number was 204-555-5555. This call was received on (month, day, year) at 12:00am. To activate automatic recall press one otherwise hang up.”

Now I noticed that when you press one some of the time it will give me this “Your automatic recall request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again or dial directly” This is because it cannot return cell numbers, pay phones, or business lines. Not a big deal, I can call that person back by dialing directly.

If you press *69 after a 1-800 number has called you, I got this message “The number you are trying to reach cannot be handled by the automatic recall and call back features. Please Dial Directly.”

If you press *69 after a private number has called you, I got this message. “We’re sorry the number you are trying to reach is private and cannot be called using the automatic recall feature.”

In the Shaw Digital Phone User guide it states under Call waiting, “waiting calls that are not answered will be routed to voicemail (or if you have no voicemail like me, it will just keep ringing for that party who is calling you). You can find the telephone number of the second caller by using the call return service.”

When I first got phone service from Shaw for the first couple of days, I had a couple of problems with *69 service, one being that when I dialed *69 when it told me the number and time, that the time was 1 hr off (Ontario Time), but that was corrected with-in a day or two. The second being when I dialed *69 for the first couple of days it was only telling me the last caller who actually physically made the telephones ring, it would not tell me the second caller (call waiting caller) if I was on the other line, but when the time was corrected from the above problem, this one seemed to go away as well.
Another problem I was having was when I would dial *69 and try to push one to call the last caller back it would give me the error: “Your automatic recall request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again or dial directly” even when I was dialing a local landline number. Now if you remember in the “What type of Digital Phone Modems does Shaw use” under the SBV5120 Motorola modem review, I stated I would explain the problems I was having with *69 and how they were eventually fixed. It was this problem with not being able to use one to call them back and getting that error. Well it turns out that when MTS released my phone number to Shaw, they did not shut off the phone line to my house, and I had a phone line from MTS that worked for almost four months after I had disconnected with them. I could dial out on the MTS line and if I called myself, it stated I was calling myself on the Shaw line….but I could not receive calls on the MTS line, my Shaw line would always ring. Now apparently because the MTS line was still active, this was causing problems with the *69 service not working properly, and ever since MTS finally disconnected their phone line, *69 has been working exactly as Shaw has stated it is supposed to work on their website. I can return calls to land lines, and some business lines, but not to cell phones, pay phones, or 1-800 numbers.

Anonymous Call Blocking (*77 to turn on, *87 to turn off)

This is one of those features that was only added to Shaw less than a year ago and it is the following: “With Anonymous Call Blocking you can avoid receiving a call from numbers that have a privacy feature activated such as Caller ID Blocking.”

To activate it you press *77 on your phone, it will say; “Your anonymous call rejection service is now on, incoming calls will be checked for number privacy before they are allowed to complete. Callers who block their number will get a recording saying that you do not accept blocked calls”

When someone who blocks their phone number tries to call you they will get the following message; “We’re sorry the party you are calling does not wish to talk to callers who block their numbers. If you wish to reach this party please hang up and place your call again without blocking your number”

What would be nice is if the message told callers how to unblock their numbers (*82) so that they could reach the person they were trying to call, as some people have call block always on their line.

If you wish to turn the service off again, you would push *87 and it will say; “Your anonymous call rejection service is now off. Incoming calls will not be checked for privacy status. Callers who block their number can now reach you.”

As always this feature is included in your monthly fee, and is no charge to use.

Selective Call Blocking (*60)

Another feature that was slowly rolled out to all Shaw areas early last year and it states on the website the following: “Selective Call Blocking lets you enter up to 32 specific numbers that you do not wish to receive calls from. Anyone trying to call your phone from a number that you have blocked will simply get a recording advising them that you are not presently accepting calls from their number. You can turn the feature on or off from your phone keypad at any time, allowing quiet undisturbed dinners or family time while not permanently refusing calls from those numbers.”

To learn how to use this service, see Shaw’s website under digital phone technical support or dial *60 on your phone and push 0 for instructions on how to add or remove numbers to your list. When adding a local phone number your can put either the seven digit phone number OR area code and seven digit number (total ten digits) as either will work. When you have added someone to your list by pressing # seven digit number #. Now when that person calls you they will get the following message; “The called party is not accepting calls from this phone number…. the called party is not accepting calls from this phone number.”

So you can see when using this service along with the anonymous call blocking feature listed above, you have total control over who calls you and can get through.

Something neat I found with this selective call blocking service, is say I call you and my number is private name / private number, you can still add the last person who called you by dialing *60 and pressing #01# and now if I try and call again, even though I was private name / private number I will still get that message, and even if I unblock my number I will still get it, meaning the service is still able to identify you as who you are, even if you block your phone number.

Now if one of your friends calls you and they have a blocked number they should still get though, because the system recognizes that isn’t me calling you, because it can see their number and identifies its not my number trying to call you, even if you cannot see my number normally when I call. If you try to be sneaky thinking you will find out my phone number when you view your entries in your list by using option one as it states on the website, it won’t tell you my number either, it will just say its an anonymous number that you blocked and ask you if you want to remove it, which means this is a very smart service. I hope that all made sense.

Distinctive Ring

As taken from the Shaw website; “Distinctive Ring is a convenient feature that allows additional telephone numbers to be assigned to your current telephone number so that you will know who the call is for.

Distinctive Ring is not an extra line, but a feature that allows your home telephone to ring differently depending on what number a caller dials. You can assign a distinctive ring to any family member in the house and you’ll know who the call is for based on the ring tone. You can also assign a Shaw Distinctive Ring number to your fax machine so your phone will distinguish regular calls from incoming faxes.”

You can have up to three distinctive ring numbers per phone line on top of your current phone number. With the Shaw Digital Phone full package (the one with voicemail, call waiting and unlimited North American long distance) they include one free distinctive ring number in your monthly fee, and you can add a second or third one for $3.95 each. Shaw Digital phone lite is $3.95 each for the first, second and/or third distinctive ring number.

I have one distinctive ring number on my account and when someone calls my main line it will ring one long ring like normal, and when someone calls the distinctive ring number, the same telephones will ring as on that main line, but they have two short rings, so its like ring ring in the same time as the one long ring, so we know the call is for another family member.

I found this service to be a very nice value added service, and am glad Shaw now offers it.

Directory Assistance (411)

When you call directory assistance it states; Welcome to Shaw Directory Assistance…for what city please…so I said Winnipeg, then it asked me if this was for Residential, I said No, and then it asks me what I was looking for, so I state what business I am looking for (example: Best Buy on Regent), and then it will tell me if it found anything for that, and if it has it will ask me if I want the number, so I state yes…and then it will either go directly to a recording which states the number for you and you have to write it down, hang up and call it directly or it will connect me to an actual human who comes on and confirms what I am looking for, and when they have found it, they play a recording which states the number and you have to write it down and hang up and call it. Either way, you have to write down the number, they will not automatically connect you to the number found.

I wish they could offer a feature in which you can push one to actually call that number or something like that, if you wanted to call that number right at that moment, it would be a nice addition.

An alternative to calling directory assistance would be to use canada411.ca which is free to use, should you not wish to talk to someone.


**CONTINUED BELOW IN NEXT POST**
For the third part see HERE
For the fourth part see HERE

[shawguy]

**CONTINUED FROM LAST POST…..**
For the first part see HERE
For the second part, from which this one is continued from see HERE



611 Support

When you call 611 it now gives you two options; “Thank you for choosing Shaw Digital Phone, please make your selection from the following two options; if you are experiencing problems with your Shaw Digital phone service press one, for self serve digital phone frequently asked questions and troubleshooting tips press two” and if you press one you go straight to digital phone technical support, and two will give you another menu where you can learn about voicemail, and how to connect a fax machine, and other common info that can be found on their website about calling features.

I just wish they could add a “press 3 if your problem is in relation to cable TV or internet” and take you back to the main menu when you would call Shaw directly, that would be nice to have in the future.

Call Trace (*57)

Which states when you call; “This is the customer originated call trace feature, to trace the last call received press one, otherwise please hang up”

This feature is free to use, and even if you trace a call, you will not be able to see the records. This feature is to be used when you are receiving harassing telephone calls and you would like to get the police involved and the records would be transferred over to the police.

Enhanced 911, Message Relay Service (711), and Operator Assistance

Enhanced 911 (E911), Message Relay Service (711) and Operator Assistance are all included in your Shaw Digital Phone monthly rate.

The Shaw website states “if you need to make an emergency 911 call, your telephone number and address are automatically displayed to emergency operators to ensure a quick and accurate response.”

I myself have never had to make a 911 call since I have had the service, but to my knowledge it works the exact same way as MTS, something you will not have with VOIP providers like Vonage.

Long Distance / Sound Quality

I have made lots of long distance calls in Canada, and many calls to England and a couple to Australia. The sound quality was fine; I have no complaints of echo’s or glitching.

After I added the phone service, in mid 2006 Shaw announced that 25 countries would be included for 1000 minutes a month for all Shaw Digital Phone customers, and then later it was increased to 50 countries, and let me say, it is a very nice feature. I call the UK once in a while, and I have never had a problem connecting, and the sound quality is the same I had when I was on MTS, and it’s a free call now. (If you’re a Shaw Digital Phone Lite customer, its four cents a minute).

Still the only issue with sound quality that I have noticed is when there is music involved, when I have music in the background, or the person I am talking to has music, the music is choppy, and this is very noticeable for example when you are on hold with Shaw when calling in. The best way to compare it would be to a cell phone, it’s almost like it cannot process all those different sounds. Voice quality is fine though when someone is speaking, so it must be a way the phone line processes sound, and it should be something to note, but when no music is being played on hold, or loudly in the background….sound quality is excellent.

Shaw Digital Phone Lite – Second Phone Line for only $1.95

Recently I added the second phone line to my account for only a $1.95 more because I have the full phone package (if you have lite phone service, its $19.95 to add another line), and I am very happy with this phone line. You have the option of whether or not you would like to have long distance enabled or not. Since I have unlimited long distance on the main line, there really isn’t a need to have it on this line and pay for long distance, and you can turn it off or on at your request. You get all the calling features mentioned on the digital phone lite phone page – caller ID, three way calling, etc, and You can have this number listed or not, and you can choose whether you want address displayed in the listing or not. Overall for $1.95 you can’t go wrong. If you have lite and are thinking about getting a second phone line, at least in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Thunder Bay it would be cheaper to upgrade to the full digital phone package ($40 a month compared to $55 in Alberta and BC) and add the second line…rather than two digital phone lite lines FYI

If you choose to have the long distance disabled on this line as stated above that you do have that option, if you try to dial a long distance number it will state the following: “You have entered a restricted code” and will not allow you to dial that number. This would be great if you are adding the second line for a child in your house.

Online Customer Care – Managing Digital Phone Features

Shaw recently launched the ability to manage digital phone features through online customer care at secure.shaw.ca. When you log into your account you would click under the digital phone heading on “Manage Digital Phone Features” and when you do that it will take you to a screen that allows you to select which phone number you would like to manage features for (if you have more than one line through Shaw) and once you do that you will have the following options on the left hand menu: manage features and other features. Under “manage features’ you have listed; Voicemail, Call Forward, and Voicemail to E-mail. Under “other features” you have listed; Caller ID, Call Waiting, Three Way Calling, and Call Return.

In the other features section it just will explain a brief explanation of what the feature is and will provide a link to the digital phone user guide for more information.

The three main features under the manage features are Voicemail, Call Forward, and Voicemail to E-mail. (Subject to you having these calling feature options active on your telephone line)

When you click on Voicemail, you will have the option to turn voicemail on or off. Note: if you turn it off, this does not cancel your voicemail service, but simply just temporarily turns off your voicemail service should you not wish to receive messages. It will also allow you to reset your voicemail pin should you have forgotten it. It does say though that if you reset your pin, you will have to re-set up the voicemail to e-mail service should you use that service.

If you click on Call Forward once again you will have the option to turn call forward on or off, and it allows you to enter which number you want to have your calls forwarded to. I think this is great, should you be away from your home, you can now log in, and forward calls to your cell or another number without having to be at your phone. Or if you have call forward on already you can shut it off and clear the number you had it forwarded to.

The Voicemail to E-mail option once again allows you to turn the service off or on and then provides a drop down list that you can choose which Shaw e-mail address you want your copies of your voicemail sent to. Note: You must be a Shaw phone and Shaw residential internet customer for this service to work and have at least one @shaw.ca e-mail address. I have this active on my line and it’s great. If I get a voicemail, my telephone lights up like normal to tell me I have a voicemail, and I can log in to *98 and check my voicemail and delete it like normal, but that voicemail message is also sent to your e-mail account and you have the Date and Time of the call, calling number (person who called you), message length, and message priority (always normal unless caller chooses otherwise). When you open the e-mail, the voicemail is attached as a .wav file for you to open and listen to, and the nice part is you have that hard copy on your computer now, and it’s not taking up storage space on your voicemail inbox. Over all it’s a very nice feature to help manage voicemail.

One feature I would like to see added to this service in the future is the ability to manage your Selective Call Blocking (*60) on here, as it would be great to be able to view my 32 numbers that I have blocked and just pick and choose which ones I want to keep or delete rather than listening on the phone or the ability to add new numbers quick and easy. And if you they incorporate that into this online manager in the future, I would only assume they would add the ability to enable or disable Anonymous Call Blocking (*77/*87) at the same time. This would be a great addition to an already nice feature.

Overall Summary

- Shaw still does not allow you to accept collect calls at this time.
- You will continue to receive a phone book delivered to your home, even if your local phone company is the one who normally supplies the books, and your name will still be in there if you specified so.
- Shaw is governed by the same CRTC requirements as the traditional phone companies and must have 99% uptime. If you are having problems with your Shaw phone service, a service tech will be sent SAME DAY if it is a severe problem or next day if its not, unlike TV and Internet which is next day or next week service I have found in my experiences.

Another thing I have to commend Shaw for doing, is when they are about to perform service work in your area, that may temporarily cause your digital phone to stop working, for example when they are upgrading lines and equipment in your area, the day before you will get a call to your house and if your not there it will leave a recording on voicemail. The voicemail courtesy message they leave is: “This is to advise you that we will be performing work in your area between the hours of eight am and four thirty pm on (Month and Day). This work will intermittently cause interruptions to your Shaw Digital Phone service. We apologize for any inconvenience while we work to upgrade the services in your area. Should you have any questions please press one now to speak with a Shaw Digital Phone Technical support representative or dial 611 from your Shaw Digital Phone”

Another thing I noticed was interesting that Shaw can do but MTS can not is when calling on an MTS landline if you dial a number that is not long distance, for example 1-204-480-7429 (Shaw) it will tell you that, it is not a long distance call, and to dial again without using one or zero and to dial directly (example: 480-7429). I found with Shaw that I can dial 1-204-480-7429 and it will still dial and connect which I found odd – I realize long distance is free with Shaw – but would that not cost them more money if people were dialing long distance when its clearly local? Also if every call is a local call, then you would think I could call Selkirk and not have to dial 1-204 first, but oh well, just thought I would point that out.

A feature I would eventually like to see added to Shaw phone in the future would be Call Again (*66). As defined on the MTS website: “Call Again redials the busy number for you until the line becomes free, for up to 30 minutes. You’ll hear a distinctive ring when the line becomes free. Pick up the receiver and your call will be connected. It’s that easy.” If they can do this for *69 and monitor the line for thirty minutes, why cannot they implement something like this and have *66 added for all customers. It would be a very nice addition to already great service.

Shaw Pre-Paid Calling Option

From the Shaw website: “Shaw’s Prepaid Calling Plan lets you enjoy great international calling rates even when you’re not using Shaw Digital Phone. You can use Shaw’s prepaid plan from virtually any phone from almost any country.”

I do not have experience with this as when I want to call long distance and I am not at home I simply use a long distance card that I buy at superstore (125 minutes for $5). But essentially this Shaw pre-paid service is like a pre-paid long distance card which you top up with your credit card but it never expires unlike the in store long distance cards which expire six months from activation. You could essentially also give out the Shaw access number and code to family and friends since they cannot call you collect, as an alternative to collect calls.

For more information on Shaw’s pre-paid calling plan see HERE


**CONTINUED BELOW IN NEXT POST**
For the fourth part see HERE

[shawguy]

**CONTINUED FROM LAST POST…..**
For the first part see HERE
For the second part see HERE
For the third part, from which this one is continued from see HERE



Does Shaw Digital Phone work with security systems?

As taken directly from the Shaw website found HERE

“If you have a home-security system or are considering getting one, there are some important facts you should know about Shaw Digital Phone.

When you choose Shaw Digital Phone as an alternative choice for your traditional home phone service, you can be assured that the performance and reliability of your security system will not be compromised.

Unlike some Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone services, Shaw Digital Phone traffic does not travel over the public Internet. Our voice traffic is carried over our secure, managed network. As a result, Shaw Digital Phone provides a reliable communications link to security monitoring stations.

Through one simple connection, our service installation professionals will connect Shaw’s home phone service to your alarm system service and test to help ensure alarm signals are successfully transmitted to your central monitoring station.

As a further consideration for the safety and well-being of our customers, Shaw’s home phone service comes equipped with battery backup to help ensure complete and reliable alarm transmission, even in the case of a temporary power outage.

Because we cannot account for the installation practices and service standards of all alarm system providers, we recommend that you check with your alarm system provider if you have questions or concerns.”

My experience with Shaw Digital Phone and alarm systems. At my current house, I know when I had the Motorola modem’s in my home, especially the SBV5220 it had problems with my home alarm system, but the Arris I have had no complaints, and like stated in the part on the review of the three modems, even a Shaw tech told me himself, that the Arris seems to work best with alarm systems, and that’s the same one I would recommend, just because it seems to work with no flaws. If you are really worried, you could always get a back up system installed, as many alarm companies now offer you the ability to have wireless cell transmission of signals or over the internet as backup, check with your local alarm company.

I would definitely recommend checking with your alarm company first, and do test calls (over a period of time), as some people have stated to me that they had a problem where it would take a couple of minutes for the alarm company to receive their signal, but for myself, I haven't had any trouble codes having to be sent yet, but like stated above, a back up system isn't always a bad idea if you are worried (provides peace of mind), but if you have an alarm system, this would be the one area I would check everything first before proceeding.


Helpful Links

- For up to date promotions on Shaw Digital Phone see this webpage HERE

- For instructions on how to dial overseas see HERE

- For Long Distance Rates or to see if it is one of the fifty countries included in the 1000 minutes per month see HERE

- Shaw Digital Phone Technical Support which is a great resource on how to use your calling features and user guides can be found here - HERE

- Shaw Also has a Friend Get a Friend Program where you can now receive $50 off for each Digital Phone Customer you refer. See HERE for more details.

I know this was a really long post (techincally four posts) for a digital phone review, but I hope I may have helped at least one person by posting it for all to read.

**THE END...for now**

Thanks
Shawguy

[hugh]

Awesome work ShawGuy!

Lots of hard work and lots of great information

[brew99]

A wealth of information for people looking at the possabilities of Shaw Digital Phone. Nice work!!

You also might want to mention the option of a second phone line for only $1.99 (when the first line in the unlimited long-distance plan). I don't think any company can match this price for an additional line.

[Nanuuk]

Ok, weird title, didn't know what else to use. I made a few LD calls yesterday without the traditional you can't get through because all the lines are tied up. That got me thinking (egg-nog assist I admit). Is this because of the cable company technology?

[ben hancock]

I've had Shaw home phone (HP) for about a month now and the service has been reliable. No regrets yet, but ....

My problem is the transfer from one HP provider (Rogers/Sprint) to Shaw. When I called Shaw to order their HP service, they told me that they will take care of the termination process with Rogers. This was sometime last month in December. My Shaw HP was installed on January 8th. However, it is now near the end of January and I get a bill from Rogers that a charge of $25.91 (my usual monthly rate including tax) for the period Jan 05 to Feb 04. To my understanding, I am getting charged pretty much for the month of January.

So, did I misunderstood what the Shaw CSR said about them completely handling the termination process with Rogers? Does Shaw actually provide this type of service? To others, was something like this said when you ordered? Did I misunderstand; did the CSR actually mean just transferring the same number I have with Rogers and not actually cancel my service with Rogers?

[Shaw Guru]

Shaw will contact the company that had your phone service at the time and advise them to cancel the services and port the number on such and such a day. Occassionally the company does not process the termination request. If you call Shaw and get a LSC (Local Service Requests) number this would have been the confirmation sent to Rogers to terminate the service. Some companies require 30 days notice so may bill you one extra month.
As for Sprint there should be a PON number that is sent to them to terminate those services.
Call Shaw and get these 2 numbers and then call and fight with Rogers and or Sprint and you should not have to pay those charges.

[pmcd76]

love. better than bell all around.

[Nanuuk]

Love it. No problems and cheaper than the Telco.

[jshel101]

I love it. I've had it since they launched in Calgary.

Shouldn't this post be in the Cable and Landline Telephony (Fixed Providers) forum?

[RalphG]

Switched from Telus to Shaw Home Phone in December. I have noticed only two differences:

1. With Shaw Home Phone, I have no telephone service if the electric power goes off whereas with Telus the phone still worked. This is not a serious problem though since I do have a cell phone. (Edit re. message #6 below -- I was not aware that the Shaw phone modem has a backup battery. When our electric power went off the telephone had no dial tone and I assume it did not work. I need to find out more about this.)
2. My telephone bill is about half as much with Shaw Home Phone as it was with Telus.

The quality and features of Shaw Home Phone are comparable to Telus -- I don't "notice" that I have Shaw instead of Telus on a day-to-day basis.

[Jason4653]

Originally Posted by RalphG

Switched from Telus to Shaw Home Phone in December. I have noticed only two differences:

1. With Shaw Home Phone, I have no telephone service if the electric power goes off whereas with Telus the phone still worked. This is not a serious problem though since I do have a cell phone.
2. My telephone bill is about half as much with Shaw Home Phone as it was with Telus.

The quality and features of Shaw Home Phone are comparable to Telus -- I don't "notice" that I have Shaw instead of Telus on a day-to-day basis.

RalphG, You would not lose your telephone servive if you had a power failure due to the batterey backup that is inside the phone modem. It is good for around a couple hours of talk time and couple days standby.

[vjose78]

I have a question that may or may not have been asked before, sorry I didn't have time to read through every post, anyhow with Shaw it seems you need an electrical outlet near the connections for the modem, well I don't have any electrical outlets near my phone connections, so does this mean I can't get Shaw Digital Phone?