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Review by fiberx 
UPDATED: 126 days ago
member for 127 days, 2 visits, last login: 119 days ago
 Hamilton,ON
 $130 per month (12 month contract)
 "speed"
 "speed when node isnt congested dumb support price caps"
 "switching to tek savvy"
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New speed is great when my node isnt oversubscribed.
Prices went up for everything cuz of this im switching to tsi.
Caps are too low.
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 Review by Comfrtbly
UPDATED: 127 days ago
member for 10.2 years, 865 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Peterborough,ON
$50 per month
"Speed"
"Throttling, Low Cap, Usage Based Billing, Price Increases with no added value"
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Throttling, Low Cap, Horrid Ping, Usage Billing, Price Increases with no added value.
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 Review by jeisenberg
UPDATED: 128 days ago
member for 8.4 years, 2167 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Windsor,ON
$52 per month
 about 3 days
"Excellent speed, continuous speed improvement"
"None for me, though some complain about caps"
"High Availability and Excellent speed - the only way to fly!"
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I've been a satisfied Cogeco customer for years. I was one of those who attended the Cogeco rollout in Windsor (still proudly wear my T-shirt) and have been a fan since the beginning. Cogeco started out slowly here, with frequent outages and lacklustre speed.
But as the kinks got worked out, speed and availability increased to the point where I can't think of a reason why *any* other carrier in this city has any clients.
As a standard package residential user, the Cogeco website currently promises up to 5000/640 performance, with no rise in price. I have been recently getting speeds in excess of 4500/600 on the Cogeco Speedtest. And that's without any tweaking or other attempts to optimize the connection.
When I moved to this residence, I prearranged to have Cogeco come on moving day to install the cable/internet service. They came when promised (at the beginning of the installation window timeframe) and had me up and running in under an hour (the wiring in this old house was quite complex, and they managed to crawl through the attic to do the wiring).
I have the full Digital Bundle with Internet, and wouldn't ever want to switch.
When I got a wireless router, I had problems setting up a network connection. Despite their policy of not providing support for networking, they still were able to suggest procedures that helped me work out the problems.
Update: Recently (June 2004), Cogeco began experimenting with 5500KBps download speeds. My Samsung Inforanger modem did not seem capable of supporting the higher speeds. Cogeco support suggested I trade in the modem for another, and Cogeco staff at the Windsor storefront offered me an RCA DCM315 modem without my asking. I am now getting the full speed available to Standard HiSpeed customers.
Update: (September 2005)
I'm still extremely satisfied with Cogeco's internet offering. The speed and service I get are phenomenal (this extends to Cogeco Digital Cable as well - and soon I'll be getting Cogeco VOIP). I specially enjoy being able to see the free credits I've earned for recommending Cogeco to family and friends. So far, no one has been unhappy with the Cogeco service.
Update: (March 2006)
Cogeco continues to be an awesome ISP. Since my last review in September, Cogeco has increased download speeds twice... it now sits at over 7Mbps. I've been a Cogeco VOIP customer since October or November and am very satisfied with that service, and now am using the HDTV channels upgrade to my digital cable service.
Update: (December 2006)
I just got a tickler from DSLR asking me to consider updating my review. And well I should, since the official supported download speed has increased to 10mbps, and I regularly get between 7800 - 9200 during speed tests. I'm pretty satisfied for the most part, and Cogeco service continues to be helpful (both the official and unofficial channels). Monthly fees have risen about $3/month since my last review, but it's the first increase in some time.
Update: (October 2007)
I understand Cogeco has recently begun enforcing the bit-caps and I couldn't be happier. As a customer who very rarely downloads anything and who doesn't use peer-to-peer file sharing networks, I've always been annoyed that a few bad apples can ruin the entire node's performance. Now that Cogeco is cracking down, I'm witnessing several acquaintances getting the warnings and service suspensions that I believe have been long overdue. This can only result in a network with perhaps fewer clients, but significantly less bandwidth stealing -- resulting in significant improvements in network performance. It's still the only game in town for serious speed.
Update: (March 2008)
My only real complaint about Cogeco has been the software fault in the PVR series record feature. I received assurances in a confidential communication back in January 2007 that the problem would be fixed by November 2007 - and then the deadline was pushed to February 2008. The problem persists, and my confidence in Cogeco's ability to either fix the problem or exert influence with those who can fix the problem is now completely eroded. My downgrades in the area of support, services, and value for money reflect my frustration with television service, not internet.
Update: (July 15, 2009)
I just ran a series of speed tests, and can confirm that my speed (both upload and download) have improved by about 10% since last week. Monthly cost for the service has increased fairly dramatically over the past 18 months, with the internet package now running at around $52 per month. Uptime, speed, and quick response to technical questions are still among Cogeco's best features, however, they are starting to take more grief from those clients who are running into trouble staying within the caps (not an issue for me).
Update: (July 24, 2009)
I started a thread about seeing improved speeds with Cogeco. The thread has been running for nine days at this point. When I started the thread, my speeds were about 9400/600. Nine days ago, they improved by about 10%. Today, my speeds are 14500/1050. That's a 50% increase (upload and download) from two weeks ago. I am quite happy!
Followup comments:  
aardvvark
@cgocable.net
|  Selfish
Wow. So you're happy that others are getting shat on. Nice. You don't care about anyone other than yourself, I see. A very poor attitude to take in life. YOU may not "download" anything, but many thousands of other people enjoy (LEGALLY, read through that giant thread on the Cogeco forum) keeping up with the times. Why do you even bother with 10Mb? Go on the lite package.
Fail to stand up for others and you fail to stand up for yourself. Enjoy your draconian ISP. Sad. | |
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jeisenberg
New Year's Eve
join:2001-07-06
Windsor, ON
 ·Cogeco Cable
 ·Cogeco Voip
| Re: Selfish Anyone who breaks posted rules shouldn't be surprised or upset when they're called to task.
I drive over the speed limit on a pretty regular basis, but I do it in moderation. That means I am aware that I could be pulled over at any time even though it's not likely; and I don't have any excuse when it actually happens.
I don't see any difference in these scenarios, and I certainly have no grounds to call others "selfish" if they are happy I get an occasional speeding ticket.
And if zero-tolerance ever became the enforcement standard, I'd just slow down. | |
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aardvvark
@cgocable.net
| Re: Selfish The speed limit analogy was thoroughly shot down in the above mentioned thread. I could post it all here if you'd like.
When Cogeco pulls shit or neglects things that directly affect you, why do you bother lodging your complaints or looking for people to understand? Just take it like a good apologist. You say you suspect Cogeco is BSing you about the PVR issues. You know what? I care about that. I care because it's yet another example of trouble with this provider. I care because it could affect me one day if I chose to go the same route as you. I may not now and see no need for a PVR, but life is flud, things change. You, too, could hit the wall with caps one day if you ever got heavily into internet video and online media distribution.
Once more, in 2007, there are plenty of LEGAL sources of downloadable content that can easily push one up and above the (low) hard caps. If you don't know what I'm referring to, see the above mentioned giant bitcap thread --> »[Niagara] Cogeco Bitcaps
I stand by what I said. You did not need to gloat (you "couldn't be happier") over many, many people having their service disconnected (do you fail to understand how vital an internet connection (VOIP, for one?) is in people's lives these days), there are plenty of alternatives to cutting people off.
I have never had a problem with latency or "slowness" in my area and if I did, that's Cogeco's fault for not having the proper infrastructure in place, not my neighbors for using the service they pay for. I am not God, I cannot see into their modems and cannot just start accusing them of "bandwidth stealing", whatever that means. I stand by my opinion of your review. | |
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swatter
@cgocable.net
| Re: Selfish I also read that you sometimes get tv shows off friends ftp's.
Where do you think those tv shows come from thin air?
I mean its nice to enjoy Cogeco's service but don't show yourself as holier than thou.
And for me at least this is not the only Problem I've had with Cogeco(bitcaps), It's not throwing ten years of great service out the window.
Its been a steady declince in Cogeco's services over the years. The bitcap is the straw that broke the camels back. | |
| vega509
join:2005-11-12
Welland, ON
·Cogeco Cable
| this has done it ! got the letter today, Slogeco / Nogeco (service @ 3mb on a good day, paying for 10mb) is increasing the slow service rate to $52.95. this and rate caps have done it. Acanac at $18.95 tax included, no caps, and advertised speed of 5mb, will get my money!
I'm tired of the Nogeco merry-go-round of making a service call to find slow service, no problems at this end, and no action to remedy the situation, call back and be told there is nothing they can do without another service call. | |
| frank236
join:2008-01-02
Barnegat, NJ | YOO unless you play games online ..WHY do you care... you can't type that fast | |
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Review by hickins
UPDATED: 129 days ago
member for 186 days, 10 visits, last login: 28 days ago
Burlington,ON
$99 per month
"fast and reliable connection connection"
"don't really care to keep a customer"
"good service and bad value"
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I've been with Cogeco since I moved to Burlington for about 1 year now, and this month I noticed an increase in my monthly bill from 88 to 99, I called customer support and they told me that I was on promotion for 12 months and now it is over, so I am paying regular price now. At this point I asked them whether I can negotiate this price as I could easily find competitive prices around, their answer was NO!! and told me that I can cancel if I wish!!
Of course with such an attitude, I told her that I'll be seriously looking for another offer and I'll call you back to cancel very soon, and she answered that that is ok and that I can call to cancel at any time!!
She made me feel like I was so worthless and I meant nothing to Cogeco and I have no interest in staying with them.
Update: I deleted a part where I mentioned that I will move with Acanac, for the reason that I changed my mind because Acanac can't keep my phone number and I'm looking for company that provides phone and internet and I can keep my number....still looking....
Update: I gave another call to cogeco, and I told them again about the billing problem, this time the rep was very nice, and she extended the offer to another 12 months, but she said I have to pay full price for at least 6 months after in order to give me another promotion!! I stayed only for the reason that i didn't find a provider that gives around 10Mbps and a phone service at the same time.
Now I'm having another problem, I subscribed to a internet tv provider , and I'm over my bandwidth limit by 6Gigs and I'm still on 23rd day of the month!! I don't know what to do? I'm thinking of getting a separate acanac dsl only for that damn internet tv thing, it costs less than paying bandwidth overage to Cogeco!!!
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Review by CanadianRip
Posted: 129 days ago
member for 137 days, 55 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Oakville,ON
$120 per month (12 month contract)
about 11 days
"Only went down once or twice while I had it (1.5 years)"
"Worked slow during peak periods, low bit caps, expensive for what you get"
"Not worth the money by a long shot"
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Recent changes to bit caps, and overall value of the service have forced me off. I laughed out loud when the retentions person told me they had a new $ 150/month plan that would fit my needs. 50MBPS w/ 150GB bit cap - how useless is that?
I was on the pro service and except for overnight, I never achieved anywhere near the 16mpbs advertised. Instead I would constantly get anywhere from 3-6mpbs during peak periods.
I ended up switching to Teksavvy and have Dual Lines w/ a maximum rate of 10Mbps and a bitcap of 400GB. Works out to $ 80 a month and a much better value. Plus I actually get my 10mpbs even at peak periods.
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 Review by blackzero
UPDATED: 131 days ago
member for 2.2 years, 189 visits, last login: 50 days ago
Trois-Rivieres,QC
$35 per month (12 month contract)
"Good speeds and reliability."
"they started to bother people regarding their bandwidth caps"
"Great internet service"
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Setup
A tech guy came here and,before installed the modem,he changed my line frequency to be sync with the modem. I wished to install that gizmo myself (like dsl), but i had no choice.
Internet reliability.
Since i subscribed to this provider, i always had contant 9.4 mbps download speed,near their advertised speed set to 10mbps.
recently i had a slowdown that gave me 3.5mbps as download speed. after some modem handling and cogeco tech guys from BBR helped to fix the problem.
Tech support
I couldn't say too much from tech support. The main reason is because most of time, I'm gonna fix problems (if any) by myself instead,before calling tech support.
Tech support by phone is much more for asking DNS' ip address,set up mail accounts and check your modem status (signals,upstream and downstream power,battery status,etc...) but I already know that settings.
They appear to be local, and I don't have the feeling to make overseas calls for tech support,just what i like 
Billing
I don't have billing issues yet,after 4 years subscribed to them. Always the same price and no hassles.
The bottom line
Really good service. Highly recommended.
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 Review by dataiv
UPDATED: 132 days ago
member for 7.7 years, 3392 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Burlington,ON
$160 per month
about 7 days
"Install was quick, back in 1998. Fast and reliable service."
"I had TONS of problems with the feed in the local area, causing almost three years of headaches! The last two have been fine."
"Now is completely reliable for me, and speed is consistently fast. Price keeps going up and lots of nickel and diming."
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--- July 20, 2009 ---
A new feature on the Cogeco Digital Phone is direct international dialing. At first glance this seems like a welcome new feature. However, the per minute rates are completely nuts and it is obvious that all Cogeco is thinking about is profit, profit, profit - "how can we rip people off some more..." - Given that the cost of the digital phone is already around $55/month, I would have expected reasonable per minute rates - most European countries land line calling should be around 3 to 5 cents/minute and mobile around 25 to 30 cents/minute. This would be competitive (which is what their website says - "competitive international long distance" - HAH!). No, forget it! The average land line per minute price for calling most European countries is 10 cents/minute and mobile ranges from 39 to 69 cents/minute. They are out of their freaking minds! I hope not too many people fall for this. It's completely unacceptable.
Since having the phone service installed just over 3 years ago, the price has gone up significantly. The internet price has also gone up, as well as the cable TV price. Some increases can be expected of course, but this is getting out of hand. I believe now the pricing of the phone is basically the same as we could get for a normal land line again - which always worked. Cogeco's phone has had several days where it doesn't work for half the day because of issues at their main office.
--- September 24, 2007 ---
Enforcement of bitcaps in the middle of the month was a terrible idea. I was not affected, but nevertheless I think it is a bad idea. Also, the enforcement system had issues which suspended many people before warnings were even sent. If they had taken the time to ensure the system would work properly, and then begun enforcement at the beginning of October instead after notifying customers, things would have gone much more smoothly. No longer impressed after this poor execution of policy, however, since I do not exceed the bitcap, I will stay with Cogeco for the speed.
--- May 9, 2007 ---
The last three years have for the most part been uneventful. Speeds are consistently fast and reliability in the last year is greater than 99.999% (excluding power outages where the whole neighbourhood was out, including my house, which was probably around 20 hours this year). The system is definitely much more reliable than it was before VoIP was rolled out. Given that years ago I was seeing less than 75% uptime, this reliability is a welcome change. Newsgroup (usenet) service is usable, which is a nice bonus, and accounts for my upgrade from 4/5 to 5/5 on services.
--- April 10th, 2004 ---
When I first signed up I had 512/512 kbps for $59/month back in February 1998. Then, in October of that year they upgraded everyone to DOCSIS modems, and that's when the problems started. They didn't completely go away for about the next three years, and it took tons of dealing with different support and maintenance people to finally get some action. The problems were always related to some kind of water damage to some equipment, or someone half cutting through an underground cable - that sort of thing. It just took forever to fix and I had no high speed alternative in the meantime.
The last couple years have been just fine, and the speeds now at 5000/640 kbps are great. If you live on a street where more than a couple people have Cogeco Internet on the same feed, you should be just fine, because if anything goes wrong for everyone in your neighbourhood, you have a bit of extra weight to complain with.
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Review by crash86
Posted: 135 days ago
member for 135 days, 0 visits, last login: 135 days ago
undisclosed location
$150 per month (36 month contract)
"Good speeds and latency in my area"
"Bandwidth cap and throttling make downloading anything (steam games, mmo patches, videos, windows and linux isos) horribly slow"
"Not worth the money"
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Cogeco has been historically great, but they are losing support fast. They are raising prices and decreasing value for their service. The average price of bandwidth per gb is 10 cents, cogeco is trying to charge 15 times that. if you want to raise your limit you have to pay 50% more which also gives you an increase in speed, but with the throttling in place, it is completely useless. I currently have all 3 services from cogeco (home phone, internet and tv) but I plan on switching to tek savvy for my internet services if they aren't force to impose bells restrictions after the crtc hearing and skype for my phone service.
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Review by losethecaps
Posted: 136 days ago
member for 136 days, 0 visits, last login: 136 days ago
undisclosed location
$150 per month
"speed"
"caps/customer service/price/duopoly"
"good for gaming nothing else!"
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been with cogeco for 10 years, it disgusts me how they rape their loyal paying customers with caps and large price hikes. stay away unless all you do is game.
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 Review by KingOfPants
UPDATED: 138 days ago
member for 7 years, 3596 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Oakville,ON
Contract price not specified.
"Fast"
"Caps"
"Fast with low caps and high overage charges."
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Have had some stability issues in the past, the problem was discovered by a Cogeco Employ on the forums. Seems to have been resolved.
Cogeco is what it seems to be one of the few ISP still offering usenet access. They've had some problems with it in the past. Though recently they have outsourced it. Can usually grab binaries from 100 days back with no problem. Not the best, but free. Much improved. It would be great if they didn't count data down from usenet toward the monthly cap. The fact that the cap/overage charges and the new fixed newsserver was announced within a couple days (If I recall correctly) of each other is very suspect. Doing so would be a show of faith to loyal customers.
The caps and overage charges are outrageous and unreasonable. Cogeco seems to be making a lot of poor decisions as of late (do a news search on this site for cogeco). In all honesty, don't know if I wish to continue to support them any longer. Though, unfortunately, there are not that many other choices. Tek Savvy seems to be the best bet, but Bell is trying to enforce the same shenanigans as Cogeco, on their (BELL'S) resellers.
I wonder how management could allow such a quick and drastic change in service and opinion. Cogeco, please stop the madness.
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