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Review by MichelR See Profile

  • Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $73 per month
  • Install: about 14 days
  • Caps of 400 gigabytes/month
As reliable as Rogers was, very friendly staff, very decent usage cap
None so far
Glad I finally made the jump, saving roughly $20 a month
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I had been considering moving from Rogers for over a year, when I bought a Boxee Box and dropped cable TV and started streaming movies and TV shows. While the low usage cap (120Gb) from Rogers was never really an issue, there were a couple of times when I indulged in Netflix a bit too much and had to be careful toward the end of the month. The main reason I had put this off so long was that I was worried of service interruption when switching, and also reading about some third-party provider users who got "accidentally" disconnected because they had no other service with the cable or phone company.

Since I was moving, I decided to take the plunge. Start Communications were a relatively new entry in Rogers territory, but I liked what I had seen so far (comments, reviews, rocca's support on the DSLReports forums, etc). Also it looked to me like Start were learning from Teksavvy's growth problems and were determined not to get caught in the same trap. Since I had an overlap between renting and buying my condo, I decided to get the Start connection set up about 10 days before moving, which would give enough time to address any potential problem (I had seen that the previous owner had gotten a bit creative with the cabling, and wanted to make sure any screwup could be fixed before I moved in).

Online signup was extremely straightforward and since I had left a comment/question, the next day I got a call from a very friendly Start rep who answered my question in details (this had to do with TPIA tags on the line, since I have no other services with Rogers). Also when I got a notification that my modem had been shipped, they had shipped it to the new address, but since that was a few days before I took possession, this would be a problem for picking it up from the post office. I had indicated when I signed up that I wanted it shipped to my current address at the time, but that didn't make it, I guess. Fear not, for I was in good hands: I e-mailed them right away and soon got a reply saying that they were able to correct the address before the parcel was shipped out. Excellent! Worst case scenario, I could always have waited a few days to pick it up at possession date, but Start's fast action made that unnecessary.

The technician showed up 20 minutes ahead of schedule, which happened to really suit me as it was a busier day than expected. He phoned me from downstairs and was proactive in asking me whether I had any other services with Rogers. Since I didn't, he made sure to put a TPIA tag on my mine. A few minutes later he was in and had to fiddle around a bit to get things working (see comment about the previous owners getting creative with the cabling...) The line finally tested alright. I then confirmed with him that he had put the TPIA tag on the line (he did), and as promised, a few minutes later I was able to connect to the Internet. Perfect installation experience.

The next day I got a call from Start to confirm that the installation went well. I wasn't home so they only left a message, but it was a live person, not some automated gizmo, which is really nice.

I've been streaming from Netflix and other services and things have been as stable and reliable as they were with Rogers, which is to say pretty much perfect - except that I'm now paying a lot less and with a more generous cap. Speeds are the same as they were with my Rogers Extreme package. The only time I noticed the connection being down was during the overlap period before I moved in. I had Rogers service at the other address (same building). I went down to use the Rogers connection to see if people were reporting issues with Start, only to find out that the Rogers connection wasn't working either, so this had nothing to do with Start. Relief! I assume the short downtime had to do with the upgrades Rogers were doing on their network.

I've only had to deal with tech support once. My web hosting company requires an e-mail address supplied by an ISP (as opposed to any kind of free account like GMail), so I needed to create one. This requires phoning Start and asking them to create an account. The tech support representative was very friendly and efficient. If you want to change your password later, you also need to phone them, as their web site currently doesn't allow you to do this - a bit weird, but I don't care since I only need that account to make the web hosting company happy. The webmail interface is minimal compared to what's out there, but it does the job. No matter who your ISP is, I do not recommend using your ISP's e-mail anyway, since it can be a nightmare to update your address everywhere if you ever change ISPs and/or move outside their territory.

So overall so far the Start experience is essentially perfect for me, and I'm now saving over $20 a month for the same speed and better usage cap than with Rogers. I recommend these guys without any hesitation whatsoever.

UPDATE - October 9, 2015: It's been almost 3 years now since I moved and took the opportunity to switch from Rogers. The service has been about 99.5% rock-solid. Most outages were widespread (i.e. affecting all cable customers, regardless of ISP). I had a problem with very slow upload speeds once and it took a few days to sort it out, and sometimes rocca (the CEO) was posting tips to help me diagnose the connection at 2am(!) Love the service, love being able to speak to a human within seconds (not that I've had to contact them often, mind you.) Since signing up I've changed my package a couple of times, always done within the promised time. The free download window is nice as well.

UPDATE - December 23, 2016: Now more than four years with Start and still very satisfied with their service. A few weeks ago I had some performance issues and phoned tech support. Always freaky to have someone pick up so quickly at the other end. The tech rep was very pleasant and helpful and identified it as a Rogers problem after we ran a number of tests. The next morning I got a call saying Rogers were working on the problem and before lunch my speeds were back to normal. No issues since. Also when it's time to update a credit card, the sales staff is just as pleasant and the whole thing is done is something like two minutes. No frustrating navigation through a labyrinth of options with these guys. You pick sales or support and then you deal with a real person. Love it.

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updated 7.2 years ago