Shaw or Telus

[Buff]

The age old question. Which is better for internet?

I've stuck by them since 2000 but my internet connectivity has been pisspoor the past three months. Everytime I call they tell me that there is degredation in my area and it is being worked on. The last time I got a call they told me that they were doing maintenance until may 7. I was patient and waited. It is now May 9 and nothing has changed.

I'm wondering if I should make the switch to Telus. Currently I am on Shaw I-Extreme internet, and would switch to Telus' highest speed if I were to switch.

What are the latest comparisons between the two providers lately? In the past I would always recommend Shaw, but I haven't had any relations with Telus for 2 years now so I don't know if my problems are isolated with Shaw, and/or if Telus is better than it once was.

For those curious with my connectivity problems, basically the internet kicks off when I am trying to navigate to/from sites. Any site. I want to try a new modem but they don't think its the problem. They haven't sent a tech out because of the degraded service in my area. One call the tech support guy's solution was to call customer service and get them to give me a break on my bill, but he didn't do anything to get me back up and running. I am getting frustrated with it. I'll be at work and see my wife sign into messenger several times per day (up to a dozen). When I ask she'll tell me that the internet kept kicking out all day long.

[Russic]

Under most circumstances I would say steer clear of telus, but it looks like you don't have much of an option. Sounds to me like you need to at least give telus a shot. I haven't dealt with telus for about 3 years now, so perhaps their customer service has improved.

[burnin_vernon]

I was the opposite. I had horrible speeds with telus. I did speed tests that thought I had a 56k modem. Shaw has been stellar for me. I think it all depends on certain neighborhoods

[llama64]

Originally Posted by burnin_vernon

I was the opposite. I had horrible speeds with telus. I did speed tests that thought I had a 56k modem. Shaw has been stellar for me. I think it all depends on certain neighborhoods

That's pretty much it.

DSL was terrible for me up in Coach Hill. When I moved I switched to Shaw and got a massive speed increase for the same cost. Overall Shaw has been great for me. Quick response to support inquiries and a general sense of concern about providing me with a quality product.

Unfortunately cable technology means sharing bandwidth. If there are a lot of people with Shaw service in your area, you're overall speed will go down until Shaw upgrades the nodes in your area. Recently they've been fairly pro-active, but that could change.

I'd try to find Telus customers in your area and ask them their experience.

[Nehkara]

Telus is flat out horrid. DO NOT USE TELUS!!!!!!!!one

Shaw kicks the crap out of Telus.

That has been my experience and I have used both. Telus costs the same or more and you get roughly half or less of the speed you get with Shaw.

Also, ask other people in your neighborhood if they are having the same problems with Shaw. If not, try calling Shaw and asking for a replacement modem. I have had your problem before and it was always the modem.

[onetwo_threefour]

I had Shaw in Glamorgan and Mckenzie Towne and loved it. Then, when I moved to Fairview I decided to go with Bell Satellite for TV and thought Shaw was overpriced for their internet only service. So I went to Telus. Worst decision ever. Telus was simply Godawful in both service and speeds, I had to get my ADSL modem replaced twice in 18 months and service was non-existent.

So I have gone back to Shaw. With them I can't speak to thir service... because I NEVER have to call them! Speeds are about 6X what I had with Telus...

I would never do ADSL again.

[photon]

That sucks, I'd be on the phone with Shaw every time it happened until they fixed it. I had some speed issues one time and it took a few months of repeated calls and visits, but eventually they got it fixed.

Telus sucks, but Telus and I have personal issues

[ken0042]

I've had all sorts of issues with Telus, and have been happy in the ~5 years that I've been on Shaw. Last straw with Telus was they figured it was the lines in my house; and wouldn't even try another phone line in another room. They basically told me to re-wire the house; even after telling them I was renting.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Buff if you want send me a PM and i could take a look at your equipment when i'm at work. at the very least i should be able to find out what exactly is going on in your area and how long it might take to fix

personally i won't comment on stability between Telus and Shaw since there are so many variables that come into play, but when you consider that Telus's most expensive business package is still slower than Shaw's regular residential internet service, it's hard to see any advantage with them when just comparing the services

[4X4]

I can't believe am about to do this, but here goes.....

After years of refusing to use Telus because of poor customer service and even poorer internet connectivity (up in Mt. Pleasent), I have decided to give them another chance. I recently moved into an apartemnt in Bankview and naturally, I hooked up Shaw.

After 2 months of Shaw internet being sub-par, my sister, who works at Telus managed to convince me to switch. I must say that Telus works much better in this location than Shaw did.

It really is a neighbourhood by neighbourhood basis.

Notables if you do consider switching to Telus are threefold:

1) They ask you for information that you may not be comfortable giving out (DL#, SIN). I refused at first but finally relented and gave them my DL#. No SIN though.

2) If you tell them that you're switching from Shaw, you'll get some seriously good incentives. Unfortunately, you have to enter a contract for 1, 2 or 3 years, but it is significantly cheaper if you get their TV as well.

3) Telus TV is pretty alright. Learning new channel numbers is annoying, but I'm getting about 130 channels for the same price I was paying for 50 channels with Shaw.
You can only have 2 TVs with Telus, for some reason, but that doesn't bother me b/c I only have 1 TV.


All said and done, I was paying something like $80 or $90 with Shaw for internet and cable up to channel 50. I'm paying $105 to Telus for internet, a basic land line and 130 channels, plus a bunch of music channels, plus a whole butt-load of radio channels (FAN, QR, many more out of Calgary, plus Mulletville and Crapcouver). Much better deal especially because the incentives they threw on will reduce my bill either $25 or $40 per month for the first year. And I'm only on a one year contract, sooo.... I can renegotiate when the time comes.

Anyway, my point is that I'm satisfied. I feel so dirty saying that because I harboured some serious ill-will toward Telus for a long time. For the record, they seem to have hired more help in the call center. My big problem started with the ~3 hour wait times (no joke) back a few years ago. I barely waited both times I called them recently.

[sclitheroe]

I switched from Shaw Extreme whatever they call it to Telus 6mbps service, and have been quite happy.

The consistency of speed on Telus really is noticeable, even if it is slower overall. Additionally, Telus doesn't mess with bittorrent as far as I can tell. Finally, I have never been bugged about going over my monthly usage limits. I expect that could change, but Shaw was getting downright snarky with me.

When I look at Shaw's current offering, with that speed boost that uncaps you for the first ten seconds or whatever, then goes back to capping, I just shudder. It's adding complexity, and its pretty clear they are dicking around with their networking in all kinds of ways. Maybe it works great, I dunno, but I would rather have a purer, albeit slower, network connection. At the end of the day, that's what I want - a network connection. Shaw feels like its trying to be more of a content provider, and I don't want that.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

I switched from Shaw Extreme whatever they call it to Telus 6mbps service, and have been quite happy.

What are of the city do you live in? I have been calling Telus for about 9 months about the 6 mbps service, and they never have an ETA on when it might be available. I'm still on their 3 mbps service.

[photon]

The burst thing is actually pretty cool. They're doing no more messing with their network than Telus is; any ISP has to throttle their bandwidth to the end client at some point. The burst thing they just relax the leading edge of the throttling. Telus' network is no more or less pure.

Shaw in Calgary anyway isn't messing with bittorrent (though I've heard it reported from other places). It's a thing of beauty when a torrent starts working at over 1 Megabyte per second When they start messing with BT or shaping their traffic in that sort of way, then I'll really be in tough. Maybe wireless Internet.

[Top Shelf]

Originally Posted by Russic

Under most circumstances I would say steer clear of telus, but it looks like you don't have much of an option. Sounds to me like you need to at least give telus a shot. I haven't dealt with telus for about 3 years now, so perhaps their customer service has improved.

It hasn't, at all. Probably got worse if anything. If anyone wants to PM me for the long, sad story, feel free.

[MelBridgeman]

depends where you live as stated, but i will never go back to Telus.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

What are of the city do you live in? I have been calling Telus for about 9 months about the 6 mbps service, and they never have an ETA on when it might be available. I'm still on their 3 mbps service.

Evanston. We got the service about this time last year.

[Vulcan]

I'd like to sign up with Telus and get that free laptop but in this rural area a Telus repaireman told me I'd get lousy speed because I'm too far away so I guess it's Shaw for me.

[Rathji]

On a related note: I have a friend who is testing some of Telus's new fiberoptic products. They claim 30 MB DL and UL. He says it is pretty insane.

[photon]

Wow, now that would make me want to switch. Who do I have to kill to get to be a tester!?

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Rathji

On a related note: I have a friend who is testing some of Telus's new fiberoptic products. They claim 30 MB DL and UL. He says it is pretty insane.

Are they planning on releasing this to their residential customers? Would be pretty costly for the subscriber.

I'm on SuperNet at work, and our location gets 40 MB, our other locations get 20. It is nice speed, but all the locations go through us to get to the internet so there is a bit of a bottleneck (but not noticeable). Traffic going to the internet is not as much as traffic coming to our servers though.