Shaw Internet - Magical New Speeds and Lots-o-bandwidth, fickle geeks appeased

[Jimmy Stang]

B-b-b-bump...

Although all has been quiet on the UBB front with this election and whatnot, I just heard that Shaw is increasing the speeds of their Extreme package to "up to" 25 down and 2.5 up. Same price. It is currently 15 down and 1 up. I am particularly excited about the increased upload speed as it will make VPN-ing and Slingboxing 2.5 times faster/better.

http://shaw.ca/Internet/Extreme/

The cynic in me says that they just want you to get used to using more data for when they eventually revise their pricing plans. But that's just me being a bit jaded, and I honestly applaud them for trying to keep up with the growth of the internet and adjusting their speeds accordingly.

Apparently it will be rolled out automatically over the next 30 days, as per their Twitter feed.

[Top Shelf]

Yep, just heard as well.

"Today Shaw Communications Inc. announces an immediate speed

upgrade to their base Internet product, Shaw Extreme, to provide Shaw customers with untouchable
value and a premier Internet experience.

As the anchor service for the Shaw Plan Personalizer, Shaw Extreme is also available as an individual
Internet offering. Effective today, speeds will be upgraded from 15 to 25 Mbps download, and from 1 to
2.5 Mbps upload. This upgrade is the first step as Shaw looks to unveil its new Internet packaging in

early summer.

'It’s an exciting time at Shaw as we begin to create a world-class Internet product, giving our customers
the ultimate experience in connectivity and entertainment,” said Peter Bissonnette, President, Shaw
Communications Inc. “The Shaw Extreme speed upgrade is just the first spark of a whole new world of
entertainment and offerings to come. We’re building the network of the future and our customers are at
the very heart of it.'

Customers who currently subscribe to Shaw Extreme will be automatically upgraded to the new speeds
over the next month at no extra cost.

[Hemi-Cuda]

sure, just as i book Telus to come install TV and internet so i can take advantage of the faster speeds. oh well, at least i can take advantage of the intro price for 6 months and switch back if it's not up to snuff

[Hack&Lube]

It's just so that you can reach your cap faster

[HotHotHeat]

That's like bars announcing they'll be increasing drink prices from $4 to $6 so you can blow through your $100 faster. God I hate telecom companies.

[Azure]

Increase in speed is always better.

The cap is a completely different issue.

[DownInFlames]

This makes my Warp account a lot less attractive. So now I pay twice as much as the Extreme plan and get twice the download speed, but my upload speed is basically the same.

[KTrain]

Have you guys ever actually got the download speeds promised by Extreme or Warp or do you just want the upload speed?

[photon]

I max out my Extreme all the time, though I guess we'll see how it is after the upgrade.

I figure if I paid more I'd go with the top one.

[DownInFlames]

I definitely get the advertised download and upload speeds. The only time I don't is when the server isn't fast enough to actually give you that speed. Nothing Shaw can do about that.

[oilyfan]

You get the speeds advertised about 80% of the time. The exceptions are around peak times where download and upload speeds drop down to about half. At least around my area.

[Jimmy Stang]

I have had a few instances where my speeds were perhaps half of what was advertised, but only on occasion and during peak time. Most of the time it is pretty consistently as advertised.

[Yamer]

Whenever I do some sort of speed test, no matter what time of day, wireless or wired, I get no more than half (usually less) of my advertised download speed, but I almost always get my advertised upload speed.

I also find that my torrents max at 1.2 mbps, no matter what.

[La Flames Fan]

Maybe a dumb question, but is there a way to increase upload speed without going to an upper tier?

I've got Extreme, the download speed is fine, but with all the videos we upload, I would love an "a la carte" upload option or something.

[secol]

Originally Posted by oilyfan

You get the speeds advertised about 80% of the time. The exceptions are around peak times where download and upload speeds drop down to about half. At least around my area.

same

[photon]

Originally Posted by La Flames Fan

Maybe a dumb question, but is there a way to increase upload speed without going to an upper tier?

I've got Extreme, the download speed is fine, but with all the videos we upload, I would love an "a la carte" upload option or something.

Not that I know of, I guess you could call and ask but I doubt they'll do something outside their normal packages.

Nitro is $100 more, which seems like a lot but if it's directly impacting something that takes a long time (uploading videos), the question is how much time would you save doubling your upload speed, and how much is that time worth?

[photon]

Originally Posted by Yamer

I also find that my torrents max at 1.2 mbps, no matter what.

That's pretty much what you would expect with Shaw Extreme, 15Mbps is 1.875 megabytes/s theoretical maximum, but there's always protocol overhead so you won't get much more than 1.2 megabytes per second.

[photon]

Oh and it seems I've already been enabled, Shaw speedtest put me at 22Mbps and just tried a torrent on a private tracker where I typically max my connection and got as high as 3 megabytes / second, though it seemed to throttle back to 1.7MB / s after a while, I wonder if they're limiting encrypted packets or something.

[La Flames Fan]

Originally Posted by photon

Not that I know of, I guess you could call and ask but I doubt they'll do something outside their normal packages.

Nitro is $100 more, which seems like a lot but if it's directly impacting something that takes a long time (uploading videos), the question is how much time would you save doubling your upload speed, and how much is that time worth?

Yeah, I figured it would be a long shot. Not sure if it impacts time/money, will have to track that.

[CubicleGeek]

Originally Posted by photon

Not that I know of, I guess you could call and ask but I doubt they'll do something outside their normal packages.

Nitro is $100 more, which seems like a lot but if it's directly impacting something that takes a long time (uploading videos), the question is how much time would you save doubling your upload speed, and how much is that time worth?

The key is to bundle your services. Their Plan Personalizer bundle at $99.90 comes with Basic Phone, Basic HD, and Extreme Internet. You can upgrade to Nitro for $50. The total actually comes up below the price of just having Nitro standalone.