Does anyone use LightSpeed internet for business?

[BloodFetish]

We're opening a location in NW Calgary and wish to use a VOIP phone system. Shaw is not available, Telus apparently does not offer more than 1mbps upload speed, and they do not offer bonded DSL connections.

Lightspeed will provision DSL on a Telus line and also bond two lines together to get us 2mbps up.

Does anyone have any first-hand knowledge of LightSpeed? Are they reliable? Good support?

TIA.

[TorqueDog]

Can you be a bit more specific about your phone system?

Given the concern about connection bandwidth, I assume your VoIP system is not just hooking up to a PRI via an AudioCodes or a Dialogic or some other gateway, but will connect to a SIP trunk from a provider.

Do you know much about what VoIP system you intend to use? Protocols?

[BloodFetish]

I'm afraid I can't. I'm not a phone guy, so most of what you said makes no sense to me.

I know we'll have 5 lines installed, and each VOIP call will take 34kbps (so sayeth the company we hired to set this up). The calls will somehow be both point-to-point and "in the cloud". Wish I could remember the name of the service...

But we have to get internet to the location first, and that is my angle.

[TorqueDog]

I would ask the company setting up your VoIP system what the connection specifications they recommend are (and if they have any partners or have worked with any companies who can service a business in your area) and then going up from there based on your other business needs.

I've never heard of LightSpeed (I only know if it as an entry level Shaw internet package), so I can't really be of any help there.

[psicodude]

I'm nowhere near the expert that TorqueDog obviously is, but I always thought QoS was more important to VoIP than raw bandwidth was. Your 5 connections at 34 kbps is way under 1mbps, and how often would all 5 be live concurrently anyway?

I don't have any first hand experience with LightSpeed either, but I think you could get some solid advice here if you were able to gather some more details about your phone system and your business requirements.

[BloodFetish]

In addition to VOIP though we'll have several computers in the building - about 20, hence my desire for 2mbps upstream. In actual fact 2mbps service will net us about 1.5mbps.

QoS is very important as well because it will prioritize VOIP packets within a network. We need both appropriate bandwidth and QoS.

I'm asking about LightSpeed because they are the only company I know of in Calgary that can offer 2mbps upstream in our location (Shaw is not available).

[BloodFetish]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

I would ask the company setting up your VoIP system what the connection specifications they recommend are (and if they have any partners or have worked with any companies who can service a business in your area) and then going up from there based on your other business needs.

I've never heard of LightSpeed (I only know if it as an entry level Shaw internet package), so I can't really be of any help there.

LightSpeed came into play because the phone installer told us about them.

As a company we greatly prefer dealing direct with the ISP that owns the 'last mile' to our site. Once we get a 3rd party involved (ie: a DSL reseller) then getting a connection problem fixed can become more difficult because both the ISP and reseller are pointing fingers at each other. Happened to us more than twice.

Anyway, because Telus owns the lines and LightSpeed is a reseller I'm hoping to get a sense of their reputation.

[Azure]

http://www.platinum.ca/

I've used them before, and the service is decent.

[Bobblehead]

You may also want to consider Enmax Envision

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by BloodFetish

As a company we greatly prefer dealing direct with the ISP that owns the 'last mile' to our site. Once we get a 3rd party involved (ie: a DSL reseller) then getting a connection problem fixed can become more difficult because both the ISP and reseller are pointing fingers at each other. Happened to us more than twice.

I'd say this depends on the reseller - I found, for example, that I got better last-mile service from Nucleus (a Telus DSL reseller) because they were able to more quickly come onsite to diagnose and repair physical issues when the need arose (eg. when the alarm company messes up site wiring, or a POTS splitter dies, or where signal levels needed to be checked to troubleshoot throughput issues). They were also easier to obtain updates and ETA's from during outages, since they had great first-line support and were able to talk to tier-2 and higher at Telus more easily on the back end than the end-user could.

YMMV, but I liked dealing with Nucleus when I had to.

[BloodFetish]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

I'd say this depends on the reseller - I found, for example, that I got better last-mile service from Nucleus (a Telus DSL reseller) because they were able to more quickly come onsite to diagnose and repair physical issues when the need arose (eg. when the alarm company messes up site wiring, or a POTS splitter dies, or where signal levels needed to be checked to troubleshoot throughput issues). They were also easier to obtain updates and ETA's from during outages, since they had great first-line support and were able to talk to tier-2 and higher at Telus more easily on the back end than the end-user could.

YMMV, but I liked dealing with Nucleus when I had to.

I've been considering our standpoint on 'last mile' providers. I think in the case of Telus I'm quite willing to get a reseller for the simple fact that Telus customer service is abhorrent.

Telus has a service group located in Canada dedicated to working with DSL wholesalers like LightSpeed. The phone numbers to the group are not available to John Q Public. Basically LightSpeed gets a whole different level of service from Telus than guys like me, who have to deal with Tier 1 schmucks in Telus' Phillipines call centre.

Big difference, IMHO, and I will be going with LightSpeed for the DSL. Thanks to all for their input.

[BloodFetish]

Originally Posted by Azure

http://www.platinum.ca/

I've used them before, and the service is decent.

Thanks, but not a good fit for us. I've tried wireless in the past with MetroBridge in Vancouver, and downsstream bandwidth was pretty limited, as it is with Platinum. And it's expensive compared to DSL.