The internet thread; Shaw vs TELUS

[TheU]

ADSL vs Cable internet in Calgary. Main players shaw and TELUS.... so far, from trying out TELUS turbo for the 1st time ever, imo Shaw has some real competition speed wise. Some observations about my new adsl I'm trying out:

-TELUS is very stable. It's almost uneasy watching the speed test stay at the same number
-TELUS's new modem, the d-link gateway is really really good, huge improvement over siemens
-The setup process has improved 201321012 fold with no CD and most of it automated


Overall, I'm very impressed with the process of installing and the modem itself. Anyone who's not in a good area for shaw should def check it out.

Now the fact remains, however, Shaw is upwards of 20 mb's for second for me when it's good. When it's average its in the 15 range, and when it's bad I rarely see it go below 12. So while a very very steady 12.5 sounds good... compared to Shaw's blazing top end it just comes off a little limp (my employee discount makes this a huge issue tho.. is that extra speed really worth another 20 bucks a month?)

How has everyones experience been with Turbo? Shaw extreme? Curious to see some speed results (and where you are in town)

[Mr_Hockey]

I haven't had a problem with TELUS, but I LOVE Shaw. Never any problems and the speeds always fast.

[sclitheroe]

Telus all the way for me. Shaw's performance used to drop to ludicrous in my neighborhood during peak hours, with Telus, I think I've found it slow once or twice tops. I have no doubt that overall the performance is pretty similar between the two products now...but....

Combine that with no nagging about caps so far, compared to Shaw, who had the temerity to accuse me of uploading pirated material when I was in fact using an online backup service and told them as much, and Telus gets, and keeps, my contract.

Telus is also the only ISP that has ever called me up and told me that I was paying too much, and lowered my monthly bill. My Shaw bill, with or without internet, has only ever gotten more expensive. I cannot fathom how basic analog cable service is becoming increasingly expensive - it should be getting cheaper as they recoup their build out costs and expand their market with growth, or staying the same at the very least as a fixed cost service.

[Nammer403]

ive used both telus and shaw and i love telus right now
when i had shaw the cable would always go out and i would have to disconnect my modem for a minute or two

my 3 year contract with telus ended and i called them to see if there was any promos and they upgraded my speed to extreme and im paying a lower rate than before

[TheU]

since 7pm, my shaw speed has gone from 14 mega bits to 21 megabits lol... insanity.

[wooohooo]

How much are you guys paying for internet? I'm on the student deal in Edmonton and I'm getting blazing speeds, but my parents are with telus and it's a bit unbearable at times.

[TheU]

i pay 45 for shaw extreme 15 megabit, telus is 15 as well for 43 bucks

[Acey]

At this second I'm getting 10 mbps down with Shaw high speed 7.5... it's usually around 5 down.

[Roast Beef]

I have a weird situation with my TELUS internet right now. I subscribed to TELUS TV HD last month and that is a 15mb/s stream. The internet portion of the bandwidth is supposed to be locked at a max of 3mb/s with the rest dedicated to the TV streams. My internet stream is unlocked though. Depending on what combination of HD/SD or boxes off that I am watching my internet download can range from 4mb/s to almost 13mb/s. It does not affect the TV at all though since those packets seem to have priority so that when i switch on a box my internet speed drops accordingly and the TV stream plays without a hitch. I can't complain since i'm supposed to be getting 3mb/s max at all times. Anyone else have a similar "problem"?

[TheU]

thats not a problem thats how it is, whoever told you were 'locked' at 3 mbs doesnt know what they are talking about

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Roast Beef

I have a weird situation with my TELUS internet right now. I subscribed to TELUS TV HD last month and that is a 15mb/s stream. The internet portion of the bandwidth is supposed to be locked at a max of 3mb/s with the rest dedicated to the TV streams. My internet stream is unlocked though. Depending on what combination of HD/SD or boxes off that I am watching my internet download can range from 4mb/s to almost 13mb/s. It does not affect the TV at all though since those packets seem to have priority so that when i switch on a box my internet speed drops accordingly and the TV stream plays without a hitch. I can't complain since i'm supposed to be getting 3mb/s max at all times. Anyone else have a similar "problem"?

Could just be QoS (Quality of Service) handled by your router. If so, that's a very sound technical solution that they've implemented.

[TheU]

The telus modem/router is a great great g router. I'm getting the same wireless speed on a laptop upstairs I'm getting downstairs wired

[photon]

I've used Shaw for forever and have almost always had maximum speeds with no slowdown. Only once did I have wildly varying speeds and getting the newer modem fixed it.

Never had a peep from Shaw with regards to cap or copyright infringement, and no throttling as I can saturate my link to the point that not even web browsing works with torrents sometimes.

[silentsim]

paying 20$/month for 15mbps telus here....retentions for the win

[TheU]

20 dollars a month for 15 meg internet? someone gave you an invalid offer!

[ken0042]

I switched from Shaw to Telus a year ago due to a serious customer service issue. Shaw was definitely faster- and the Telus ads where they talk about Shaw slowing down at peak times are misleading; the slowest I ever saw Shaw get was the same speed as Telus.

That being said, we use ours for just general surfing, the odd download (no torrents or anything), and IPTV from overseas- and I really don't notice the difference in my day to day surfing. (of porn.)

[Bob]

I've never had any issues with Shaw. It's more reliable than my power (seriously, with a UPS I've surfed the net on my laptop during a multi-hour blackout). It's the one bill I have no problem paying; even that $20/month for digital phone is nice and cheap, though I don't really need it.

[Jedi Ninja]

Shaw all the way. We don't even have regular phone. We use a cheapo VOIP service (not Shaw's) and have had less than a few hours outage in 5 years using this whole setup, and the last outage was over 2 years ago.

[Mr_Hockey]

Originally Posted by TheU

20 dollars a month for 15 meg internet? someone gave you an invalid offer!

Yup. TELUS has the right down the line to backdate your bills and charge you what you should have been paying. You'll eventually get a huge bill one day....

[TheU]

yeah that department is called revenue assurance, and they will often back bill. if you're getting turbo for 20 dollars yourself a favour and have them correct it to 28 dollars at the very minimum