As a teenager, RingCentral Superfan Rob Frenette recognized that bullying was a problem among his peers. But because there are few anti-bullying laws in place in his native Canada, Rob could not point bullying victims to the authorities. So, at the age of 16, he joined with a 14-year-old friend to found an anti-bullying non-profit.
Today, BullyingCanada is one of the largest anti-bullying organizations in Canada. The group’s free helplines – which have unique phone lines set up for bullying victims, parents and teachers – serve to both combat bullying and offer support to those victimized by bullies. And they’re open around the clock.
BullyingCanada’s helpline service is so valuable, Rob reports, that it fields calls from many U.S. states (as well as every Canadian province).
But all those calls would get very expensive, Rob notes, if BullyingCanada had signed up for conventional phone service. Many of the charities with whom Rob collaborates spend upwards of CDN$800 (about $820) on their phones every month, in fact.
That’s why Rob, now 22, is a RingCentral customer. RingCentral delivers high-quality service at a much lower price point than legacy phone systems. It’s not a stretch, Rob points out, to say that RingCentral makes BullyingCanada’s work possible.
“RingCentral enables us to connect with volunteers and staff without extremely large phone bills at the end of the month,” he enthuses.
The voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) technology that undergirds RingCentral’s network is what makes its low-cost service possible. VoIP sends voice transmissions over existing internet infrastructure, providing users with both excellent call quality and far less complexity than conventional PBX phone systems.
For phone-dependent organizations like BullyingCanada, affordable VoIP service like RingCentral’s is exactly what’s needed. An added bonus, Rob is happy to say, is RingCentral’s rich feature set.
“RingCentral does more than most VoIP providers are able to,” he notes.
After six years, Rob has helped shape BullyingCanada into one of Canada’s premier anti-bullying groups. There are only a handful of anti-bullying organizations in the country (and a growing awareness both north and south of the Canadian border that bullying is a problem), so BullyingCanada’s helpline service is sorely needed.
As BullyingCanada looks to expand beyond its two current offices and limited presence on Canada’s west coast, RingCentral will be there to help it grow.
“RingCentral,” Rob says, “is a service that we couldn’t do without.”
Originally published Sep 21, 2012, updated Aug 27, 2020
