Review by shepd 
member for 8.3 years, 1449 visits, last login: 3 days ago
updated 1.4 years ago
 Kitchener,ON
 $46 per month- (month by month)
 about 15 days "Reasonable price, not on Bell's network" "Slower than dialup without a download accelerator" "You can do better"
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(This review is for Distributel cable, dslreports seems to have forced it to be Distributel DSL, sorry)
I ordered Distributel's cable + phone package. Installation cost somewhat over $100, but was done well. The modem and VoIP box came in the mail, and worked reasonably well (took a while for the VoIP box to be stable, but it's OK now). Distributel requires you to sign and return paperwork (Something which I'm always useless at remembering to do--gotta get on that) otherwise they will threaten to disconnect your phone service.
Really, my biggest beef has nothing to do with their phone service, these guys do that just fine, and I expect they would since that's been their line for about a decade now. My problem is their internet SUCKS.
There's slow and then there's pathetic. Youtube constantly stutters (even when nobody is doing anything on the connection at all), most downloads average 400 kbits, and occasionally the VoIP starts to break up. They've massively oversubscribed their service. I am able to get the 10 mbits promised by using a download accelerator and about 30 connection (30!!!). This isn't me downloading from some overloaded site--at work I can easily get 40 mbits downloading a copy of slackware from a good mirror. With these guys, 400 kbits without a download accelerator. With one and 30 connection, yes, I get 10 mbits.
That sucks. These guys need about 1/5th of the customers they currently have to get their network performance back to where it should be. If you're in Kitchener and need VoIP, these guys are just fine. If you need internet, RUN, RUN, RUN! At these speeds, there's no need for a cap, you'd be lucky to break a record of 100 GB in a month, and that would take some serious babying of your download manager to get.
I have a strong feeling I'll be back with TSi in a couple of months if things don't change drastically. Sucks to choose between Youtube working and ridiculous caps or Youtube not working and having to fight tooth and nail to get a decent download speed (Achievable ONLY by ruining other people's experiences by using a download manager, UGH!)
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