They have gone out of business
(1)
Number 67 : SEP 4th, 2015 : Bill
Recommended: No
AVERAGE:
QUALITY:
RELIABILITY:
SUPPORT:
FEATURES:
VALUE:
For all intents and purposes, Brama Telecom is out of business. They did make an attempt to
contact their customers and transfer service to another VOIP provider, but many complaints have
been received by the office of the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services
(CCTS) that service was simply cut off. I was promised that my number would be ported to the
new provider, but then I received a notice that the porting request was "rejected" (whatever
that means). I have contacted CCTS and will pursue legal action if the issue is not resolved to
my satisfaction.
VISITOR/PROVIDER FEEDBACK:
Al (September 9th 2015) : We had the same problem. Our small business has lost all phone lines for 3 weeks. The lines got disconnected by Brama without prior warning. No company succeeded to port the numbers, including Bell.
But I called the CRTC complaints department and they seemed to be aware of the problem. They referred me to Portal Networks Co. who successfully restored and ported our numbers in 9 hours. They also charge less than Brama for our virtual PBX and Linksys PBX box-driven land line.
Nan (September 9th 2015) : I had the same problem, and also filed a complaint to the CCTS.
I needed my number that I have had for ten years.
Finally I got the solution, for all who want there phone number back from Brama call Portal Network Co, they are the owners of all the Brama phone numbers.
I hope this helps!
Bill (original reviewer; September 9th 2015) : Yes, it appears that Portal Network Co. can resolve the problem. They seem to have the blessing of Fibernetics, the actual local exchange carrier that controls the numbers of Brama Telecom's customers. It took me quite a bit of time and effort to reach the conclusion that Fibernetics was at the root of the problem. They claimed the numbers were "suspended" (I characterize it as being held hostage) because of Brama's long overdue accounts that will likely never be paid.
I hesitate to say that all's well that ends well until I have absolute proof that my number will again work with Portal Network Co., but I should know for sure within 48 hours, but I should know for sure within 48 hours.
Lumas (September 10th 2015) : Folks,
it turns out that any carrier can port. I ended up porting my Brama held number to Yak, the porting come through today!
Though while waiting Yak gave me a temporary number, which was quite useful to at least get back into service. I simply had to use Yak's procedure to port the number. No idea who Fibernetics is, never heard of them nor the other provider mentioned here but as per Canadian Law any number can be transferred, even to a mobile phone or from a mobile phone to a digital home phone.
Al (September 11th 2015) : To Lumas: Strange, as even Bell could not port our numbers, and I would imagine Bell knows its stuff. They did quite a bit of research on my case. As far as I know the Canadian law stipulates that your number must be active (in service) to be ported, but our numbers got disconnected by Brama and became inactive. In any case, we are a business and require virtual PBX based auto-attendant with 6 redirects to cell phones and with two PBX-controlled land lines. In addition to the fact that no one else could port our numbers, the price we got from Portal Network was 1/3 of what others quoted me for the same service bundle. They are awesome as far as customer service. Just a record of my 4 weeks of struggle to recover the disconnected numbers.
Bill (Original Reviewer: September 13th 2015) : Al may be correct that an "inactive" (or as Fibernetics characterized it, "suspended" - the semantic distinctions may have legal ramifications) number cannot be ported without the consent of the local exchange carrier that controls it. And it may be that in Lumas's case Fibernetics decided that the adverse publicity (there have been numerous complaints to the office of the CCTS from former Brama customers who are experiencing porting problems) was reason not to prevent porting of his number. At best this is a legal grey area, and at worst a nightmare for customers. Try as I might, I am unable to find a legal case ruling that definitively establishes who "owns"
a phone number in Canada. At any rate, I wanted to close my review by saying that Portal Network Co. seems to be reasonable to deal with. They are a startup of former Fibernetics employees, and at this point they are small and new enough in the business that they stress personal service as strongly as their technical expertise. After a long and bumpy ride with Brama that ended with considerable distress, I'm hopeful I may finally get what I was looking for in the first place: reliable, affordable VOIP service.
Comment on this review >>
