Andy18913

Hi, After months of crap in UK with house sale i am finally flying out next Monday to Ottawa (Barrhaven).

I have a lot of things sorted but now I am trying to decide which provider and which package to go for my Internet,TV,Phone.

So far i am thinking Bell and the package is $184 per month. I am mostly looking for a TV package that covers sports (Hockey and football "soccer") and my internet for gaming/Skype calls to UK.

Any advice or experiences, good or bad appreciated.

thanks

Andy

Aviator

Perosnally, I prefer Telus. I have been decidedly unimpressed with Bell and avoid them like the plague.

Shirtback

I would avoid Bell like the plague. Or : I wouldn't touch Bell with a Bargepole.

Otherwise I have no recommendations/experience for the Ottawa area, sorry. I should think that in Ottawa one would have several choices.

Google, Google & more google may be your friend for this. Tack on "review" to your search term(s) & you may be enlightened.

SB

S_elliott52

Personally I got riding my cable TV a couple if months ago, I found canadian TV at best shocking!!!! I now use netflix either through my Apple TV or iPad. I also have what a VPN ($40/per year) which allows me to route my browsing either through the UK or USA, meaning that I can watch US netflix (much more variety) or UK stuff like BBC iPlayer. Nog sure how you could watch sports though - never bothered me!!!!

SchnookoLoly

Mobile Phone - Koodo, hands down. Great monthly plans, and all their text packages include unlimited international texting (including MMS). I'm just using their prepaid right now, my husband is on Pay Monthly. The rest of my family is also on Koodo (except Dad who is on Bell because of his work and he despises them).

Internet - look at TekSavvy. The initial setup costs are a bit higher because you have to buy the modem up front, but the monthly packages are way better value than any of the competitors.

Cable - don't bother. Between streaming stuff from the network websites (CTV, CBC, etc), Netflix, and a VPN subscription, you can pretty well get all the content you want. If you do a search around the forum you can also find good packages for sports streaming.

Landline - up to you. You can get some cheap options (TekSavvy, Vonage, etc all have landline offerings)... you can also get some phones that give you a landline "setup" but just make calls through your cell provider via Bluetooth. (My parents have this at home right now, 5 house phones, the main base station connects to both Mom and Dad's cell phones when they're in the house. When someone calls their cell, all the home phones ring, so they can pick up any home phone and have the call as normal.)

Londonuck

I switched from Telus to Shaw. Shaw are very much into deals and open to negotiation.

6 months / no contract / free install
Personal Tv & high speed 25mb - $49.90
Free pvr & wifi rental
6 months free - 3 theme packs
Bonus - 1st month free & $80 credit

He also chucked in another free PVR for the bedroom.

Good forum for deals Redflag

rivingtonpike

Seriously thinking of ditching Shaw for the summer at least. Not sure we'd still get such a good deal on our internet though if it was the only service we had with them. It all seems to be about "bundles".

orly

If you go with one of the big names and get a "bundle" prepare to get your wallet emptied. $184 (presumably plus tax after that) seems a tad expensive.

What I do is use Teksavvy (lots of speed options). I have their 25Mbit cable service. Comes to about $47 after tax. Then I use HockeyStreams.com for hockey. It works out at like $10 a month. Also have netflix for $8 a month. Total is $65. Any sort of decent set top/media box will work with the above. I have an old PC that I just hooked up to the TV and it works great. I don't have a normal land line phone. Totally pointless really. Just have a cell phone from WIND...had 2 lines (with the wife) and it's about $80/month in total.

What you might want to do is look at vMedia. It appears to be available in Ottawa. You can check with your post code to be sure though. Basic TV package + "SportsFan" add on + 25Mbit internet would come to somewhere around $90 a month after tax if I'm calculating it all correctly. They sell their own "set top box" that hooks it all together by the looks of it. I'd imagine their "sports fan" bit will cover the football. It seems to have TSN in the basic package plus you'd get the Sportsnet channels too in the add on.

Andy18913

Thank you everyone for the tips/advice. Very helpful. I now just need to try work out which to go for

mjanovitz

Well I have two cell phones, landline, cable tv and unlimited internet with Rogers for about 310 a month, while I hate to pay it, I can't complain about their service.

They give me 20% off and some free hardware, but you have to ask for it, there is usually a deal to be had if you ask. I certainly wouldn't pay the advertised price.

I also looked at Teksavy who have reasonable prices, but don't know if they are available in Ottawa.

My parents in the Uk definitely pay less for internet and cell phone than I do here. But then population density is higher in the UK so I suppose thats fair enough. Some things are definitely more expensive here, !but then some things are a lot cheaper!

sharkus

As others have said, if you want all services from one provider, then you will get a "bundle" discount, but it'll still to be expensive, and limiting (from the internet point of view)

Phone wise, do you *need* a landline or can you get away with just cell phones? When it comes to TV, do you need access to cable TV, or will the shows and movies you watch be on Netflix?

I've recently dropped Bell home phone (80 per month inc tax) and cogeco cable (65 per month inc tax) in favour of using my cell phone as my primary line. Visual wise, I'm using Netflix (about 8 per month inc tax) via my Apple TV, and if I want to buy a new movie then I would likely get it via iTunes.

If I had to recommend an internet provider (apart from the one I use - mycybernet.net / switchworks.com) It'd be TekSavvy. A lot of friends and co-workers have it and it's rather good. Pop over here: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/teksavvy and ask questions, their team is on that forum, including Marc who owns TSI, and they respond quickly.

Aqua

We had Rogers! Many problems.... Slow internet, tv freezes, can't always get all the channels... We went to Bell Fibe and found it much better

Zoe Bell

holy spam batman

DanielM

Avoid Bell and Rogers like the plague.

The customer service is shockingly bad and you get the run around trying to actually get things sorted out when the inevitably go wrong.
There are many smaller companies out there that have much, Much, MUCH better deals and customer service that isn't a massive call center with miserable drones who couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery.

Internet depends where you live really, find out who can actually service your place then check out reviews and their reputation.

I found that cable TV in Canada is pretty terrible overall (shitloads of ads, a huge amount of repeats and low quality programming) we do fine with Netflix, streaming, youtube and an antenna for some over the air channels.

Gozit

I second Schnookololy's post... But do note that Shaw, Telus et al are not available in Ontario. Only out west.

In Ontario you have the following options

TV: Rogers and Bell (sadly) (Bell Fibe TV requires that you have Bell Fibe Internet which is a ripoff, but its good internet)
Mobile: Bell (also owns Virgin Mobile) , Rogers (also owns Fido) , Telus (by far the best, I am with them; they also own Koodo)

I know I said Telus isn't available in Ontario, which is true because they don't offer landline/cable/internet, but they do offer mobile, which is great!
Internet:
Bell
Rogers
------
Teksavvy
Start.ca
<other startup companies here>

Teksavvy, Start and the like piggyback off of Bell Fibe's network, basically offer the same service but much cheaper. Go with them if you can

HTH