Thinking about switching from Shaw

[oilyfan]

Disillusioned by Shaw's recent price increases, and speed drops I am contemplating switching to a provider with unlimited plans. I currently have the 100+ plan with 750gb cap for $104

Unfortunately being in a new area with only fibre, no copper, Telus is my only ADSL option. And Telus is just Shaw in another skin. As a side note for people on copper there are many options.

So that leaves cable internet, Teksavvy (my first choice) does not not service my neighbourhood for some reason.

After a lot of research and calls I found out Distributel and Yak are the only two wholesalers servicing my area, but they both only offer 25mbps unlimited for $49. I would have preferred higher speeds.

My question - does anyone have any experience with these two companies, or just resellers in Calgary in general? I am concerned about downtime and outages.

[wooohooo]

I tried teksavvy here in Edmonton, but they're just shaw, with worse tech support and everything. Shaw pretty much connects them from the box thing then rest is hope and see. Or maybe it was telus, but they essentially just run off shaw/telus' network.

I just moved into an apartment that has a contract with telus and my speeds have been horrible. I'm not getting over 3 Mbps. My old house had shaw and my speeds were great but from what I hear its mostly an area thing. Some areas are wires better with shaw and some with telus. I just find telus techs a bit more dumb and a little more rude.

Also back like 5 years ago I was with CIA? And internet was good but tech support was pitiful. I was moving and needed to change addresses but it was impossible to have done.

I rather pay the few extra bucks every month and have somewhat capable tech support.

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by oilyfan

Disillusioned by Shaw's recent price increases, and speed drops I am contemplating switching to a provider with unlimited plans. I currently have the 100+ plan with 750gb cap for $104

They didn't touch the speed of current plans?

[oilyfan]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

They didn't touch the speed of current plans?

No they haven't.

[Stealth22]

Don't these other companies just resell Shaw and Telus? What's the difference?

What we really need is another ISP or two with their own network...

[oilyfan]

Originally Posted by Stealth22

Don't these other companies just resell Shaw and Telus? What's the difference?

What we really need is another ISP or two with their own network...

The difference is that they offer unlimited usage and a much more reasonable price.

You are not going get more competition than this, Shaw and Telus have spent a lot money getting their infrastructure built, someone with very deep pockets would have to jump in with very little chance of making a profit.

[Torture]

My friend is a power user (ie torrents everything, gaming, etc) and swears by Distributel.

Have been thinking about making the switch as well, would be interested to hear other's opinions.

[cKy]

Originally Posted by Torture

My friend is a power user (ie torrents everything, gaming, etc) and swears by Distributel.

Have been thinking about making the switch as well, would be interested to hear other's opinions.

Never heard of them before but their prices seem really good. Too bad they arent on the island yet.

Thanks for mentioning them, I will need to keep an eye out.

[oilyfan]

I just signed up with the 25mbps Distributel install for Feb 2. Will see how it goes.

[PsnaP]

Originally Posted by oilyfan

Telus is just Shaw in another skin.

[oilyfan]

Originally Posted by PsnaP

Well, no offence but offering high speed internet with the kind of data caps that Telus does is the problem. And on top of that Telus is more restrictive in terms of running the modem in bridge mode, blocking more ports and so on

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by cKy

Never heard of them before but their prices seem really good. Too bad they arent on the island yet.

Thanks for mentioning them, I will need to keep an eye out.

Over here they offer dial-up for $16.95.

[PsYcNeT]

$50 25 Mbps seems pretty terrible IMO.

[oilyfan]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

$50 25 Mbps seems pretty terrible IMO.

Telus 25 is $63 a month

[PsYcNeT]

Telus is terrible for everything though.

[oilyfan]

Ok I will raise Shaw then, broadband 30 with Shaw is $70 a month

[wooohooo]

My telus connection at my apartment is pitiful. After 7 pm my connection can't even hit 5 Mbps. Max I'll hit is 15 mbps at off hours

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by oilyfan

Ok I will raise Shaw then, broadband 30 with Shaw is $70 a month

I suppose, both speeds are pitiful and not worth a dollar IMO. Anything under 50 is just handcuffed nowadays, especially when you have multiple devices running all the time.

[oilyfan]

I am not sure that it won't be enough, I guess I will find out. Netflix says it needs 7 Mbps for each Super HD (1080p) stream, so technically I can run 3 streams at a time which is suficient.

Question is whether the speed will bog during peak times.

Edit: checked in Netflix again. Ultra HD (4K) needs 15mbps per stream. So when I do get a 4K device I might have a problem.

[stormwolf]

Originally Posted by oilyfan

My question - does anyone have any experience with these two companies, or just resellers in Calgary in general? I am concerned about downtime and outages.

Never used those two. I've been switching between shaw and telus 6 months at a time for a while. They both suck (shaw sucks a little more, I think), but you can get a bundle for like $40/mth during promotion months.