Shaw vs. Telus Cable TV

[4X4]

Originally Posted by theonlywhiteout

Whoever you were talking to lied to you, I'm afraid

Whether or not it's technologically required isn't the point, they're forcing you to have the home phone when you subscribe for Optik.

[FlamesKickAss]

^^ I had the option to decline the home phone when I got optik, just I would have only go the promo price for 6 months instead of 12 so it was cheaper to take it than not to

[theonlywhiteout]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Whether or not it's technologically required isn't the point, they're forcing you to have the home phone when you subscribe for Optik.

Simply not the case. My friend downtown has opitk tv and high speed in his condo and no phone, and wasn't required to get it. From my Telus friend: (paraphrased) "when you sign up new service you can have anything you want, phone +TV, TV+internet, etc, but, if you are an existing TV client and you want to cancel your home phone they will fight tooth and nail because the phone line is always on once you get TV"

[4X4]

I really shouldn't be surprised that there are two vastly different stories floating around. I called in to telus a few times (as recently as 6 months ago) and every single time they told me I HAD to have the phone line. No choice. Must have. Take the phone line or forget anything else.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by theonlywhiteout

Whoever you were talking to lied to you, I'm afraid

So if Telus is training people to lie to customers (or the CSRs are lying to customers in large number on their own) and telling them they can't get TV without the phone, then the reality is under normal circumstances you can't get it without the phone. If it is technically possible or not is irrelevant.

I am pretty sure you can get Optik TV without any problems, so if that is what you are getting it really isn't an issue anymore, so I don't know why it is a problem.

[mykalberta]

My 6 months of epic Shaw hate was when I repeatedly called Telus hoping for a different answer - this was before I considered getting TV though them. Now that I have seen Optik in operation I will be calling them again in January to see if I can just get Internet and Optik. Going without TV for now close to 2 years is killing me, admittedly I am reading more books but I just miss the sweet suculant lay on the couch nourishment that is TV.

[MickMcGeough]

I'm getting Optik TV & Internet this weekend, they didn't even really try to sell me on a phone line.

[theonlywhiteout]

Originally Posted by Rathji

So if Telus is training people to lie to customers (or the CSRs are lying to customers in large number on their own) and telling them they can't get TV without the phone, then the reality is under normal circumstances you can't get it without the phone. If it is technically possible or not is irrelevant.

I am pretty sure you can get Optik TV without any problems, so if that is what you are getting it really isn't an issue anymore, so I don't know why it is a problem.

I've called Shaw before and they've been told me that Optik is a wireless tv service that is mesed up by cordless phones and microwaves.

In big companies you get a lot of employees who sometimes dont know everything they should. This isn't a telus or shaw problem its a huge company problem

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by theonlywhiteout

I've called Shaw before and they've been told me that Optik is a wireless tv service that is mesed up by cordless phones and microwaves.

In big companies you get a lot of employees who sometimes dont know everything they should. This isn't a telus or shaw problem its a huge company problem

That could be part of the problem for sure.

I think it is far more likely that Telus would rather sign people up for TV, since the cost of putting in just TV is the same as putting in TV and Phone. That is a valid business decision, since they should not be forced to offer products that essentially lose them money.

However just because occasionally they would offer the product at that loss to them, it does not mean that it is a standard product, or that anyone was lying or lied to when it was offered.

[theonlywhiteout]

its all about bundling. shaw is fighting hard to bundle everyone up, as is telus. as a matter of fact when shaw called my house last month they just gave us a "bundle price", they wouldn't break down the pricing piece by piece. sounds like some telus reps/sales people are being aggressive in their bundling, and giving bad info

[4X4]

Shaw called me the other day and offered me "high speed internet" for $10/month. Really? I was completely preoccupied with something else, so I told them I'd call them back and discuss it. Sounds like a pretty good deal though.

[theonlywhiteout]

So Shaw comes in and tries to repair the internet. Apparently because the signal in part of my house where my TV is has bad reception for HD they installed a power boosting splitter. Problem is this makes the internet signal erratic; so they have a seperate splitter for the TV. Long story short is if I use the splitter to make my HD and TV look right I wind up with internet speeds that 11.34 on a Saturday morning with an 84 ping (on the 15). Meanwhile, Telus constantly gives me a 35 ping and 12.84 no matter what time of day.

I'll wait and see what kind of speeds I get tonight before judging anything further. I have a bad feeling tho that as traffic goes up my signal will fall to 8 and below
Results from pingtest.net

Test 1 with Shaw

Test 2 with Shaw



On to Telus..
Test 1

Test 2



Surprising results from the test.net sites. I didn't think the shaw connection I had was this bad, and my telus that good. Oh well, makes my decision easier i guess

[TomoMoose]

I had Optik Turbo installed on Friday. I am recording two HD shows right now and this is what I get:



I was downloading yesterday evening at a constant 2.9MBps from usenet. Pretty sweet, I am happy so far. HD quality is, as far as I can tell, very good.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by TomoMoose

I had Optik Turbo installed on Friday. I am recording two HD shows right now and this is what I get:



I was downloading yesterday evening at a constant 2.9MBps from usenet. Pretty sweet, I am happy so far. HD quality is, as far as I can tell, very good.

so wait, Telus does offer a 2 Mb upload connection? i was looking at the Optik Turbo plan specifically for that and it only mentions a 1 Mb speed

http://www.telus.com/content/interne...ed/compare.jsp

course that could just be blamed on their terrible website. it can't even tell me if the Optik service is available in Chestermere, i get an error when running the availability check

[Roast Beef]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

so wait, Telus does offer a 2 Mb upload connection? i was looking at the Optik Turbo plan specifically for that and it only mentions a 1 Mb speed

http://www.telus.com/content/interne...ed/compare.jsp

course that could just be blamed on their terrible website. it can't even tell me if the Optik service is available in Chestermere, i get an error when running the availability check

Things are in so much Flux that I'm not surprised. Upgrades are going on all the time. Even to places that already have Optik TV at a lower service level.

The best thing to do is phone in and ask.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by theonlywhiteout

Surprising results from the test.net sites. I didn't think the shaw connection I had was this bad, and my telus that good. Oh well, makes my decision easier i guess

You need to test across a variety of remote servers, not just that Calgary one. I'm pretty sure the Calgary server (Platinum) is much closer, from a network perspective, to Telus' core network than Shaw's, which skews the results. I walk past their server cage on a regular basis in a telecom colo.

The only way to objectively measure the end-user performance of both services is to ensure that your test takes you far outside both their networks.

[theonlywhiteout]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

You need to test across a variety of remote servers, not just that Calgary one. I'm pretty sure the Calgary server (Platinum) is much closer, from a network perspective, to Telus' core network than Shaw's, which skews the results. I walk past their server cage on a regular basis in a telecom colo.

The only way to objectively measure the end-user performance of both services is to ensure that your test takes you far outside both their networks.

between speak easy and speedtest I feel comfortable with my results.

the shaw wiring to my house isn't very good for internet and HD tv on the same outlet, so for me it just wont work out very good.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by Rathji

That is something that is newly added in the past year or so then.

I stand corrected.

Not it is not. Get your facts straight. I ahd original Telus TV with internet only and no phone.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Patrick

Not it is not. Get your facts straight. I ahd original Telus TV with internet only and no phone.

Easy there- no need to be like that.

The only "fact" we can all be sure of is that Telus would rather sell more products than fewer products. So I don't find it that unlikely that somebody was told "no" when asking for DSL without a phone line.

I know when I worked in sales there were always items that we didn't want to sell; for whatever numbers reason. I have heard my fellow salespeople lie about the stock availability on such items to avoid selling them. I can easily see Telus setting sales targets that strongly discouraged naked DSL. Otherwise the whole issue of naked DSL wouldn't have had to come down to the CRTC forcing them to provide it.

[MickMcGeough]

Just had regular Optik internet & TV installed.

Here's my speedtest while recording three HD streams:



Super impressed so far.