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Review by quickdry21 See Profile

  • Location: Montreal, QC, Canada
  • Cost: $29 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 8 days
price, unlimited bandwidth, no throttle, no bell!
customer service
If you are within their zone and have line stats suitable for DSL, they are the best choice
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

My dry-loop ADSL2+ service was activated yesterday. This is my first time living in Quebec/Montreal, and normally I would go with Teksavvy, but someone on the forums suggested I check out Colbanet, and since I am in their Atwater zone, I decided I would give them a shot. I was quite skeptical, as I gathered some line stats in my buildings, and they were marginally good; I'm in an old apartment building (not grounded/no 3-prong power outlets!) and not very close to the CO (1.25KM as the bird flies).

The signup process epitomized others reviews I have read on DSLR; signup was painful.

1. The rep on the phone was humming and swearing: "shit, oops I didn't mean to do that."

2. I had to repeat much of my information multiple times.

3. I had to ask about their cancellation policy three separate times, after each I was put on hold, only to be taken off as if I had never asked anything.

4. After the ordering process completed, and I was asked if there was anything else, I had to inquire about my installation date, and the answer was "Oh, yeah, you will have to be home between 8 and 5 on the 13th."

5. I was called back the next day, twice, to ask me information I had already provided them. I gave them my birthday twice when I ordered, and they called me twice the next day to ask for it again, along with my Visa information. This delayed my installation an extra day.

6. I was never sent my username/password, a receipt, or any correspondence. I had to call in twice and wait on hold before I was able to login.

Complaints aside, as long as I never have to actually deal with the company again, I'm ecstatic about the ADSL2+. Unlimited bandwidth, no throttle and best of all, no Bell. I prepaid ~$500 for 12 months: $20/month + ~$10/month dry-loop + ~$80 activation.

The installation itself was painless. On the scheduled day, I called them, got my username/password and was connected right away. The technician showed up 4 hours later and I told him I was already hooked up. He never came through the door. I was having issues with a Thomson Speedtouch 516v6 (it was showing an upstream attenuation of -2 and getting half the throughput of my profile/sync). I tried out a branded 2Wire 2701HG-G that I had flashed with unlocked firmware, and magically I was getting throughput of 650KB/s.

Even with questionable line stats, my modem reports a ~6000/450Kbps profile. The upload is half of what I would like, but I assume that is my line's fault, not Colbanet's.

Service with Colbanet feels like a gamble at this point, based off their reviews and my own experience on the phone with them I'm still not very confident prepaying for a year. However, if the connection remains stable it was worth the risk.

UPDATE: After three weeks of service, service has been reliable. I disconnected all the phone lines in my house minus the one serving the DSL (no home phone), and my line quality improved. I'm now getting speed tests consistently 5.7Mbps and 0.70Mbps.

UPDATE 2: I purchased a TP-Link as per a suggestions, and I got an instant 1Mbps downspeed bump. I'm syncing at ~ 7441Mbps now. Still slow compared to cable, but it is much more reliable in terms of speed. I would rather have 7Mbps all day instead of 1Mbps during some times of the day.

UPDATE 1 year later: 1 year prepay will be coming to an end in the coming weeks. Must say reliability has been flawless, no downtime, no problems, just the same old 7Mbps for 12 months.

member for 14.8 years, 1230 visits, last login: 157 days ago
updated 11.5 years ago

julienvf
join:2008-12-30
Verdun, QC
Cisco SPA112
TP-Link TD-W8960N
Technicolor DCM475

1 edit

julienvf

Member

line stats?

Hi, what are your line stats? I've seen tp-link modems go below the 6db minimum signal required to get a synch meaning people usually got a nice speed boost from regular modems. I've seen synchs as low as 4.3db with them... Might give them a try if your line stats are above 6db. I had one client mooved from a linksys modem/router to a tp-link td-8960N unit and she got bumped from 5mb to 11mb/sec. I'm not saying it's the same case everytime but if you want better speed, better give it a shot!
quickdry21
join:2009-05-15
Westmount, QC

quickdry21

Member

Re: line stats?

Attenuation: 41.1dB down, 11.6dB up.
Power: 19.3dBm down, 10.8dBm up.
Noise Margin: 7.5dB down, 9.3dB up.
Sync: 6288kbps down, 946kbps up.

Think I could do better with a TP-Link?