how-to block ads
|
»next review in page
Review by canadagirl8 
UPDATED: 5.3 years ago
member for 5.4 years, 2 visits, last login: 5.3 years ago
 Regina,SK
 $44 per month
 about 5 days
 "All employees seemed to do their best.. pleasant, but sometimes not well informed."
 "Help Desk no help. Advertised DL speed is to their local sites not to anywhere else on the net."
 "I am disappointed but it appears the problem is not Sask.Tel's, rather one of my own ignorance."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I'm updating this review because after a lot of research, and attempting a number of suggestions by reputable websites and reputable people, I've come to the conclusion that the speeds I'm getting are to be expected. Unfortunately, I've seen no noticeable increase in download speed under any situation/program/time of day since I've installed it. Maybe I had my hopes up unrealistically. (Certainly my improved UL speed has helped out others, so in that sense... yep I got my money's worth.)
SaskTel has always given me great service and in comparing it with Access Communications I would rate the service higher in terms of less down time (I used over 3 years ago.. so that may be changed by now also). I'm a strong believer in supporting Crown Corporations when there is one, so it would take a lot for me to leave this ISP.
I must say I still would have hoped that SaskTel would have had their help desk educated in the area of tweaking to make the most of a high speed connection (though, perhaps they wouldn't want to get into this in case someone ended up screwing their computer somehow and blamed SaskTel for it). A referral to sites like this one (at a "Do at Your Own Risk kind of warning) would have been helpful though. (**To this date, I haven't been able to find out how far away I am from the CO, the hub. When I call they don't know what I'm talking about.)
Lastly, having their installer come in and run a speed test by checking the download speed to their local site (something I gather most companies do)... I still find that practice rather deceptive since, obviously, the speed which their lines get to their CO is bound to be faster than the average internet traffic speed on any day at any given time of day.. I mean how many of us go to SaskTel's test page in a day.....(Frankly, if I had known that's how the guy was going to test the speed I would have saved myself $45 and passed on it.) It just seems a bit deceptive to advertise a great UL/DL speed and then be told "well that's the speed that we get to our local site".... (Like I said, I do understand that depending on the site you're going to, how many "hops" to get there, the amount of traffic on the net at that time, how smoothly the packets move.. etc etc are factors.. I just think.. .man, shouldn't I see noticeable difference SOME time? Like 2am even?) (I guess there was such a huge difference going from 56k dialup to 1.5mb downloads that I expected to see an equal or greater noticeable difference with the 5mb DL 640 UP speeds.I guess my expectations were unrealistic based on what I believed I would get from their ads.)
Oh well, you live you learn.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of SaskTel Saskatchewan |
 | »next review in page (previous review)
 Review by DreamCarr
UPDATED: 5.4 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 4168 visits, last login: a few hours ago
6D 6F 6F 00
$39 per month
"recent upgrade to 5meg/640 for FREE"
"atm, not a whole lot.. miss my MAX tho"
"i'm happy!.. wooot!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I intitially signed up with sympatico DSL back in the winter 1999, shortly after it first came out in my city. i was impressed with the speed then, but I would loose connection at times. Then i had to cancel my subscription due to financial reasons. When i re-signed up, in august of 2k, it only took a week for the tech to be at my house to get the filter installed. the connection worked right away and reliably ever since. i havent had any disconnects or trouble with the email servers like some people have, and i get good speed (1359/110) at all hours of the day
*update*
switched to Shaw HS cable internet, it was ok for about a month or two, then the speeds got discustingly slow. so i switched back to DSL... low pings, (only 4 blocks from CO hehe) and speed...all the way!! 
*update*
moved to a new city, got the basic bundle again... has worked awsome since day of install... i'm going to be moving in with the g/f soon and will probably bump up my service to 2000/384.. so i'll post another update then
*update*
signed up for the MAX ulitmate bundle with my grilfriend ($119 for all the channels + movie central) and under the U of S student promo and the current promo, i'm going to be able to get ultimate max for $79.99 a month for the frist 6 months, with the frist month FREE and $10off/month for another 6 months (to one full year). this is an awsome price for apporx 100+channels (fully digital, not like shaws tier 3 analog, rest digital) and about 30+ digital music channels as well as basic high-speed service (1500/128) i have heard that with MAX your speed cap goes up, or is taken off (depending on installation) due to the MAX sharing the pipe with the dsl signal... if you turn off your set-top box it supposedly shunts the extra bandwidth to your PC.. i'll have to test that though
*update*
moving to a new city, and maintaning my HS Classic bundle, but loosing the max service, as its not offered here. also loosing my 384 upload, its back to 128 now. kinda annoyed, but hey.. i'm still getting good speed
*update*
at the new place, have heard rumors of the MAX service coming to the new town in 2005, so excited about that as the extreme and plus packages should come with it (5/7meg packages)
*update*
still no MAX service. gaming alot more and really missing the 384 upload. i'd also love more downstream, seeing's as everyone is starting to move to 3mb standard packages it seems.
*update*
sasktel recently rolled out 5/640 upgrades to anyone within 2.5km of the CO, in most of the major centers. I'm lovin it. Much awaited boost in speed, and so welcome lol.
*update*
still good solid service, no bittorrent throttling and decent PINGs to gaming services.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of SaskTel Saskatchewan |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by biles
Posted: 5.9 years ago
member for 7.8 years, 1207 visits, last login: 47 days ago
Regina,SK
$45 per month
about 60 days
 segNet Technologies
"Download speed is high"
"pings are blocked, upload speed is extremly slow"
"costs more for cable and get less"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Down 1500 Up 128 on basic high speed package. Uses dynamic ip's.Speed Stream and Westel modems. No USB connections to the modem. They have a self install package that is fairly easy to understand. If you get high speed lite you get 128 up and down. Pings are disabled. They say it is because people wern't protecting themselves against the blaster worm and they won't re-enable it. Arranged to set up interent 2 months before and then got self install and they didnt' tell the installer that I picked that up. It costs $5-10 more than Cable and Cable is 1meg both ways. Had problems with service and they said there was nothing wrong on their end and they would send someone to the connections to check and as soon as they did it worked but they still claimed it wasn't their fault.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of SaskTel Saskatchewan |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by Sumache16
UPDATED: 6.4 years ago
member for 8.7 years, 46 visits, last login: 6.4 years ago
Canada
$75 per month
about 3 days
"Very fast; reliable; on 24/7; cheap channel packages."
"Tech support a bit slow; download is oddly slowed big time when you are uploading at speeds over 20KB/s."
"Excellent speed for a good price (Sasktel MAX included in package) and good selection of channels."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Originally about 2 years ago I only had the normal high speed package. It was good with a ok price tag and speed. Now I stepped up the the Sasktel MAX package (high speed internet and internet(?) tv). My download speeds have nearly trippled after (going from average of about 180KB/s to 500KB/s!! =)) getting MAX. Upload on the other hand stayed the same but I found out I can upload to 3 people simultaneously at the same constant speed of 15KB/s compared to 1 person at that speed. I believe Sasktel MAX is a good value with only a $20 increase in price to your already existing line (they give you 20 more channels and a free switch and a new modem thats always on). If you want to add on packages it actually pretty darn cheap too. Only $5 per add on package and $20 for 5 packages (take that Shaw  )! The price also includes unlimited local calls too : ) They also got a new thing on now. Add another television to the Max program for only an extra 3 bucks a month. Pretty cheap!
Installation went very smoothly. He came and went and answered all question I had and taught how to use the darn remote and he even kept all the wires neat like I like them!
Tech support is slooooooow. Both times I had to phone in I had to wait at least 20 minutes before I could get help. They really oughta hire some new guys.
A odd thing I should point out is that when I play over Battle.net on a game called Starcraft:Brood War or Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is that people can rarely join my game. They usually get a message saying Latency too High but then again I play on the U.S. East Server for the sake of more people and games.
Otherwise...thats about it. Enjoy!
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of SaskTel Saskatchewan |
| »next review in page (previous review)
 Review by Big Sis
Posted: 7 years ago
member for 7.4 years, 230 visits, last login: 3.4 years ago
Regina, SK
$45 per month
about 3 days
"Seem pretty reliable for overall service"
"Long waits on the phone for technical support"
"It's a good ISP for me... Of course, it's not for everyone"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
We got DSL service when it first came to Regina. I know it's been a few years already. They offered free installation and a couple of free months service to sign up. They were quick to coordinate and have someone come out to connect everything for me. I believe it was about 3 days a the most.
We did have some initial problems, but SaskTel was quick to come out (after hours) and found out it was a faulty dsl modem, which they replaced quickly.
Home equipment at the time was only a 486 pc... (how primitive), but still, it was much faster than dialup! That computer has since gone to the computer part store in the sky and has been replaced by a classic pentium 200mHz, with a mere 96 mb of ram and an 80gb hard drive.
I'm happy with SaskTel, as they also provide my regular phone service and cellular service. They have always been very good to us, so why would I switch??
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of SaskTel Saskatchewan |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by bunnicula
Posted: 7.1 years ago
member for 7.1 years, 2 visits, last login: 7.1 years ago
Saskatoon,SK
$22 per month
about 4 days
"Reliable, inexpensive, fast enough for us, excellent Usenet services"
"Very little"
"It's everything we want and more than we need!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
We started with SaskTel on 56k dial-up about 3 or four years ago. Because of Chrismas and summer specials we have NEVER had to pay for installation or equipment! Switched to high-speed about a year ago and then to high-speed light (limit of about 160k throughput) a few months later (no costs for either change) because the price was only Cn$5 more than what we would be paying for dial-up service. We have never had to wait for more than 8 calendar days for installation.
We have had very few problems with them. When a front-line tech support hasn't been able to assist (everything from slow connections to security problems) we have received support from someone higher up the tech hierarchy within two days. With the exception of the recent 3 day upgrade of all their news servers, we have lost parts of their service for a total of perhaps 12 hours over three years!
We and others seem to have consistent speed (except when their is A LOT of users online--first day of school holidays, etc.) and only slows marginally at the worst times. Usenet/Newsgroup and e-mail access with SaskTel has always been excellent.
Compared to customers of other high-speed companies and Sympatico cutomers from other geographies we and everyone we know who have been customers with SaskTel have been very satisfied and have had very few access and speed problems. We also know many people who have switched to other companies and then returned to SaskTel. We know of no one who switched from a different company and went back to the other company.
One further point: We find it absolutely wonderful to get our monthly bill included with our telephone bil--one bill to pay to a homegrown company and no extra charges to anyone or need for extra credit cards!
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of SaskTel Saskatchewan |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by Reinkens
Posted: 8 years ago
member for 8 years, 57 visits, last login: 3.7 years ago
Calgary,AB
$45 per month
about 21 days
"Speed doesn't fluckuate, reliable"
"Dynamic ip"
"It is a whole lot better than dial up"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I have been with sasktel dsl since the beginning when my town was the first place to get high speed. I was not impressed then with the service and I am still not, but back then the poor service was a minor set back compared to the unbelievable speed.
It first started off with them not showing up to do the installation on the set date and having to wait an extra week for them to do the installation. Then my modem broke down that day and had to be replaced, which only tock one extra day. Now after over two years of subscribing to dsl I called and wanted my old alcatel 1000 adsl modem replaced with the new westell modems they are using and they wont do it. They have also shut down my connection with out a warning or a notice. I spent days trying to figure out what I had done to my computer before calling the tech line to find out that they shut me down because I used extra ip address for computers on my network. (I realize that that should not be done but they could have called to tell not to do it).
As for the tech support staff, I can not comment much on them except for the one person I have talked to who tried to tell me that you should never share any internet connection with other computers even if you have a firewall and a Linux box setup as a router ("It is unsafe"). - you may as well cut off your computer from the outside world then.
The value compared to other high speed providers is expectable but the fees are ridiculous. They were going to charge me a fee of $100 to $200 for installing a new high-speed outlet in a different room. I ended up spending 15 minutes of my time to do it my self for free.
Sasktel high speed could be allot better if you did not have to buy that software that is said to be required and if you could buy your own high speed modem to cut down on the monthly fees.
The only good I can say about Sasktel highspeed is the speed is good and there is barely no downtime.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of SaskTel Saskatchewan |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by andymack
Posted: 8.6 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 7 visits, last login: 8.2 years ago
Saskatoon,SK
$45 per month
about 10 days
"The speed was pretty good."
"The technical support sucked unless you were able to have Tier 2."
"The price is not bad, but for the service they are providing, it's not that great."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
SaskTel's technical support was very poor. Most technicians on the front lines were very unfamiliar with everything and were only familiar with the sheets they had in front of them. There were a few exceptions, but generally speaking, my experience with technicians were of one that made me very disappointed.
SaskTel also have been surcharging my phone line about $5 per month just for the high speed service. Then you have to include the price of the server each and every month. These hidden costs were very frusterating when I figured out the cost of having DSL from my phone bill.
The speed with SaskTel is pretty decent. When downloading from webservers outside of Saskatchewan I was able to get speeds that were over 150 but under 180 kilobytes per second. But a lot of servers inside Saskatchewan were substantially slower.
The mail server seemed to be down more than it was up, however this did change in the last few months that I was with them.
When I first signed up I was told that there was going to be no specials for a couple of months so I signed up because I didn't want to wait the few months that it was going to be until they gave a deal. Within days of the installation they were offering a free installation deal and a free month. They claim that their employees do not know when these deals are going to be coming up. But they also ignored the complaint that I made about this. There was also another surcharge because they were charging extra to re-wire the phone jack for the high speed which was on top of the $150 install fee. Therefore my total cost for the first month of DSL was up to about $250 plus tax.
SaskTel is now offering several different DSL plans. I was on the cheapest plan per month which offered a dynamic IP address.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of SaskTel Saskatchewan |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by jeff.apshkrum
Posted: 8.6 years ago
(review was emailed from domain sk.sympatico.ca)
undisclosed location
$40 per month
"Great Speed"
"Get it NOW!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Hi!
I have been on DSL here in Saskatchewan for a while now and it is kick ass.
In fact, Saskatchewan was the first place in North America to get widespread
DSL service. It is a great testing bed because of its relatively small
population of 1 million people. The download speeds usually range from
40k/s minimum to 250k/s or so, although I thing we have a lot more bandwidth
but I haven't found a good enough server yet. I downloaded a 100Mb file at a
constant 230k/s yesterday from a Canadian server, but even overseas servers
are quite fast. Upload speeds range from 20k/s to over 100k/s using a
program such as Napster or WinMX. There aren't any obvious differences in
speed during off and peak hours. It is fast all the time. They also have a
very good tech support staff. They actually know what they are talking
about, they aren't just reading out of a case book. Thanks!
Jeff Apshkrum
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of SaskTel Saskatchewan |
|
|
SaskTel Saskatchewan
