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Review by mugurd 
member for 12 years, 224 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 15 days ago
 Kanata,ON
 $50 per month "Fast install, good spped so far, nice modem/GW" "Communication can be difficult at times, one has to be patient" "Recommended...so far (too short of an experience to make this a definite)"
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(ratings match consensus)
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Modem arrived 5 days before install, a Technicolor (Thomson) DCW775. Nice piece of hardware but NO useful user guide whatsoever. Google being your friend, you will eventually be able to log in and even set it to bridge mode.
Rogers came in 10 min early on the day of the install (7.50am) which was impressive, did their work ( cabling was already all in place) and 1 hr later the activation went through and I got sync.
First tests (at that time of day) all went fine >50-60Mbps d/l and 4 Mbps u/l...I am on a 45/4 plan.
A week later I have no complaints, Rogers even dropped by this morning to check if I'm happy (?).
On average I get at least 20Mbps at peak times - that could drop if more people sign up in Kanata where I live.
A bit of a negative is the fact that it's hard to get your point across when dealing with the CSR so I gave up setting up automatic debit and caved in to allow VISA payments, although that's not what I wanted.
Bills could be more detailed, as I had a hard time understanding the 1 day prorated charge on mine...it was lumped into the monthly payment.
I can only hope things will get better with user feedback and patience. Same goes for the website - really bad and one can end up ordering the same service for higher price depending on the links.
Now what about that TV service? I cut BellTV 6 months ago and still couldn't find an alternative.
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Should mention I had Bell Fibe 25 before and not only I was paying a hefty price and only getting 16/4, but I got royally screwed when they started to offer unlimited. Despite being promised the service at an extra 10$/mth, I was charged the full extra 30 (a whooping 81$/mth AFTER DISCOUNTS) and I had to appeal to CCTS to have the charges reversed. I sill lost my old b/w plan (220GB) and Bell put me on 125GB for the increased price, What a nightmare - can't wait to cut my last 2 services with Bell after 15 years of being a loyal customer.
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 ·CIKTEL Telecom
| I spoke too soon... As I feared, speed dropped tonight to 2-3Mbps d/l and pings of 500ms to TO.
Online chat=useless...
I will update my ratings accordingly - don't want to mislead anybody due to the initial enthusiasm that quickly fades away.
»speedtest.net/result/2696385593.png | |
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Review by chickenla
member for 34 days, 9 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 22 days ago
- Mississauga,ON
- $63 per month
- (12 month contract)
 about 6 days- "Great value for money."
- "Some congestion issues during peak hours on some days."
- "Internet + IPTV + VOIP Service Bundle offers great value for Chinese customers."
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I was with Acanac for almost a year and a half. I have no complaints while I was with Acanac but I decided to jump to CIK Telecom for their Internet + IPTV + VOIP Service Bundle. I am paying $60 a month for the 45Mbit down and 4Mbit upload internet bundle plan. Cable modem, voip adapter and IPTV set top box are all extra but given to you for free if you prepay for an entire year's worth of service. I've prepaid for an entire year with Acanac before so I was not adverse prepaying with another company, at least this time I've received I get a free modem.
Since I was already with Acanac, there was almost no installation required since I had everything already setup. I still had to pay the $70 activation fee, a Rogers technician was sent but had to do almost no work while he was work.
The website looks poorly made and obvious they used some type of Chinese to English translator. It gets job I guess.
I received a technicolor dcm476 DOCSIS 3 modem, Grandstream HT502 VOIP adapter and MC100 IPTV set top box. The cable modem seems to be really hot so I have a small 45nm fan on the top off the modem to cool the device. I have not tried calling with VOIP yet, not until my number has been ported to Cik Telecom.
The IPTV set top box is an interesting device. it comes with a remote and it's actually a small android 4 device with a chinese soc 1ghz Cortex-A7 chip. It's fairly powerful, and can play my library of 1080p+ videos hosted on my file server no problem. There are also USB ports so you can actually mount harddrives and sdcards on the device for more space. Plus its a full fledged android device so you can install apps and even use a usb keyboard and mouse The channels free with the bundle are from China/Taiwan/Hong Kong so it's an alternative from the local Chinese channels.
The first day I was using this internet, the speed during peak hours was horrible. I was getting around 3-9mbps and huge pings. I called technical support late at night, apparently they are all Chinese workers in China so that allows them to have 24/7 support, and they have super thick accents. I told them about the congestion issue and they fixed it the next day.
The VOIP is great, call quality is decent, with unlimited canada wide calling included. The international calling plan is a three dollar upgrade with my plan
Overall the service is great on the west end of Mississauga. Provides great value for the money spent. I'd recommend the switch even if you need to watch Talentvision or Fairchild for Mandarin or Cantonese channels, you get the same TV shows directly from China and Hong Kong with set top and no need to pay for the over priced local tv channels @ bell or rogers which you can watch for free with an antenna or online.
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Review by DFW
member for 62 days, 12 visits, last login: 29 days ago
updated 54 days ago
- North York,ON
- $50 per month
- about 14 days
- "Inexpensive, full speed, dry loop fee included"
- "Nothing so far"
- "Ten days in, no complaints, full speed, no real congestion issues"
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First point: I was moving from bell 25/10 to Ciktel 25/10. Since the Bell service was pretty good, one could assume the lines were good here and the transition would be smooth. It was.
After issues with Bell retention people refusing to live up to offered terms twice while trying to renew, I cancelled Bell phone and 25/10 internet and had 30 days to find a replacement. Of course, near the end, I was waiting for the CRTC decision and isp reaction thereto like everyone else but not all ISP's formalized their plans in time for me to ensure uninterrupted service. I came across Ciktel on the forums here. I wanted to remain on dsl as I have had good results in this neighborhood whereas years prior thereto, York Mills was problematic for Rogers with congestion issues (why I moved to Bell) and from reading the forums, this can still be an issue for cable. So stick with what works.
It was a bit of a slog to figure out the actual pricing on the Ciktel website but the end result was that pricing seemed quite good: $49.99 including dry loop fee for unlimited 25/10, $99 for the Sagemcom dsl modem and $30 install fee. They seemed to be the winner on price but that is but one factor.
Searching for reviews proved a bit harder. There wasn't much out there. Some bad early reviews but I the few later ones were more positive. Some hints of a language issue so I chatted a couple of times with them online and made a few phone calls to the office and had no difficulty at all. Still, I would have liked more reviews on the service, congestion issues, whether there was a "soft cap" etc. But my Bell cancellation date was looming with wife and kids very nervous about any time at all without net and, to a lesser extent phone, and most third party isp's still digesting the CRTC costing decision. I had to make a decision. I was assured by Ciktel that there was no soft cap and, as the install fee was the lowest and the acquisition of a dsl modem necessary anyway, I bit the bullet and ordered online.
The online order was the only rough spot. I had signed up for voip.ms but that would do no good to contact me in between cancellation and new service so I reluctantly joined the cell phone ownership group. Apparently, there was a bit of a question on the online order and Ciktel called and left a message on my cell. Being unused to having such a device, I hadn't turned it on or checked voicemail and lost four days on the new install. Kids freaked but we bridged the gap seamlessly.
On install day, The Bell guy showed up early in the eight hour window and spent an hour doing whatever (as I said, I had Bell 25/10 to begin with) and answered a few questions I did have. I always liked the Bell tech guys. The office personnel, billing/csr's are a different creature altogether. As the modem had been delivered previously and I knew how to set it up, already had a vdsl splitter installed and the internal line to my modem is good, I was good to go. The Ciktel guy called just after the Bell guy left, we ran a few speed tests, he had Bell assign the correct profile and we were good. All went surprisingly smoothly with both Bell and Ciktel techs.
Over the past ten days of service, I have run frequent speed tests and tracerts to see how my pings were and to determine when any congestion issues would occur but, so far, pings are consistently good and there seems to be little in the way of congestion issues. It's a bit difficult to be sure with four other users in the house but, subjectively, the service is as good as I got with Bell directly. So far, no complaints.
I cannot comment on tech support as I have not had to avail myself of that yet. Only contact was with the initial install tech and he seemed knowledgeable.
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Review by moffa
member for 5.6 years, 358 visits, last login: 5 days ago
updated 64 days ago
- Ajax,ON
- $50 per month
- about 7 days
- "Service has been great"
- "Communication has been slightly difficult"
- "A good service"
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So checking around the forums I couldn't find any real reviews for this company. They are an ISP located in North York, ON. The customer service reps are all Chinese and while some have pretty heavy accents, they are understandable and understand me quite fine.
So far download speeds have always been great (25 Mbit). I had some issues with installation where the Bell tech didn't wire my modem properly, I tried to fix it myself but still had problems. CIK Tech Support sent another technician over and talking with Bell my profile was updated to 25/10.
Reliability has been good and tech support is helpful - their live chat feature is far better than waiting on hold on the phone.
After being patient dealing with the 25/7 vs 25/10 issue, I can say they are a good ISP and I recommend them.
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Review by saeedonweb
member for 358 days, 6 visits, last login: 220 days ago
lodged 220 days ago
- Scarborough,ON
- $39 per month
- about 7 days
- "The price"
- "The quality of service"
- "If you need a reliable connection, look elsewhere."
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I am disappointed in CIK Telecom's Internet connection speed. I am unable to view even youtube videos without buffering.
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Review by default0task
member for 10.9 years, 5079 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 1.6 years ago
- Niagara Falls,ON
- $36 per month
- about 3 days
- "Unlimited Bandwidth FAST"
- "no online bill payment."
- "Best bang for the buck"
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TPIA on Cogeco network.
Very Fast
Must have your own modem or buy one from them (50 bucks)
Self install.
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Review by laoxiang
member for 2 years, 0 visits, last login: 2 years ago
lodged 2 years ago
- North York,ON
- $56 per month
- (12 month contract)
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you are not able to get tech support and the download speed is only less than 3. my internet service get disconnected many times.
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Review by yan53
member for 2.6 years, 1 visits, last login: 2.6 years ago
lodged 2.6 years ago
- Newmarket,ON
- $49 per month
- (24 month contract)
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I use voip and internet from CIKTEL 49.99/month. But I got download speed never up 2m/s
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Review by AD950
member for 2.6 years, 7 visits, last login: 2.5 years ago
updated 2.6 years ago
- Scarborough,ON
- $36 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 10 days
- "Download/stream/latency is extremely slow at most times."
- "Better than dialup, at least."
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Package Details:
CIK Regular DSL Package;
Up to 7M
Unlimited download.
$36.99/month (Prepaid 1 year - $29.99/month)
(»www.ciktel.com/Main/Eng/Resident···ndex.asp)
I started using this service during January. Since then I've been using CIK Telecom for about 8 months now. I chose this provider because they advertised 7M download speed and unlimited download.
The first three months had no problems regarding speed. However, after 3 months, that's when the speed dropped dramatically. Sometimes, the speed even dropped below 2mb/s when testing using Speedtest.net. Whenever I wanted to use the internet, the speed never surpassed 3mb/s.
Customer service and technical support: Whenever I tried calling their telephone hotline (416-848-1517), the wait time is usually extremely long (half an hour to an hour) and the agent has a very thick and hard-to-understand accent. I've been complaining since April about the terrible speed, and CIK promised their performance will improve. However, they have yet to improve their speed and customer support, their performance has even declined since the first sign of poor-performance.
As mentioned above, I test my speed using www.speedtest.net, always choosing the nearest server. I strongly encourage all CIK Telecom users to test their speeds and post the results on this review.
Below you will find my speed test results during the month of September. (Note: Some images are hosted by imageshack because HTML is disabled, I cannot post the image here)
[DL: 1.67mb/s; UL: 0.56mb/s; ping: 69ms; 25/9/2010]
»www.speedtest.net/result/966367516.png
[DL: 1.67mb/s; UL: 0.40mb/s; ping: 96ms; 11/9/2010]
»img683.imageshack.us/i/sep11.png/
[DL: 2.96mb/s; UL: 0.66mb/s; ping: 64ms; 15/9/2010]
»img26.imageshack.us/i/sep15.png/
[DL: 1.48mb/s; UL: 0.55mb/s; ping: 63ms; 18/9/2010]
»img819.imageshack.us/i/sep18.png/
Tonight tested results.
[Download: 1.30mb/s; Upload: 0.65mb/s; ping: 65ms; 26/9/2010]
»www.speedtest.net/result/967511850.png
Do you think this speed worth $29.99 and you have to pay one year one-shot?
Extremely slow again.
[Download: 1.30mb/s; Upload: 0.60mb/s; ping: 69ms; 27/9/2010]
»www.speedtest.net/result/968513717.png
Here is the link about BBB (Better Business Bureau) Business Reliability Report for CIK Telecom.
BBB rating for CIK is D+.
BBB Accreditation: This company is not a BBB Accredited business.
»www.bbb.org/kitchener/business-r···-1174250
Today is CIK broke their old record. I recorded CIK’s new lowest speed:
[Download: 0.87mb/s; Upload: 0.63mb/s; ping: 65ms; 28/9/2010]
This is dialup speed. This is not high-speed internet as they advertised on their website.
Tomorrow I will go to their office to terminate the service. This is enough. I paid $29.99/month for the dialup service. Let this be a warning to all of you who is curious about CIK’s services.
»www.speedtest.net/result/971064303.png
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| | They service Canada? Their website is not in French nor English! Looks like their from another country across the pond. | |
| | yan53
join:2010-10-06
Newmarket, ON | Re: They service Canada? thay service canada .I also ask the tech help many times.I also want cancel this ISP. right now I use voip and internet from this Isp. this is so bad | |
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AD950
join:2010-09-24
Scarborough, ON | it is dishonest business practices Their telephone service team is in China. You actually talk to a service guy though their VOIP phone to China. That’s why you cannot hear each other clearly. When I complain the internet speed not as they described on the ad, they said on the ad the wording is “up to 7MB/s”. It is your problem not read ad carefully. Is there any way we can punish this kind of dishonest business practices. | |
| | | | Re: it is dishonest business practices check out the government site if u want to complain | |
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 Review by Gwai Lo Dan
member for 6.3 years, 2050 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 3.5 years ago
- St Catharines,ON
- $9 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 1 days
- "Low price, good call quality"
- "Not focussed on the English-speaking market"
- "Great value"
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Company is predominantly chinese, so calls are answered in chinese and the english version of the website has grammatical errors. They do speak English when you talk in English.
Also, the ATA is a very good deal - it is an RPT300 for $50 deposit. If you want to keep it, there are no further charges.
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