Review by fredsmith Location: Dollard-Des-Ormeaux, QC, Canada Cost Contract price not specified. (999 month contract) Install: about 7 days Bell Canada Solid, no caps, great pricing, even if I didn't have free service Tech support could be more knowledgeable. Great value, solid service.

Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money:

I've been with Acanac for 6 years. I've made their free for life program with 10 referrals and haven't paid for service since 2008. While I am subscribed to the old 5/1 DSL package I'm in the process of being upgraded to 11 megs (all of their DSL subscribers on FTTN are getting this for free!!!).

When I originally subscribed I was with Bell and being mis-billed every month (after 18 consecutive billing errors I had enough, though because of their errors, Bell ended up refunding me more than I paid for the service in the first place!!!). I had previously been with Videotron, but their pricing made no sense and the service slowed to a crawl every evening.

Having read all of the information on their web site I called in, asked a few questions and placed my order (this was when the first year rate was $19/month for a 1 year term commitment). I received my credentials in a few hours and changed the settings in my modem and was live - Bell came and installed the dry loop about a week later and I only swapped the jack that the modem was plugged in to and it has been stable with only a few issues ever since.

I've used my own modem (a Westel) since day one, though I will be swapping to a TP-Link with the speed upgrade they'd doing on Tuesday.

I like the service well enough that I subscribed my son, who is in Ottawa at university to 28 meg cable service, which has been rock solid, but for a 2 day outage that affected everyone there.

I see LOTS of complaints on RFD and on the Acanac site about customer service issues, refund delays and other stuff, but beyond occasional 'they keep asking me the same questions' types of complaints or where the subscriber has mail-bombed the support people with queries (updating a support ticket bumps the request to the end of the queue) almost every time it turns out that the subscriber hasn't actually bothered to read what it is all about or can't provide the information that support is looking for - though sometimes support can seem to get sidetracked.

Acanac is a HUGE independent ISP - they have more than 130,000 customers, dwarfing almost everyone else out there - so certainly some, attracted by unlimited service, a free VoIP line, static IP and a free tunnel and all the other included services but who have zero competence or simply jump into the pool without knowing how to swim may be disappointed to learn that they may be on their own to some degree.

But I'm no newbie - I'm in the industry, providing security, network, telephone systems and such. And I am active on the ISP's user forum (which is a great resource, if I say so myself), helping people who show up and ask for help (though I admit to being less than patient with those who come in with guns blazing and unreasonable expectations). I do this because to some degree it is my way of giving back for the money I'm saving each month for my home service.

All in all, I have put my money where my mouth is - with free service from home through the referral program and having to pay for my son's serviced I elected to go with Acanac again, though I can always use more referrals!!!.

But I think that my actions in subbing my son speak volumes.

your comment..