Edo

After my previous thread which was about the mobile phone tariffs comparison, I want to start a new one (looking for advice this time) re internet services. I am based in Calgary and will soon be moving into a new apartment. So I am about to start looking for the best deals on broadband and was wondering if someone could give me any pointers. I know broadband prices are far higher here than the UK but theres gotta be some good deals out there too!

Also, I am not too bothered bothered about getting a landline and cable TV is also just a may be, but if getting a combo deal gets me a good deal then I would definitely consider it. Any suggestions?

Siouxie

I found this website a while ago which lists all the Internet providers in any given City.

If you click on the name of the company, it gives you a breakdown of their prices.

http://www.canadianisp.ca/cgi-bin/ispsearch.cgi

It might give you some ideas, anyway!

Steve_P

If you're in Calgary your two major internet providers are going to be Telus ADSL service provided through telephone lines sometimes fibre optic but most likely good old fashioned copper telephone lines. Shaw cable provided through for the most part coaxial cable although possibly fibre optic in very new neighborhoods.

Shaw is much faster than Telus.

I'm with Shaw in Calgary and have what Shaw calls Broadband 50 or 50mbps download speed (I consistently get between 45 and 48mbps) and a download limit of 400 gigabytes per month.

Shaw Internet packages can be seen at this link. http://www.shaw.ca/internet/packages/ They also have 100mbps and 250mbps packages available for a price. Your internet package does get discounted if you take one or both of the other services.

Telus appears to be much more limited for download speeds it seems they only offer 15mbps and 25mbps packages. http://telus.com/content/internet/optik/


Cheers
Steve

bcmama

We went with Shaw (we're in BC) as they don't tie you into a contract and they had an introductory offer on for the first 3mths. They were really helpful when I spoke to them and I found it was just as cheap to get a basic phone and tv included in a bundle rather than just getting the internet only. I also spoke to Teksavvy about broadband only who also seemed pretty helpful and not extortionate.

cheeky_monkey

i have 50mbs package with Telus $40/month..no download limit

smivers

Really? Still? I thought they changed all their plans, though our bill still has the old plan name, even though they claim to have changed it to the new one... I'm reluctant to upgrade to a faster one because I think I might suddenly gain a download limit...

Collie

The website http://www.canadianisp.ca/cgi-bin/ispsearch.cgi doesn't seem to be a very good way of finding isp's here - the most common cable operator/isp provider in our town isn't listed...

Edo

Thanks for your replies guys. Seems like more people suggest to get all them 3 in a bundle?

cheeky_monkey

i upgraded and as they were doing special offers i got 6 months at a reduced rate..i was paying $55 for 25mbs..so now paying $40 for 50mbs..as i am on fibre i get 50mbs download and 20mbs upload..so why wouldn't you?

Edo

So how's Telus on speed as compared to Shaw? I've heard it can be very slow sometimes

scrubbedexpat091

I have Telus currently and Shaw before and always found Shaw to be faster and more reliable.

Telus goes down at-least once a day for a bit, usually only 1-2 minutes, but today it went down for a good 45 minutes.

I don't pay for it as its included in my rent, but if I were paying for it, I would go with Shaw.

cheeky_monkey

im on fibre so have a constant speed no matter what...i used to be with Shaw but they neglected to tell me that where i lived they had a saturated node in my area...which is effectively too many connections..so during peak periods i was getting 0.5mbs or no internet at all..and i was suppose to get 100mbs..they eventually admitted there was a problem and then also admitted they were not going to sort the problem for another 18months/2 years so i left and went with Telus.

Aviator

Been with Telus for years and quite satisfied. Stream movies and TV, works fine, very few outages. Friend went from Telus to Shaw because of promised high speed and has since regretted it.

bgpz

If you're not bothered about landline and TV, I'd suggest you consider what we did when we moved: get "dry loop" DSL (i.e. just using a phone line for your internet only), plus IP telephony (I'm using voip.ms - which is great if you don't mind, and/or prefer, getting your hands dirty under the hood, so to speak). We use a combination of indoor antenna for free-to-air digital TV, and then stream the rest.

Depending on your location, teksavvy DSL could be a good option for you to consider:

http://teksavvy.com/en/residential/internet/dsl

We've got 25Mb down / 10MB up - and currently have a 300Gb cap, for ~$60/month. I think unlimited is another $15/month, but we've not needed to use it.

Fast upload speeds are great if you're serious about cloud backup (and I believe that Teksavvy don't include uploads in your data cap - until recently, this was just for "overnight use" but I believe they scrapped that earlier this summer). Also, sharing videos/youtube uploads, etc take no time at all - so we keep our parents happy with plenty of family videos

The only caveat here is how close you are to an exchange, as this will have an influence on what your highest speeds will be. If you're in a city, this shouldn't be a huge problem - but there are usually some decent threads on some of the dedicated Canadian DSL/telecom forums that can help you get a feel for this.

I've been very pleased with Teksavvy's customer service since we switched earlier this year (when we moved house) - they seem to be good at passing on pricing/bandwidth changes in thire customers' favour, which is bloody rare over here in my experience

The other nice thing is that they don't have minimum contract lengths - so if you find that your actual DSL speeds aren't what you hoped for (typically if you're not as close to an exchange as you need to be to make the most of the highest bandwidth packages), you can cancel and minimize your losses. I don't remember exact setup charges, etc but I think it was about a $130 upfront amount to get set up for the first month, after which I could walk away if I wasn't happy - a work colleague living a couple of km away from me had been through all this and was getting 25/10, so I had more confidence in taking a calculated risk in terms of getting the speeds I was expecting!

Hope this helps!

Edo

Thanks a lot for such a detailed answer. I looked up TekSavvy's website and they definitely are cheaper than their competitors. Also I don't live too far from downtown so I hope I will get a good service. However, I didn't quite understand the first paragraph of your post (I'm sorry I'm not tech savvy at all). Did you HAVE to get the Internet telephone from them? And how does the digital TV work on their system?

Also instead of renting a router from TekSavvy can you get one from the market since they've given the model they prefer on their website?