Norstar
The workhorse of Canadian small business through the 90s and 2000s. Line and station card faults, dead handsets, programming changes and voicemail rebuilds.
CICSMICST7100T7208T7316EM7310M7324
On-site repair · Metro Vancouver
Need a Vancouver Phone Technician
Need a Vancouver Phone Technician
to fix your broken phone system?
On-site PBX and business phone system repair across Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.
PBX Phone Systems
Nortel Norstar
Meridian
BCM
Avaya
Cisco
Mitel
NEC
Panasonic
Polycom
VoIP
Vancouver-basedLocal technicians, not a national dispatch queue
Free phone triageYou won’t get charged for a conversation
Legacy and VoIPNortel, Avaya, Cisco. SIP and hosted PBX
Repair AdviceWe won't use a fault as an excuse to sell you a system
Start here
What's it actually doing?
Pick the symptom that matches. You'll get the usual causes, what's safe to try yourself, and a straight answer on whether it needs a technician on site.
Systems we work on
Nortel, Avaya and everything that outlived its warranty
Most Vancouver offices running an on-premise PBX are running something the manufacturer stopped supporting years ago.
Meridian
Larger site systems still running in schools, hotels and manufacturing. Trunk faults, station moves, dead sets and call routing changes.
Option 11CCS1000M2616DM3904
BCM
The hybrid generation — digital sets on an IP core. Hard drive failures, expired licences, CallPilot voicemail faults and cards that stop seeing lines.
BCM50BCM200BCM400BCM450CallPilot
IP Office
Where most Nortel dealers moved after 2009. Licensing problems, SIP trunk registration failures, module faults and system upgrades.
IP500 V21400 series9500 seriesPartner
SX & MiVoice
Common in Vancouver offices that outgrew a keyphone system. Controller faults, expired licensing, dead sets and dial plan changes after a move.
SX-200SX-20003300 ICPMiVoice BusinessMiVoice Office 2505300 series
Univerge & Electra
Widely deployed across BC through the 2000s and still running in plenty of offices. Blade and card faults, voicemail failures and reprogramming.
SV8100SV9100SV8300SL1100Electra Elite IPKUM8000
KX series
The small-office standard — often installed once and never touched since. Power supply failures, dead extensions and handsets that stop pairing.
KX-TDAKX-TDEKX-NCPKX-NS700KX-TES824KX-DT sets
Strata & IPedge
Toshiba left the phone business and Mitel picked up the Strata line, so these are orphaned twice over. Still serviceable while parts hold out.
Strata CIX40CIX100CIX670Strata CTXIPedgeDP5000 sets
IP phone systems
Registration failures, one-way audio, QoS and jitter problems, firewall and NAT issues, and desk phones that won't provision. This is our day job.
YealinkPolycomSIP trunksHosted PBX
The honest part
Not every phone system is worth saving
Since Nortel went bankrupt nearly 20 years ago, no one produces new Norstar or Meridian PBX or Phones anymore. Every replacement in Canada is refurbished and outside of manufacture warranty.
Usually worth repairing
A single failed component
A dead power supply, one bad station card, a failed handset, a corrupted voicemail greeting, a programming change after a staff move. These are cheap, quick, and the rest of the system is fine. Replacing a whole system over one $180 card is a waste of your money.
Usually worth repairing
You leased the phones
If you leased your phone system and the PBX. Repairing and fixing the issue makes sense over replacing the phone system all together.
Probably not worth repairing
Repeat faults on the same system
Two or three call-outs in a year on a system built in 2003 is a pattern, not bad luck. At that point the repair bills start to exceed what a hosted system costs to run, and you're still one failure away from a day with no phones.
Probably not worth repairing
The parts no longer exist
Some cards and cabinets simply aren't findable anymore at any sensible price. When we hit that, we'll say so on the spot instead of quoting you for a part hunt that goes nowhere. You'll get the real options and the real numbers.
Questions we get
PBX repair, answered plainly
Do you repair Nortel Norstar and Meridian systems in Vancouver?
Yes. Norstar (CICS, MICS, T-series and M-series sets), Meridian (Option 11C, CS1000) and BCM systems are all still in service around Metro Vancouver, and they're still fixable. The limiting factor is parts, not knowledge — Nortel stopped making them, so replacements come from refurbished stock. We'll tell you upfront whether the part you need is realistically available.
Do I have to be a B1 customer to book a repair?
No. You can have your dial tone from Telus, Shaw, Rogers or anyone else. We'll come out, diagnose the system and fix it, and you're under no obligation to move your service to us afterwards. We don't do contracts anyway.
My whole office has no dial tone. Is that the phone system or the phone line?
Both are common. If the control unit's lights are normal but nothing has dial tone, it often points at the carrier side or the demarcation point rather than the PBX itself. If the control unit is dark or cycling, it's usually power or the unit. A quick call usually narrows it down in a few minutes — and if it turns out to be your carrier, we'll tell you that rather than billing you for a visit.
How fast can you get a technician on site?
It depends on the day and where you are. Tell us when you call and we'll give you a real window rather than an optimistic one. A business with no phones at all is treated differently from a single dead extension.
What does a service call cost?
You get the call-out rate before we book the visit, and parts are quoted separately once we know what's failed. Phone triage costs nothing. We'd rather lose a billable hour than have you find an unexpected number on an invoice.
Is it worth repairing a 20-year-old phone system?
Often, yes — a single failed card or power supply is a cheap fix and the rest of the system may have years left. It stops being worth it when you're seeing repeat faults, when parts have become scarce, or when the annual repair spend passes what a hosted system would cost to run. We'll give you the honest comparison, including the case for leaving things alone.
Can you keep our existing phone numbers if we do replace the system?
Yes. Number porting is standard and your existing numbers move with you, including main lines, direct dial numbers and fax lines. Porting is free at B1 and the old system stays live until the new one is proven.
Do you do phone system installation and moves as well as repairs?
Yes — installations, office moves, adding extensions, re-programming after staff changes, and re-patching phone jacks after a renovation. If you're moving offices, book it early; move week is the worst possible time to discover the new suite's cabling is dead.
Where we go
On-site across Metro Vancouver
Our office is at Clark & Terminal in East Vancouver, so most of the Lower Mainland is a short drive. Outside of Metro Vancouver, ask us.
Note for searchers: we're in Vancouver, British Columbia — not Vancouver, Washington.
Vancouver
Burnaby
Richmond
Surrey
North Vancouver
West Vancouver
Coquitlam
Port Coquitlam
Port Moody
New Westminster
Delta
Langley
Maple Ridge
Pitt Meadows
White Rock
Abbotsford
Phones down right now?
Call us and describe what it's doing. Free triage, real answers, and a technician if you actually need one.