Auto Attendant for Canadian businesses.

Numbers in every province and territory

In the app you search for a local number by area code, optionally with digits or letters you would like in it, so a business in Halifax, Saskatoon or Kelowna can look for a number its customers recognise as local. Availability varies by area code and big-city codes are often out of stock, so no particular code can be promised; you pick the exact number from what is available. Numbers that require a street address are not offered. The area-code reference has a page for every province and territory, with overlays and the approved new codes, from the Canadian Numbering Administrator.1 Canada and the United States share the North American Numbering Plan, so a Canadian number looks and dials exactly like a US one.2

A toll-free number uses the same 800-series codes in both countries. To keep the Canadian number you already have, enter it in the app as the number your customers call today and say who holds the account; our team moves it and emails you if anything else is needed. Nothing is charged until the number has moved (porting in Canada below).

Each menu option rings up to three phones in turn, and each can be any Canadian or US number on any carrier. A Toronto number can ring a team member who is working from Buffalo, the forwarded call shows your business number, and the price does not change.

English, French and Spanish

The greeting and menu can be in English, in Canadian French, in Spanish, or in up to all three. When a line has more than one language, callers either choose first ("For English, press 1. Pour le français, faites le 2.") or use a key at the end of the menu (7 Spanish, 8 French, 9 English, as in "Pour le service en français, faites le 8"), and the options use the remaining keys, still up to seven of them. In the end-of-menu mode, callers from the twelve Quebec area codes start in French automatically while everyone else hears your primary language first. Bilingual menus explains the layout and how to choose.

The menu is spoken by a text-to-speech voice from the wording you write, and the French voice and wording are Canadian French and the Spanish voice is a US Spanish one. Business hours are set in Pacific, Mountain, Central, Eastern or Atlantic time (with Saskatchewan's year-round Central time, as in Regina); Newfoundland time is not offered. Provincial holidays can be set as closed days.

The home page, how it works, pricing, getting started, the privacy notice and the terms are in French. A Quebec customer is given the French terms first, and the app opens in French too (it is also available in Spanish). Email support is in French or English.

Price, currency and tax

The price is the same as in the US: $29 a month for the whole company, in US dollars. There is no separate Canadian-dollar price. You pay online at the end of setup, and a new number goes live as soon as payment completes. A number you bring with you is not charged until it has moved.

Canadian sales taxes can apply. A non-resident supplier that passes the registration threshold charges GST/HST to Canadian customers who are not registered for it, and Quebec applies the same approach to QST; a business that gives its GST/HST (or QST) registration number is generally not charged by such a supplier.34 Which taxes apply to your account is confirmed before the first charge. How billing works.

9-1-1

The CRTC attaches 9-1-1 duties to "local VoIP service providers", defined by three tests, and notes that using VoIP technology does not by itself make a company one.5 Separately, it has directed every telecommunications provider to be ready for next-generation 9-1-1 voice by 31 March 2027.6 Emergency calling in Canada quotes the rules. They do not reach this service. The reason is not the definition, which in the CRTC's own decision covers access "to and/or from" the public phone network; it is that the 9-1-1 duties concern routing 9-1-1 calls that customers place, and nobody can place any call through this service.

Porting in Canada

Number portability in Canada is set by the CRTC. Your new provider handles the transfer, and you should not cancel your current service first: a number that has been disconnected may not be portable.7 The CRTC's intervals are 2.5 business hours for a simple wireless-to-wireless port and two business days for ports involving a landline,8 and an unpaid balance with your old provider cannot block the port.9

One Canadian rule matters here: VoIP providers must let numbers port out, but porting a number in is at the VoIP provider's discretion.10 This service is internet-based. Canadian numbers are moved by our team after you tell the app who holds the account, and we email you if anything else is needed, including if your specific number cannot be brought in. Keep your current service until we confirm the number has moved. Porting in Canada has the details.

Privacy: PIPEDA and Quebec

Personal information is handled under PIPEDA and, for Quebec, the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector. The privacy notice names the person in charge of the protection of personal information (by title, with a contact address), explains that our providers process information mainly in the United States, and sets out how to ask for access, correction or deletion, with a written answer within 30 days, and how to complain to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the Commission d'accès à l'information.1112 Privacy notice, Canadian residents.

We email you only about your account and your line, never a newsletter, so there is nothing to unsubscribe from.