Which ISP is better: Shaw or Telus?

[Scorponok]

For me, I think they both kinda suck. I have a Shaw connection at home, and a Telus connection at work. The Telus connection crashes at least once a day, but it's usually only for about 10 minutes at a time.

Shaw also screws up, and even during ridiculous non-peak hours like 2am when there should be much less activity.

In your opinion, which ISP is more reliable?

[ikaris]

I think it also depends on what area of the city you live in. I'd say if you are having a problem with either provider, why don't you call them? It's not supposed to consistently mess up.

My Shaw connection is rock solid.

[gottabekd]

My Telus connection hasn't gone down (that I've noticed) the the last two years. I haven't played online games for a while, but I could never get REALLY good pings, if that is something you care about. But you don't have to deal with 'peak periods'.

[photon]

My Shaw connection has always been good regardless of where in the City I've been.

They both suck, but Shaw is faster (especially with I-Extreme) and the lesser of two evils IMO.

[cheung31]

Telus ADSL's max speed is a lot lower than Shaw Cable for obvious reasons.

If high download speeds is what you're looking for then Shaw Cable is your best bet. However I've heard many complaints from friends who use Shaw Cable that they receive warnings from Shaw about high uploading bandwidth, as they try to minimize illegal file sharing.

Meanwhile Telus has a 30GB montly bandwidth limit, that they tend to do nothing about if you were to go over the limit.

[photon]

Actually Shaw's increased their limits, 60GB / month on normal and 100GB / month on I-Extreme. Before they used to have no published limit on their bandwidth for their normal package (i.e. they would cut you off at some random number, usually between 20-30GB).

[habernac]

I can count the number of times my Telus has been down in the last 5 years on one hand. Had a problem a month ago when I moved, they sent a tech, gave me a new modem and cleaned up the line noise and I was good to go.

[cSpooge]

Originally Posted by habernac

I can count the number of times my Telus has been down in the last 5 years on one hand. Had a problem a month ago when I moved, they sent a tech, gave me a new modem and cleaned up the line noise and I was good to go.

same goes for me with shaw... I've had them come in twice in the last month to clean up line noise on my inet once and the other time as to clean up the noise on the high end of my cable line (all my HD channels).

[T I M]

Originally Posted by cheung31

Meanwhile Telus has a 30GB montly bandwidth limit, that they tend to do nothing about if you were to go over the limit.

I once got a warning e-mail from telus saying that I surpassed the monthly limit of 200GB combined bandwidth, and to not do it again blah blah blah....

I somewhat doubt they would have done anything if I went over again.

[FurnaceFace]

Questions to answer:
- Do you currently pay for a land line or do you only have a mobile?
- Do you currently have cable or do you have sat?

Your answers to those may lead you to your best option...unless you say mobile and sat.

With Shaw you are sharing your bandwidth with your neighbours, and in the past, this may have had an adverse affect on your available bandwidth. Shaw may have gotten better at adding infrastructure and splitting up busy areas, I know this was a complaint some had a couple years ago.

With Telus you get specific line speeds, which are (potentially) less than Shaw. You know your service will always be xx mbit down and xx mbit up, where with Shaw as I said above, you're sharing the bandwidth with your neighbours and what you get will be variable.

In the grand scheme of things I suggest you'll see little difference between the services as your bottleneck is frequently the amount of traffic the server you are hitting can handle.

As far as customer service there isn't a lot of difference in my mind, they both have had their share of people who hate them.

[STeeLy]

I cannot honestly say which ISP is better. Telus' speed is slower than Shaw Cable, however, peak periods don't affect ADSL as much as it would Cable...

My friend who uses Shaw says that if you go over ur upload/download limit, they harp on you like crazy... Telus doesn't give a crap about it...

I'm on telus... they're technical support has been alright, just that the reps' attitudes could use a little tune up... As for shaw... never really had to deal with them... period...

[photon]

Shaw's upgraded to DOCSIS cable modems to manage the whole shared bandwidht thing; that really hasn't been an issue for years and years. EDIT: As long as you have one of those modems that is; they're a pretty cheap upgrade if I recall.

I saturate my link all the time; downloading at 850KB/s is awesome. And that's been in 3 different locations.

They are more persistent about caps than Telus though, so if you are a heavy downloader (200GB / month, YEESH!) go for Telus. More bandwidth for me.

[Vulcan]

I'm on Shaw because Telus highspeed isn't an option yet where I live. Shaw varies between 900 and 5000, usually about 1800 during the day. I'd switch to Telus as it would be just as good and I like the free monitor they give you. Shaw isn't giving me what I'm paying for.

[kermitology]

I vote for Shaw because Telus is just plain evil. Any incarnation of that company that I've had to deal with has been complete crap. I have had no problems with Shaw at any point in time.

[Calgary Flames]

Shaw.

[RedMan12]

I've used both and not a major difference. Only thing is sometimes Telus will kick me off when I leave my computer on for awhile downloading.

[ken0042]

I had Shaw from 98-2000, Telus from 2000-2002, then back to Shaw.

First switch was a customer service issue; which now I have to say they are waaay better at than Telus.

The switch back from Telus to Shaw was due to issues of dropped connections; and I waited for a bit because I was moving. At the new house same issues, tried new hardware, and they said "it must be your inside wiring- and we don't fix your wiring." When I then offered to move the router to a different room, they refused to do it. The Shaw guy was awesome, and when he saw that I had pre-run the cable for him, he gave me a bit of a bonus. (My existing coax was being used for satellite.)

I've moved houses since twice since getting Shaw; both times I had internet withing the 2 hour window promised, and both times I had Telus drop the ball with my land line.

Shaw all the way for me.

[Reaper]

We use www.cia.com for 6MBps internet and local phone service for $39.99 per month. They are a Shaw reseller so the reliability is the same. The only downside was having to buy the modem (same one used for Shaw Extreme High Speed Internet) and the voice gateway. Plus, they through in a UPS so in case the power goes down my phone can function for a little while. Other than the startup cost I think it's good.

[HOOT]

TELUS LICKS BALLS AT EVERYTHING!

Go with Shaw....Faster and only make you wait 45 minutes for customer service compared to 2 hours for Telus...and Telus will always tell you "oh it must be your computer, everything is fine on our end" HA!

[Mango]

I've been a Shaw customer for a very long time. I've had few problems with them and I highly recommend them. If there is an issue, they have someone come out the next day. All of my calls are answered in a prompt manner and the technicians are always knowledgeable.