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 Review by FusionGuy 
UPDATED: 136 days ago
member for 6.7 years, 1477 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 undisclosed location
 $88 per month
 "Solid connection. Speed is at 6Mb now. Digital cable i-Guide is great."
 "Small amount of webspace. Having issues with digital cable."
 "Decent cable company. No major complaints."
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Very good service. I wish they gave out webspace for each e-mail account or increase the single amount. The speed is advertised at 6Mb and it does comes close (+/- 5800kbps) to that although I wish 7Mb or higher was in the near future.
Just purchased their entry level digital terminal (Motorola DCT700) for $39.99. I'm still getting used to the slight pause after changing a channel. It's not like regular cable where you can speed through the channels. Digital cable is fine but am having pixelization at random times. If this does not improve I will be forced to return the terminal and go back to standard cable.
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 Review by harwoodr
UPDATED: 184 days ago
member for 5.9 years, 2198 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Hamilton,ON
$80 per month
"Didn't need a business phone line - ruling out DSL business packages."
"Some stability issues when first installed - new subdivision with construction"
"I like it... worth the money."
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I'm using the business edition... works well. I've also added on their phone service and it's wonderful.
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Review by Marcer
UPDATED: 189 days ago
member for 1.1 years, 238 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Hamilton,ON
$120 per month
 about 15 days
"Connection fairly reliable"
"Slooooow speeds, staff not knowledgeable"
"Better than Bell, but would consider going elsewhere"
| Pre Sales information:
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I've been a Mountain Cable subscriber for over 3 years and I can't believe that they still lag behind the market when it comes to internet speed, and channel offerings.
That being said, I have only positive things to say about their phone service.
Their technical support is friendly, and courtious, but still comes up lacking any time me or my wife have to contact them. At this point, she won't even deal with them, she waits until I am home. She feels that they belittle her and treat her like she knows nothing. I can't get a straight answer when I ask a question and often have a representative who has little idea about what I am talking about.
Their cable television services are behind the market as well, with very little VOD content (that being said I should be thankful they have even started offering it) and no option of a la carte pricing for single digital channels.
The price is reasonable, but I'd be happy to throw some extra $$ their way every month for faster speeds.
**Correcting:
I haven't run a speedtest in a while (as speeds off of mountain's speed test are NOT the speed out to the web), but that being said, the upstream speed is "improved" ( but still not as fast as I'd like to see it).
I had not seen the availability for A la Carte pricing unit Mike pointed it out, That being said, I am still against being forced to take the timeshifting channels (most other providers let you choose the theme pack to be included) and also let you "build" theme packs.
Finally with regards to # of channels I'll have to get back to you on that
Followup comments:  
MikeG
Premium
join:2004-10-02
Hamilton, ON
 ·Mountain Cable
 ·Bell Sympatico
edit:
February 21st, @10:14PM
| Corrections.. It seems like im always defending Mountain Cable around here but...
The speeds are now 6mbps / 512kbps , not 384kbps.
quote:
I've been a Mountain Cable subscriber for over 3 years and I can't believe that they still lag behind the market when it comes to internet speed, and channel offerings.
They offer 334 channels, if you have the numbers for a comparable company, please post them.. im curious to know how many channels they offer(seriously).
Comparing Mountain Cable to Cogeco, Rogers, and Bell is fine, but obviously they aren't going to be 100% the same. You have to take into account that Mountain has 40,000 customers, Cogeco has 857,221(1,156,157 if you include Portugal), Rogers has 2.3 million. They don't have nearly the amount of resources available as the others.
I have nothing to say about tech support, I don't call them so i don't know what they're like now.
VOD i can agree with you on, however, they just started offering it and have 10 free categories avail.(though some are rarely updated...)
And.. a la carte pricing is available
»www.mountaincable.net/index.php?···s#themes
$1.99 for each channel, Cogeco is $2.49, cant find Rogers price.
edit: approximately
source cable: 288 channels.
persona:395 channels
compton comm.: 297 channels
--
Success is measured by effort.
Discover Hamilton | |
| | Marcer
join:2007-07-08
Hamilton, ON
·Mountain Cable
| Re: Corrections.. said by MikeG :They offer 334 channels, if you have the numbers for a comparable company, please post them edit: approximately source cable: 288 channels. persona:395 channels compton comm.: 297 channels Well... I get:
273 Channels (including the Superchannel channels)
298 Channels (if I include the 25 Super Sports Pack Channels) and
359 total Channels (if i also include the analog mirrors in the 900's) | |
| | |
MikeG
Premium
join:2004-10-02
Hamilton, ON
·Mountain Cable
·Bell Sympatico
edit:
February 22nd, @04:02PM
| Re: Corrections.. said by Marcer :said by MikeG :They offer 334 channels, if you have the numbers for a comparable company, please post them edit: approximately source cable: 288 channels. persona:395 channels compton comm.: 297 channels Well... I get: 273 Channels (including the Superchannel channels) 298 Channels (if I include the 25 Super Sports Pack Channels) and 359 total Channels (if i also include the analog mirrors in the 900's) Are those #s for Source, persona & compton or for Mountain?
I counted every channel(including supersprtspak+music channels). I did not count analog repeats and "on demand" channels.
The # for Mountain isnt official, i just counted off their channel guide »www.mountaincable.net/index.php?···el_guide
Edit:Just recounted.. 280 without PPV channels + Super sports pack.
323 with PPV + SSP.
323+ 70(?) analog repeats = 393
Iduno lol.
--
Success is measured by effort.
Discover Hamilton | |
| | 
travisc
join:2001-11-09
Port Perry, ON | I think we have more than 297 channels at Compton. | |
| | | | | | | Marcer
join:2007-07-08
Hamilton, ON | Re: Corrections.. I cut and pasted mountain's line-up into excel and extracted the #s from there | |
| | | | |
MikeG
Premium
join:2004-10-02
Hamilton, ON
·Mountain Cable
·Bell Sympatico
| Re: Corrections.. I used openoffice "calc" (spreadsheet program) to count the channels today.
I got 313 total channels, & 374 w/ analog repeats.
Attached the documents
--
Success is measured by effort.
Discover Hamilton | |
| | | |
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 Review by siouxie
UPDATED: 193 days ago
member for 3 years, 912 visits, last login: 13 days ago
Ontario
$39 per month
about 30 days
"Excellent connectivity most of the time, still good value. No contract!"
"Speed"
"Great Company, good tech support, more speed would be better."
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Update - one year on..
I love the fact that Mountain Cable do not require a contract. Rather than tie you down legally they rely on the fact that they provide a great service at a competitive price and people CHOOSE to stay with them. Their tech support is excellent and when you call them they are able to answer your questions and/or rectify your problem. There is no "it's your computer excuses" with MC!! (unlike Bell!)
Mountain Cable still impress me, my speeds are consistant (although I wish it was a little faster) and I have not had any problems with the service. Any contact with their sales or tech department has been to ask questions only. A real person answers the phone!
I still get the occasional dropped call but I think it has more to do with the phone system we have than the service. If the phone is running out of charge it tends to go into "searching" mode.
I have every intention of remaining with MC for the foreseeable future.
Update.
I am still very happy with MCV, the only problem I have had is with the telephone. I have had problems with dropped calls lately (searching for signal) and with the intermittant problem of people not being able to get through. I wish the speed was faster, particularly as my 5 month "discount" is about to end and I will be paying around $39 which is not much different to other ISP's.
All in all, I would not go back to Sympatico, but may have to seriously think about returning to Bell for the landline if the telephone problems don't stop - something I really do not want to do.
____
I gave Sympatico 30 days notice, hence the 30 days from order to success.
I managed to get a very good price as we bundled several applications, plus they had a promotion going.
The technician/installer arrived in the midst of a major snowstorm and didn't hesitate to wade through over 4 feet of snow to check the phone line connection at the rear of the property. He installed an Arris telephone modem and also gave me a free Panasonic digital phone.
I had a minor issue with the e-mail set up but this was resolved after posting in the forum (Mountain Cable Forum - thanks MikeG) and calling MC technical support. I was impressed by the helpfulness of the support team.
Speed was initially a little on the slow side but within hours came up to 4.6Mbps on normal surfing and 12Mbps on tests to MC's site. Impressive!
Overall my initial impression of Mountain Cable is extremely positive.
.
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Review by MrShag
UPDATED: 261 days ago
member for 2.1 years, 426 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Hamilton,ON
$130 per month
about 7 days
"Its al down hill"
"Speed, customer service, price,"
"switch if you can."
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After months and months of poor billing.
And despite having paid our amount, MC has decided to cancel our service in 2 days.
The bill is confusing. Our receipt say that we paid them at the end of November, and that now we owe them 400$.
I think the way they treat customers is a lot like bell. Once they get you hooked, then they really don't care what-soever.
Even with all the crap rogers is putting their customers through. We have no choice,.
__old
I opted for the mid-speed package. I also went for the all-in-one. I got the digital cable, high-speed access, and telephone.
They did the install for free. The guy who showed up was very knowledgeable, and helpful.
Any customer support issue was addressed right away. No waiting on the phone for hours like Bell. It isn't very hard to find someone that will listen to what you need.
As noted before, this company definitely needs to upgrade its speed. I came from Cogeco,
I was at around 10k down.Right now, on the same package, I am pulling 5 at best. The overall package is more expensive. I am using all three. With cogeco there was no long-distance charges to anyone in North America. Its too bad, that there is no speed increase planned. I am sure that If I heard cogeco would be at my building, I would switch back.
Cogeco raised everyones rate by 2 dollars or so. But then doubled the speed. I can live with something like that.
Followup comments: 
Annoner
@mountaincable.net
| Cogeco Cogeco is $10 a month more compared to Mountain for the medium bundle. Thats because Cogeco upped their prices $5/mo more last month without adding anything to their bundle.
Cogeco charges for installation and no-fault service calls. Mountain doesn't charge for either.
Cogeco enforces a strict bandwidth limit which suspends your internet for the remainder of the month on the third notice. Mountain has no bandwidth limit whatsoever.
Mountain's service calls are placed at same level priority as it's other services, and are known for same-day or next-day appointments. Cogeco is not next day for Hamilton. Never has been, never will be.
Cogeco throttles sharing, and slows your connection speeds down the first time your internet is suspended for bandwidth abuse. Mountain doesn't throttle speeds/ports.
Cogeco's email does not have any form of spam control, and is the most complained about feature among their customers. Mountain's incoming mail server is spam controlled.
Cogeco outsources 80% of it's staff. Mountain is all Mountain Cable employees with computer backgrounds (Cogeco is focused primarily on customer service, not technical so they hire anybody).
If you want to get into phone and cable, Cogeco uses VOIP so when the modem goes down so does your phone. Mountain has a direct phone line. Cogeco charges a $15 activation fee to activate your digital receivers. Mountain doesn't charge, nor do they even need an "activation" to be sent to the receiver. The technicians decide where the modem goes at Cogeco. At Mountain you can pick anywhere in your house.
Ive been a Mountain subscriber my whole life, and I've worked at Cogeco for 6 years.
| |
|
ANNON123ROGERS
@cgocable.net
| Wrong on Cogeco Cogeco enforces a strict bandwidth limit which suspends your internet for the remainder of the month on the third notice. Mountain has no bandwidth limit whatsoever.
WRONG IT"S ACTUALLY 2 WARNINGS, 3 SUSPENSIONS THE 3RD IS TILL THE END OF THE MONTH.
Mountain's service calls are placed at same level priority as it's other services, and are known for same-day or next-day appointments. Cogeco is not next day for Hamilton. Never has been, never will be.
COGECO DOES HAVE NEXT DAY SERVICE CALLS FOR HAMILTON UNLESS THE TECHS ARE FULLY BOOKED THIS ONLY HAPPENS RARELY AND USUALLY IN THE SEPT. ONLY
Cogeco throttles sharing, and slows your connection speeds down the first time your internet is suspended for bandwidth abuse. Mountain doesn't throttle speeds/ports.
WRONG AGAIN COGECO DOES NOT HAVE THE NETWORK TOOLS AND CAPABILITY TO DO THAT.
Cogeco's email does not have any form of spam control, and is the most complained about feature among their customers. Mountain's incoming mail server is spam controlled.
THAT'S WHY MANY CUSTOMER'S OF MOUNTAIN HAVE IMPORTANT EMAILS MISSING AS THE POOR FILTER CONSIDERS ACTUALLY IMPORTANT EMAILS AS SPAM, JUST TERRIBLE.
Cogeco outsources 80% of it's staff. Mountain is all Mountain Cable employees with computer backgrounds (Cogeco is focused primarily on customer service, not technical so they hire anybody).
NOT ANYMORE COGECO DOES NOT OUTSOURCE THE MAJORITY OF IT'S STAFF AS OUTSOURCING ACTUALLY COSTS COGECO MORE. AS FOR THE TECHNICAL STAFF MOST ARE COMPUTER SCIENCE GRADUATES FROM VARIOUS INSTITUTIONS
If you want to get into phone and cable, Cogeco uses VOIP so when the modem goes down so does your phone. Mountain has a direct phone line. Cogeco charges a $15 activation fee to activate your digital receivers. Mountain doesn't charge, nor do they even need an "activation" to be sent to the receiver. The technicians decide where the modem goes at Cogeco. At Mountain you can pick anywhere in your house.
COGECO TECHS ALWAYS ASK THE CUSTOMER WHERE THEY WOULD LIKE THE MODEM PLACED.
Ive been a Mountain subscriber my whole life, and I've worked at Cogeco for 6 years.
I HAVE WORKED FOR THE CITY OF HAMILTON AS NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR AND COGECO AS IT MANAGER. NOW I WORK AS SERVICE MANAGER FOR ROGERS AND .... WELL WE WON'T EVEN GO THERE. | |
| |
MikeG
Premium
join:2004-10-02
Hamilton, ON | Re: Wrong on Cogeco Actually Mountain's spam filters only tag emails suspected of spam, they are all delivered to the recipient.
That right there pretty much kills your credibility for me. | |
| | | | | Leokul
join:2007-12-08
Caledonia, ON
·Mountain Cable
| All I have to say is...
roflmao.
You worked at Cogeco eh? What department? Billing?
Haha. Computer science graduates eh? Hmm... that'd funny, 'cause I know of 4 people alone that do tech support for Cogeco and they have absolutely no computer/cable TV background whatsoever. But hey, believe what you will. | |
| | | Leokul
join:2007-12-08
Caledonia, ON | Re: Wrong on Cogeco . | |
| | AJS
join:2005-11-13
Hamilton, ON
·Mountain Cable
| I can't say that I've ever missed an email that someone sent to me. As MikeG states "Mountain's spam filters only tag emails suspected of spam". This is true.
Canada and Internet Services have one thing in common. You have the right to come and go as you please.
As far as the service staff at Mountain, it's the best I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with. | |
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Review by Leokul
UPDATED: 265 days ago
member for 265 days, 12 visits, last login: 147 days ago
Caledonia,ON
Contract price not specified.
"Everything."
"Nothing."
"This is the best ISP I have ever come across."
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If you look at the ranking for fastest downloads for Canada...
15 76 7690 1449 Mountain Cablevision
20 876 6346 544 Cogeco
25 1 5850 5730 Bell Canada Sympatico
28 164 5435 480 Cogeco Cable
MountainCable has 76 samples, and still CRUSHES the upload on both of Cogeco's servers, and the download is still higher. Bell... well, forget Bell.
I have had MountainCable for as long as it's had service here in the small town of Caledonia.
We have had a cable outage... never. Not a single day or hour without service in 10+ years.
That's hard to beat.
I have called their technical support about 3 times in all these years because I haven't had any problems. All 3 times, the agent was patient, and pleasant to talk to, always giving me the information I needed.
I know that other people have individual issues, such as speeds, etc., but in my personal
experience with Mountain, I have had NOTHING but blazing speeds.
Give me a break here people... the speeds we're "supposed" to get are 5mbps down, and I'm assuming 640kbps/1mbps upload.
EVERY SINGLE speed test I've run from their own speed test has come up with 10mbps+ download, and 1.5mbps upload. That, is incredible, considering what I've been paying for all these years.
And just for fun, I did a speed test on the Cogeco speed test. Even there, I got 6.5mbps down, and 750kbps up. Still on the same connection.
Here's the kicker - I work for Cogeco (and no - i'm not new there by any means), doing technical support for cable, internet, and VoIP service. I know it sounds bad coming from an employee of Cogeco to talk about how great MountainCable is, but I cannot sit back and watch people praise Cogeco like it's an ISP God.
Cogeco's cable system is old, and crap, unless you live in Burlington or the surrounding area. The residential clients who are on the residential standard package, are supposed to be getting "up to" 10mbps down, and 640kbps up.
Guess what... that doesn't happen. Even the people who are paying through the roof for their 16mbps premium package, and all the business customers who are supposed to be getting the same download speed, are hardly getting 10mbps.
So... you pay for 16mbps, and you get 10mbps? Right... have fun with that.
Anyway, to put this as bottom-line:
Mountain Cablevision is, by far, the best ISP you can have, permitted you're in their cable system.
All of you who say Cogeco is amazing - well.... you're just lucky you haven't had problems. But you can still kick yourself in the back of the head when you realize that Mountain's "5mbps" download is actually faster than your "10mbps" connection.
Don't forget the upload difference 
You want proof?
"Speed tests: mountaincable.net - 9801/1927 kbit (130 samples last 14 days)"
Oh... and the unlimited bandwidth. And the Newsgroups are incredible.
That's my 4 cents.
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Review by MikeG
UPDATED: 275 days ago
member for 3.9 years, 1832 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Hamilton, ON
$40 per month
about 7 days
"Organized, Latency, Cust. Service"
"could be faster.."
"Good service."
| Pre Sales information:
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::Update - Nov. 28/07::
Speeds have been increased to 6/512 along with a $1 increase.
____________________________________________________________________
The speeds are consistent but thats about it. At 5/384, they are the slowest provider in Hamilton. The two other cablecos in Ham are both faster (Source & Cogeco), and its not just them. There are many other cable ISPs which offer much faster speeds at/close to the same price.
Rogers 7/512 for $44.95, the same price as Mountain's Express @ 5/384 w/ no bundle.
Nexicom 7mbps for $39.95
Source 6/512 for $36.95
Time Warner 10/512 for $44.95 (no bundles - same price as Mountain)
Buckeye Express 7/512 for $44.99
Bresnan ( »www.bresnan.com/data/ ) 8mbps for $39.95
ACI 9/1 for $41.95
Cogeco 10/640 for $42.95
Compton HSI 7.5/640 for $42.00
Monarch Cable 5/1.5! for $34.95
I can keep going, but i think I got my point across.
_________________________________________________________________________
::Update - March 3/07::
No major complaints. Upload is still the only real problem.. which is why I've changed my rating slightly. Also adjusted the price, as the promo term has ended. There haven't been any service interruptions.
The modem's battery works - power had gone out on Feb. 27th for a couple minutes.
Email support is pretty quick.
Newsgroups are great, speed is consistent (no slowdowns) and the Arris modem is doing a fine job. Haven't had to reboot this modem since getting the service ( around 7months ).
_________________________________________________________________________
::July - 2006::
I ordered their 5meg service with Home phone & digital cable. The total is around $100 per month for all 3 services. The installation process went perfectly. They said the installation tech would come between 3pm and 5pm - he was here at 2:54pm. He installed and ran the cable, phone line, and upgraded our cable package and was finished at 3:50pm or so. They gave me an Arris Touchstone Telephony modem( TM402G). The modem controls the internet as well as the phone service, and also a backup battery if the power goes out. It lasts around 8-12 hours according to the spec sheet. So far so good.
I'm paying a lot less a month for all 3 services, receiving 4 more mbps on the d/l(distance limited me to 1mbps DSL), 15 new stations, and digital phone service with free caller ID, call waiting, voice mail, plus the free Panasonic 5.8ghtz cordless phone which was part of the promo.
Attached images and files
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 Review by twizlar
UPDATED: 277 days ago
member for 4.6 years, 2309 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Brantford,ON
$49 per month (24 month contract)
about 20 days
"Fast, Reliable, LATENCY"
"None Really"
"WAY better than dial-up and satellite"
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I Recently received mountaincable's residential wireless connection, first off let me say i have been STUCK on 26.4kbps for the last 5 years as bell has refused to upgrade lines to even achieve anything close to 53k. When i first ordered the service then sent an installer/surveyer out to test the signal levels, he climed up on the roof and said that there was no signal at all (i was not home at the time). I found this odd as several people i know have the service that are lower than us and live farther away from the tower. I called them back and said i would like a surveyer to come back out because i didn't think the first one had properly searched for the signal. Took a few weeks of rescheduling appointments and such but finally someone came out to take a look on Friday April 30th, he climbed up our tv tower and found a 6dB signal. Now where he was is almost the same height as the roof that the other guy was on so i don't know HOW he didn't get signal. The guy was here like 10 mins and he said he would put in the work order on Tuesday (yesterday) the same guy came back installed the wireless receiver, pole and cable on top of our tv tower, and also removed our aerials for us. Second tech showed up 2 hours later with the modem hooked it up gave me the info and it was off and running. The service is amazing considering how far we are from the tower 20+ miles, and the latency is amazing for playing online games i get 30 - 35ms to most sites. The service is rated at 1mbit/128kbps i get ~ 920kbps/120kbps with download spikes up to about 1.4mbps. I don't download that much anyways but it sure is nice for those updates or demos really anything, it just blows dial-up out of the water. This morning it was cold, rainy, and VERY foggy out, so i did a speed and ping test and i was still getting the same for both, as the one worry i had about wireless was that the weather could affect it. Apparently it doesn't, also mountain cable runs @ 3.5ghz so there is no interference with it. I highly recommend this ISP, if you are stuck in dial-up this service is comparatively amazing.
tim
UPDATE: Speed is still awesome, as well as great tech support. They sent out new modems a little while ago and it has made the service even faster and i now have better latency.
UPDATE: Server is still rock solid.
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Review by krauserx15
UPDATED: 335 days ago
member for 2.2 years, 39 visits, last login: 335 days ago
undisclosed location
$53 per month
"Unlimited Bandwidth"
"Slow Upload, Only 5 Mbit Download, Connection Reliability"
"Beats DSL, But Isn't Impressive As A Leading Cable Company"
| Pre Sales information:
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SEPT 30/2007
Connection has gone to shit for the past month, I've been getting terrible ping in games and my downloads through port 80 seem throttled. Not only that, but massive internet black outs that went on for days, what the hell is going on? THEY STILL HAVEN'T UPDATED THEIR DOWNLOAD/UPLOAD SPEED, sigh.
JUNE 11/2007
Still having an issue with Steam, given up hope, technical support has no clue what's going on or they won't tell me. Connection is still reliable, upload speed is still complete utter garbage, the download is still decent but could be much better, I'm still getting ripped off paying $52.95 a month and finally I'm still waiting for my $24.95 for 5 months promotional offer which was NEVER given to me.
Six Month Rating 89%, this is easy when your only competition is Bell.
JAN 16/2007
Speeds are looking good, connection hasn't went down yet. My only problem right now is, while playing CS: S, or any other "Steam" platform game the servers are giving me a lot of issues. When I log into my account, add the servers (1600) for CS:S, pick and choose the map I want, the game will either load half way then boot me out or load into the game and boot me out back into the server screen. Then, if I want to refresh I only get about 100 high ping servers back which are totally unacceptable.
TESTED:
PC
2 Onboard NIC
1 Provided NIC from Mountain Cable
Modem, Second Modem
2 Other PC's
2nd Line
Everything has failed, used to work on Cogeco/Source, I assume Mountain Cable is blocking something, that is what the software technician told me on the Steam Forums.
Tested PC at Mohawk's network labs on fiber and it passed.
JAN 05/2007
I've been a Cogeco customer for 7 years now and switching to Mountain Cable doesn't impress me at all. Had to switch because I moved from St. Catharines to go to school in Hamilton.
First of all, the person who came and installed my cable was a very cool guy, but the $150 price tag for a second line wasn't. It was very easy and quick to install the line; I really don't understand how it could have come to $150.
The deal was 49.99/Month for a second line, a rip-off I might add because the owner upstairs has Digital Cable and Phone from Mountain Cable and gets a discount on the Internet, yet I still have to pay as if I have nothing. The worst thing about it, I can't even get a promotional offer, biggest scam in history considering this is my first time ordering Mountain Cable. Doesn't it make sense to give me the promotional offer when they're screwing me on the part of not having TV/Phone with them... When, actually I do.
Now the speed, which isn't anything to brag about - well maybe 3 years ago. Even Sympatico has a higher upload, now that’s pretty sad. Though, the download speed is decent but nothing like Cogecos 10 Mbit down connection for a cheaper price. The unlimited bandwidth is kind of nice, I bet I'd still get a call if I racked up 200 GB worth of bandwidth this month, heck I could even do that in a day. The pings are pretty low which is good, but game servers take a really long time to load.
The sales person kept telling me to buy a hub instead of getting a second line which was annoying because my reasons for getting the second line were very valid. Also, routers > hubs, you don't have to cough up 5.99 to Mountain Cable for that second IP.
The bottom line is, Mountain Cable is a decent ISP, but nowhere near the best and if I ever get a chance to switch to Cogeco, you can be sure that I’ll let 5 Mbit bite the dust.
Followup comments:
twizlar
I dont think so.
Premium
join:2003-12-24
Brantford, ON | hmm They definately do offer unlimited bw. I do several hundred gb per month on average and haven't gotten anything.
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AMD Athlon64 4000+ @ 2723mhz - mountaincable.net wireless Intarweb |Ipods SUCK | |
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MikeG
Premium
join:2004-10-02
Hamilton, ON
·Mountain Cable
·Bell Sympatico
| Well.. I do agree with the speed issue, but Mountain's only competition is Bell. Thats not really an excuse, but Mountain is much much smaller than Bell, and Cogeco. Source Cable isn't much faster at 6mbps, and both Rogers and Bell have 5Mbps plans, so really, you were spoiled having Cogeco. Cogeco is like the Videotron of Ontario.
Rogers Express:
5.0 Mbps; upload speed 384 Kbps.
Bell HS & HS Ultra:
5 Mbps; upload speed upto 800 Kbps.
Source HS:
6 Mbps; upload speed 512 Kbps.
Once Bell's Optimax service is more available than the current downtime Toronto, everyone else will raise speeds to compete.
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Success is measured by effort | |
| krauserx15
join:2006-05-20
·Mountain Cable
edit:
January 6th, @09:21PM
| ... Indeed, Cogeco was great - passed the bandwidth limit every month by 100 GB and they didn't care.
Bell on the other hand, even when they had their unlimited package, they still called me every month making sure that "I" knew how much I was downloading. Their new service is pretty nice, but a 80 GB bandwidth cap... Yuck and $ every GB after that is a nice try but no thanks.
What I like about Mountain Cable is all my speed tests are very close to the 5 Mbits they advertise, which is nice but still... I'd like to see it 7 Mbits at least and 512 kbits up. | |
| mtncbl4
Premium
join:2002-03-11
Hamilton, ON
| RE: krauserx15 Hello Mr Krauser...
My name is Bruce Marshall and I am the Technical Director for Mountain Cablevision.
I would like to thank you for your open and direct review.
Please call me at 905.389.1393 and I will gladly discuss Mountain Cablevision's policies with you and listen to any feedback / comments you have regarding Mountain's services.
Thanks, looking forward to chatting with you.
Bruce M. | |
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MikeG
Premium
join:2004-10-02
Hamilton, ON
·Mountain Cable
·Bell Sympatico
| - I play UT2004 & Urban terror and have not experienced any problems such as yours (being booted out / high lat on server list).
I use the ingame browsers & sometimes Xfire.
In UT i use filters, so I usually only ping around 400-500 servers. With xfire its the full 1300+.
You've been on both Source and Cogeco? (so you've lived in Ham. before moving in for school?)
As for the pricing, I would call them to adjust your billing. If you really do have their phone & TV you should be able to get the discount off the inet. Its actually cheaper than Cogeco when you compare them.
MC: 44.95 + 15% Tax = 51.69 (no cbl)
Cogeco: 47.95 + 15% Tax = 55.14 (no cbl)
MC: 39.95 (w/ cbl)
Cogeco: 42.95 (w/ cbl)
Bruce offered to speak with you, maybe call him and see what can be done.
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Success is measured by effort.
Discover Hamilton, and it's Entertainment. | |
| | krauserx15
join:2006-05-20
·Mountain Cable
edit:
June 11th, @10:40PM
| Re: - The filtering system works a little different on UT04 then it does on the Steam platform. Even though I set "filters" it still continues to ping every server it can, yes I'm on Mountain Cable and yes this is their fault. I have no issues on any other ISP, the only solution I found was to a) Get my friends to find a game for me without using the server list or b) Use nmap to limit the pings that can be sent out each second, a great solution but not worth the pain and annoyance.
I know he left his number but I'm already aware that the policies suck. Maybe I'll give him a call in the distant future.  | |
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twizlar
I dont think so.
Premium
join:2003-12-24
Brantford, ON | Re: - No problems here with steam. Can join/ping any server and the server list without issue.
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AMD Athlon64 4000+ @ 2723mhz - mountaincable.net wireless Intarweb |Ipods SUCK | |
| | | | krauserx15
join:2006-05-20 | Re: - As can I, it's only games that have huge ping requests such as Counter-Strike. | |
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twizlar
I dont think so.
Premium
join:2003-12-24
Brantford, ON | i meant with CSS. | |
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U got ____
@bell.ca | Re: - Dam that sucks 53$ a month for that speed... you can get the same on DSL for 29$ a month | |
| | | | | AJS
join:2005-11-13
Hamilton, ON
·Mountain Cable
|  Mountain Cable
Al | |
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| Forums » comments on review of Mountain Cable |
| »next page (previous review)
Review by Harcroft
Posted: 1.2 years ago
member for 1.2 years, 8 visits, last login: 63 days ago
undisclosed location
Contract price not specified.
about 2 days
"Finally an alternative to Bell"
"Constant connection drops, throttling speed, poorly informed staff"
"I'd rather be back with Bell."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Upon moving into my new residence I found out that Bell's DSL was not supported in my area. So I immediately called up Mountain to get my Cable connection. Upon inquiring about speeds I was transferred to the Tech support department where I was quoted "45" as the download, and "30" for download speed. The tech had no clue what he was talking about, no mention of kbps or mbps. I had to contact a friend on Mountain's high speed service to get information regarding the speed. This is totally unacceptable from a 'world class ISP'. I can only assume the support agent means 4.5 megabits and 300 kilobits, not that Mountain advertises their speed as such.
Along comes installation day, the installer was friendly and helpful, he quickly installed and tested all 3 jacks he was connecting. Though one jack was painted over and I asked him to replace the female end of the connection, he didn't. He also left splitters and cable stapled on the baseboards of my walls rather than installing the connections in wall like he should have. When the installer was here I asked him if he knew about any ports that Mountain Cablevision blocks, stating that it was fine if he wasn't sure. He told me he was sure that there were no ports blocked whatsoever. But a 1 minute trip to the website tells a different tale. Enough about the installation.
Two days after the install date, I noticed a pattern of my internet service being interrupted for 2-3 minutes with 1-2 hour intervals. I thought it would be fine and I could live with that, when 4 more days go by and I'm noticing longer connection drops lasting up to 10 minutes. So I called up Technical Support after being disconnected for about 30 minutes one morning only to have the agent accuse me of using extra unauthorized extra splitters. I don't have enough devices to even connect to the current jacks I have, let alone use extra connections. After another 5 minutes of help, he tells me it's my router, which I had already ruled out by using the modem directly on one computer with the same timeout problem. The problem has still not been solved, though the support agent assured me it's my fault and that the modem was fine.
Three days later I actually start downloading some larger files and I find out I'm throttled! Why am I paying for 5mbps download if I only get 800kbps of it? Of course Mountain Cablevision makes no note of this on their website or when purchasing their service.
In closing I had several large issues with Bell, especially with their technical support division or lack thereof. But at least they offered consistent service without changing my connection speed randomly, or giving me random disconnects constantly. Being with Mountain Cablevision for just two weeks has shown me the caliber of the company, and I will be switching back to Bell Sympatico when their DSL service becomes available in my area. Don't switch to Mountain Cablevision unless you are left with no other choice.
Followup comments:
MikeG
Premium
join:2004-10-02
Hamilton, ON
·Mountain Cable
·Bell Sympatico
edit:
June 16th, @08:02PM
| -- They advertise their speed on their website.
When I had my installation about 9-10months ago I just told him what I wanted and he did it very nicely. The installer was a little hesitant on drilling in some places, but after I assured him this was what I wanted, and that he'd be able to fish the line in, etc. he was 100% for it.
If you want make a topic in the MC forum and I'll try to help you..run some tests.. I'd like to know more information, as I am not throttled and haven't experienced any disconnections in the 10months I've been connected.
Have you called in about the disconnects? ..you should have a service call. Have you checked your signal levels to see if they are within spec?
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Success is measured by effort.
Discover Hamilton, and it's Entertainment. | |
| | Harcroft
join:2007-06-16
·Mountain Cable
| Speed listing, Call ins, signal levels. I do understand Mountain Cablevision advertises their speed onsite. But that doesn't help a user who does not currently have internet. The Sales or Tech Support division should have this information on hand for such a scenario.
I did call in regarding the disconnects as stated in my review. Which lead to the support agent resetting my modem and blaming me for the whole issue.
I have not checked my signal levels as I do not know how, so I will be asking you for help in the forums about that. | |
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twizlar
I dont think so.
Premium
join:2003-12-24
Brantford, ON
·Mountain Cable
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| Re: Speed listing, Call ins, signal levels. Sounds like a problem with your specific line. Have them check your signal levels, or you can do it yourself by logging into the modem. Mountain Cable doesn't throttle anything whatsoever.
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AMD Athlon64 4000+ @ 2723mhz - mountaincable.net wireless Intarweb |Ipods SUCK | |
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