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 Review by BliZZardX 
UPDATED: 8 days ago
member for 7.4 years, 3120 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Toronto,ON
 $62 per month
 about 3 days
 Bell Canada
 "Fairly reliable, stable/low latency (if non-interleaved)"
 "Distance dependant, restrictive policies, routing"
 "Worth a try, wish they rid of the darned caps"
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February 1, 2010
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My relationship with Bell and Rogers is strange. I keep switching back and forth, it seems I'm not a very loyal customer.
I moved into an MDU sometime between now and my last review. Bell has racks of DSLAM equipment in our phone rooms, and offer both BES and Bell TV for Condos at a bargain price compared to Rogers. I couldn't resist. I don't use torrents or any p2p directly on my computers, so I'm unaffected by the throttling.
I wish the customer service reps stopped trying to sell me all those extra services every time I call in. One thing I did find useful though was the 40GB bandwidth insurance for $5/month. Unfortunately this can only be stacked to a maximum of three times. Other than that, connection reliability is excellent, and performance is relatively stable.
At the time of sign up I also had an account with TekSavvy, and my installer humorously suggested if I ever run over my bandwidth cap I can swap account details in the modem config. I was going to do that anyway, but that he suggested it himself was awesome!
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March 27, 2008
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4 years later...
The Sympatico Direct forum (»/forum/sympatdirect) was a useful and superb contribution to our community.
Other than that, they've turned to misleading advertising (no count for overhead loss), and outsourced support. There are problems with Sympatico's transit provider, I think, if they still refuse local peering and prefer intrusive traffic management over (well, truthfully in addition to) increasing capacity. I don't agree with their deep packet inspection experiments. I also disagree with their use of the new ADSL2 platform; I'd expected migration. Optimax should not be sold as a separate service. See entry below.
Overall, poor business practices. Canceled in September '07. These issues remain unresolved and affect everyone. Only fair to update.
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February 2nd, 2004
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Bell recently teamed up with Lucent Technologies (Newark, NJ) to provide a better service to its customers. "Bell Canada plans to invest up to $170 million to add 200,000 connections over a three-year period."
Related URL: »www.newswire.ca/en/releases/arch···122.html
Also, Bell has increased HSE from 1.5 to 3mbps and Ultra from 3 to 4mbps
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March 21st, 2003
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Update: The profile trial I'm on will soon be applied to all customers. Customers on the old Nortel platform will have their hardware swapped out with newer, DSLAM compatible equipment.
Related URL: »www.globetechnology.com/servlet/···/GTStory
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February 16th, 2003
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Got a new modem this Tuesday (EN SS5200). Fun to play with. Unfortunately Bells firmware locks every useful feature. I'm trailing a new speed profile--getting equivalent speeds of a Bellnet customer (1728/384kbps (about 1450/328kbps after overhead))
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October 29th, 2002
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Rogers customer here; decided to move on. I signed a promo of 3 months for $25.
Received my modem (EN SpeedStream 5360) via Xpresspost two days after order. Sympatico trumps Rogers in every aspect. Fast and rock solid connection since activation date.
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Review by billspicer
Posted: 13 days ago
Fair warning: reviewer joined this month
N9G-2C9
$52 per month (24 month contract)
about 10 days
Bell Canada
"RELIABLE CONNECTION, UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH"
"SLOW SPEED"
"REFRESH RATES TOO SLOW FOR TODAYS WORLD"
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ORDERED HIGH SPEED INTERNET IN 2000. SPEED HAS DROPPED OVER THE YEARS. RUNNING A MAC. THE SUPPORT PEOPLE SO FAR DO NOT HAVE A CLUE AS TO SPEED ISSUES AND THE MAC OX.
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Review by VHS
UPDATED: 14 days ago
member for 1.2 years, 143 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Scarborough,ON
$34 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
Bell Canada
"Reliable speed, Bell direct forum"
"Constant lies from the company and price hikes"
"Avoid any services from Bell if you can"
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I signed up for Sympatico back in 2004. I had previous experience with them before and was very happy with the services they provided. The speed is reliable and I love the fact I can get my problems fixed quickly with the Bell Direct forums here. Those 2 things along with the price kept me with Bell for the past 5 yrs. I call back every yr to renegotiate a contract and I paid $34.95/mth (includes modem rental) for a 7mb connection. Earlier this yr, they decided to raise the price of the modem rental $2. My contract was about to expire and I had to renegotiate so it wasn't a big deal. The lady over the phone promised 34.95/mth including everything. Turns out my next bill was 36.95/mth. $2/mth is not much more but it really angers me that the CSR had to lie to me like that. I called over the phone to get this corrected and the CSR in Philippines are of no help at all. Bell Direct solved the issue in the end. This is not the first time I have been lied to by this company. I have had Bell Philippines tell me they can offer me a TV package for $50 which includes ALL channels (HD & SD) with 3 PVRs. I knew this was a lie so I contacted Kevin Crull about this and his assistant confirmed there was no such deal. I have also been lied to by Bell and signed a home phone contract for 2 yrs which does not lock in the price. Who wants to sign a contract when you cant lock in the price??? I contacted Kevin Crull again and his assistant said theres nothing they can do. Apparently, you lock into the "options" and not the "price" of the plan, how pathetic. I have since canceled my Bell Internet service and will be dropping the Bell home phone as well when my contract expires. I have had enough of Bell's constant LIES. I do not recommend getting any services from this company, no matter how cheap it is.
---------------Jan 15/2010 UPDATE-------------------------
I switched to Teksavvy home phone recently and got a call from Bell India retentions. Here's the summary of the conversation:
1) The rep told me my line was VOIP and he knew my line was with Teksavvy. I was very disappointed to hear more lies and I pointed out to him that my line was POTS and it was just a regular Bell line. He changed the topic to Internet Max 12 after knowing he just got caught lying.
2) He told me Max 12 was 12mbps and I told him its not 12 after the 15% overhead. He had no idea what I was talking about. I explained to him I work in IT and that you can't treat me like a fool and say its full 12mbps. He even tried making a BET with me and said "I BET you its 12mbps! Let me send a technician over and if its not 12mbps, then you can cancel". Nice try, but I refuse to be stuck on another Bell contract.
3) He told me that any service Teksavvy provides uses Bell lines so they can provide the best price. Funny thing is when he quoted me the price, it barely beats Teksavvy (and of course its limited time only). He was able to offer me home phone with call display and call waiting + Max 12 for $63 tax in. I pay about $65 tax in for both these services now. Whats the point of switching over for $2 savings? (I told him I am on contract with rogers internet and I'll be penalized a lot more than $2). The home phone plan he was going to give me was $27 (and I bet this sneaky guy didnt include the touch tone + 911 in there). I really didnt care what he had to offer. I told him you guys
would give me the world if I asked for it, but in the end, you wont be able to deliver.
4) He even tried to sell me Bell long distance which has monthly fees. I told him Teksavvy's long distance price, he couldn't beat it.
5) After all the promotions he tried to give me, I explained to him I do not appreciate being lied to time and time again from Bell. I was also very disappointed at the fact he had to lie to me in the beginning and say my line was VOIP. I told him that Bell cannot lie to a customer who's educated. If you cant do business honestly with me, then I will not do business with you. Simple as that.
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 Review by XanderLo
UPDATED: 27 days ago
member for 7.6 years, 1495 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Boucherville,QC
$32 per month
about 5 days
Bell Canada
"Best connection stability when you're close to the CO., great prices during promotions."
"So-so bandwidth usage limit, throttling, small availability coverage."
"Best value if you're not after the fastest Internet service in Canada."
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*** UPDATE 2010/01/13 ***
Wow, I was really irate back then. 
At last, Bell Internet became available during Fall 2009 and my contract with Videotron was ending November 2009. Good timing I must say because I was getting sick of paying 65$ + taxes for my Internet access. Granted, it was fast and not throttled, but still... 65$ + taxes for just that.
I was able to jump into the 25$ + 3.90$ (modem rental) Bell Internet Performance promotion, at the very last minute. Thankfully, I spoke to very nice sales agents at Bell and up until now, I'm getting all the credits I was promised.
Installation was done professionally, very good signal (24-25mbps attainable). Sync'd at 8.5mbps (7.2mbps effective, all the time). I got the crippled/rigged Bell 2Wire 2701HG replaced by a plain ol' SpeedStream 4200, works great with the Asus WL520-GU I got for 25$ after MiR from NCIX. Do yourself a favor and skip the rigged Bell 2Wire modem/router. I get slightly better latency with the SS4200 but lower upstream sync.
For the price I pay, that can't be beaten. Also, since I have 2 services with Bell, that gives an extra 10$ on my TV service (which is ridiculously cheap after all the credits). The throttling blows but that can be bypassed with the latest uTorrent. 
The only ongoing issue I have now is that while I upload, my download speed drops considerably, and when I say upload, I mean as low as 40-50k/sec (out of my max 80k). If I speedtest while uploading at 50k/sec, I get 3.5mbps instead of 7.2mbps. That's -NOT- normal... smells like DPI-related issue. >:( This is being investigated by Bell Canada Direct support staff, stay tuned!
If it weren't for DPI and that issue, I'd be 100% satisfied! Let's hope that gets resolved soon.
*** OLD REVIEWS BELOW ***
I moved to a house in Boucherville, a very nice/respected city _neighbour_ to Montreal. To my surprise, high speed service is not available even though it is to the neighbour across the street. How sad. Even if it would be, my 32$ unlimited ADSL2 contract was expiring and there was no way I would renew with a stupid 60GB cap and throttling.
Don't get me wrong, I hardly transfer more than 60-70GB a month but it's the principle. Companies like Microsoft are constantly saying that we're now in the era of live HD streaming and digital downloads. Are you F*CKING kidding me? An HD movie on Xbox Live Marketplace is around 8GB. It's PERFECTLY legit but you just CAN'T use the service because of the shitty level of service in Canada. TekSavvy offers a very decent solution at 30$/month with a cap of 200GB. Now that is decent considering we're in 2008.
Is it a rule that in Canada we must go backwards? Now I'm with Videotron again and I must pay 65$/month JUST so I can get a cap I can deal with (100GB). Imagine... I pay 65$/month just to be ABLE to use my Internet connection. I don't care about getting 10 or 20 or 30mbps.
I gave tech support 2 out of 5 instead of 0 / 5 because of the Sympatico Direct forum which is a VERY NICE initiative. Unfortunately, competent staff is only available to the DSLR community.
*** Old Version below ***
I am one of those guys who got pissed at Videotron (Quebec cable co) and decided to cancel even though there was a contract penalty fee (157$ CAD). Yes, rippers, plain and simple.
I settled for Bell's Sympatico as my first choice as my next Internet provider. The girl I first talked to when I called to seek information was extremely friendly and treated my like a human. So we discussed about the situation and she asked me about my needs etc. She told me that for the first 2 months, I could order Sympatico HSE Ultra (rated 3000/640) and pay 44.95$ for the first two months -without- being stuck in a stupid contract (can you say "Videotron" ?). I finally decided go with it.
Two days pass and I receive a small white box with Bell written on it. I open the box in a hurry and get immediatly to work. Time to put the cablemodem offline. In the kit, the modem is included, an Efficient Networks SpeedStream 5360, 3 phone filters, 1 Y-connector and all necessary cables.
I plug everything in, put filters where needed, configure my router (Linksys 4-ports Version 2) for PPPoE etc. In a few minutes, I'm ready to surf the Internet once again.
Now, the first thing I first realize by doing tests is how good the latency is. 6ms in the local hops. 25-40ms pings in games, awesome. Additionally, their DNS servers appear to be very fast, web pages load in a snap! Now now, what really interests you is how "fat" is the pipe in the real world right? Again, I was amazed as I always got 2949/683 in whether it's nyc.speakeasy.net or pit.speakeasy.net etc. Consistency is what distinguishes an awesome connection from an average one. Well, Bell got it.
To help you judge, I must say that apparently, I'm about 1km far from the local central office, so it must help. IP is dynamic and like stated previously, service is using the PPPoE protocol.
Now, about the quota, for those who don't know yet, it's now 20GB -combined- for the Ultra service meaning that if you're anything like me, you upload around 200MB/month. That means you got 19.8GB left in the month without overcharge, which is 7.95$/GB. Additionally, for you "warez monkeys", Bell will never overcharge you more than 30$ so the MAXIMUM you can pay for "free-for-all unlimited" 3mbps service from Bell is 99.95$. Not too shabby right?
To sum it all, I decided to go with Bell recently because I think they consider what customers have to say and they're heading in the good direction. Quota is now reasonable for me and I know I'll never get a 300$ monthly bill WHATEVER I do. (Can you say "Videotron" ?)
Kudos to Bell for being the best DSL ISP in Canada.
Feel free to reply.
Followup comments:  
Paul Kambulow
@bell.ca
| Bell While today my Bell Sympatico file download speed was 631 kbs and do note this is the first time I have such high speeds in years too, the previous download speeds were between 100 to 300 kbs even last week.. And the unresolved issue of Bell Sympatico capping my bit torrent downloads on my unlimited high speed contract that I have had now for years with them, their capping is still immoral and this issue it needs to be resolved, adequately dealt with, even though for the last even 15 months I have complained, even in writing to Bell Sympatico that they had not been giving me a paid for too high speed system for years now too.. the issue resolved to my liking which is give me the speed, capacity what have paid for.. obviously for years that now has not even been so too. but for how long will these speeds last? Seriously now too!!! Having a contract with Bell mostly means having one problem after another. Unacceptable. Bell is slow, like a turtle to resolve our ISP delivery problem but Bell is quick on the draw to charge extra Money ASAP.. Ridiculous
Dealing with Bell or Bell Sympatico has clearly been one of the most demonic influenced experienced in my whole life. Firstly they are known liars who do not return the phone calls, secondly even their internet sites are often not accessible, plaque with errors, And they have not even for the last many years giving me a Unlimited high speed system, yesterday was the first time I got one too. Now they seem even to screw up the accounts receivable. The Bell circus continues .. confirmation tag Bell Sympatico Billings ref no 86880357.. Put it all in writing cause the Bell liars on the phone for sure cannot be trusted. That has been my last 15 months real sad experiences in dealing with Bell Sympatico now too.. And what ever they agree with you by phone, in writing, someone else in Bell will disregard it, not keep the promises made next as well more often than not. If you want to have undeniably a really bad service, to get things really screw up by them, do Get a Bell Sympatico service. As the the CBC news, Marketplace has also confirmed to all.
Besides the fact that is illegal for you Bell Sympatico now to firstly take money form my bank account for internet services not fully rendered in fact yet you often illegally still do as well, and you clearly had also beforehand promised to me but had not provided it to me as detailed many times to you, and it is also still unacceptable for you to treat badly all customers as badly as you do treat me now today too.
Still under Quebec law, no persons can enter into any contractual agreements, Bell now included anything that contravenes the laws of Quebec, and with out both parties mutual acceptance, agreement, and contracts by Quebec Law do have to beforehand not only mutually agreed but they do have to be now solely of of fixed terms, thus rather unfixed or "up to" terms are illegal, invalid by the law, the courts. When you Bell, Your representative Sasha Rollins now had in promise me 6 megs download capacity, verbally and/or in writing It has to be six megs and nothing less. You had made such promises to me. Never mind any of the exclusions the additions you put elsewhere even.
And what about Bell keeping it's promises to me, and delivering me a steady, reliable high speed internet system cause even the last 3 months they have not done so.. never nines the last many YEARS too.
Now in regards to "Thank you for emailing Bell Canada's Executive Care Solution Centre. Your matter will be reviewed and someone will get back to you within 2 business days. Our hours of operations are from Monday to Friday 8 am - 5 pm, by email executive.office@bell.ca or 1-866-317-3382" . When I had now today called the Bell executive office they next had transferred me back to the Bell's Sympatico, Billing account receivable office, and the useless twit, person on the phone, would not firstly not confirm to me in writing firstly the details, the reasons of my last past Bell credit, and also the reasons for his new extra charges now of as well.. and why is that? What I am to give you more money with no explanations now! Are you all really that dumb. This is unacceptable.
Are you going to continue now to try to screw me with false extra charges, phone harassments too? I would like your request for any of my money it in writing now as well so we all know as well how Bell Sympatico treats poorly it's customers. I have been on the phone for 3 hours today and I now got no where, with Bell solely useless help, threats, and I was passed from one person to another. Not acceptable.
For a start you can see my last 15 months of email to Bell Sympatico, you all, for I talked to 6 bell expediters by phone, including Bell's Sasha Rollins, I had 5 Bell repairman in my home at least, I had at least 6 modems replaced, and that is just a start of my past bad , Bell harassments.. poor services from Bell.. and now there is even more bad services.. Bell itself cannot, and it also has not denied my written complaints, that the news media and MPs got copies of as well. Now I get new problems with Bell Sympatico.
Since Bell's own records will show Bell Sympatico till yesterday Bell Sympatico now has not provided me my full reliable, continuous, steady, promised high speed internet download obligations very undeniably, clearly the last 6 years, not just the last 3 months , for the many years I paid for a Bell high speed system but instead now in reality, and so did all the customers of Ville LaSalle a low speed one instead cause you did not have a fiber optical cable there till last July 2007, , Bell was not fulfilling theirs and my contract ISP agreement thus.
Bell Technical support at their own initiative now wrote to me last month and also said in writing they have increased my download to 7 megs to insure that I got the promised 6 megs as well. great and for how long?
I have now today also requested also of that Bell Accounts receivable from Jamie 6822 who phoned me today that she first she provide me a letter that Bell Sympatico has actually provided me a high speed internet system, the last year, the last 6 months firstly before she tries to charge me any more money for any of it, and before she immorally, wrongfully tries to charge me even more, since I have the same fixed contract with Bell now, and they take money from my bank ACCOUNT MONTHLY FOR IT to. But she NEXT says to me she is UNAUTHORIZED, unable to do so. She also says she is here to help me, She admitted there is a credit on the file for me of about 220 dollars and now an additional charge today of 180 dollars as well. She will not give me any details or expiations for it though and why is that? but she clearly is too lazy to look up the related Sasha Rollins Bell file next to immorally even try to blackmail me to pay her more money too she even says now instead she will no longer give me any past promised Bell credit until I myself can can prove that Bell employee Sasha Rollins, had given it to me, a copy that email was received firstly last December. She did not object to me next posting on the net that in my real dealings, past, experiences Dirty Bell Sympatico black mails, readily screws customers, lies, breaks their promises, next even wrongfully still refuses to help customers adequately.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt those mostly bad guys still at Bell Sympatico internet services have this year as well continued to make negative changes to my home internet services that have next caused a serious deterioration of my 6 meg high speed internet services, and they have also now falsely changed my profile for the worse, for they have not only capped my bit torrent downloads, but they have also restarted my Bit torrent connections every 30 minutes on top of that, and this has been a real nuisance too.. and now when the internet services of yours starts to malfunction it negatively serious affect boot only the Email services, or my Bit torrent services, or my connectivity using internet explorer as well.. I have averaged now this year only about one week month were your services have been adequate the last 3 months, one week and not all of the four weeks and this has been really unacceptable. Now the guys in India have assured me by phone today the othersat Bell will stop the others making changes to my system, but for how long? I already had talked to 6 bell expediters and they had promised me last July, August December in writing 6 megs download speed firstly because they did not deliver me a high speed internet system in LaSalle for many years even though I had paid for such.. even because Bell's phone lines could not handle high speed internet. .. and all of Canada's news editors, key politicians got a copy of all of my related correspondences on this subject now all last year too.. Bell is a big liar still Now everyone can read on the net Bell's poor past treatment of me, do a search Google Kambulow Sympatico just for a start, and for over a year the news media, major MPs got all of my related correspondences with you now as well. In Bell what the right hand gives the left one takes away. I ask that you all rightfully review this matter fully too, and stop all these immoral, useless, unnecessary problems, harassments that I am continually getting with Bell Sympatico. | |
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Review by kvnpark
UPDATED: 28 days ago
member for 2.5 years, 593 visits, last login: a few hours ago
North York,ON
$45 per month
"Fairly reliable connection"
"Worst tech support, expensive, slow CS, lack of technological improvements"
"Bell must improve in ALL areas of business"
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I have been a Bell customer for many years now.
The connection's fairly reliable, but once it's down, it's a real headache to get things up and running again. Calling tech support is zero help. In fact, calling in to tech support might make things worse (lowering profile, interleaving unnecessarily etc).
I wish Bell would improve the infrastructure and at least improve their products. It would reduce the need for tech support and thus improve all areas of the business.
I will be switching to Teksavvy, soon.
--------------NO LONGER WITH BELL. HAPPY WITH TEKSAVVY--------------
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Review by munky99999
Posted: 30 days ago
member for 5.8 years, 736 visits, last login: a few hours ago
canada
$55 per month (12 month contract)
Bell Canada
"Historically Reliable."
"Traffic shaping, very poor connection speed, Hidden fees, blocks ports and traffic types."
"Lack of Competition in Canada allows them to bend customers over."
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I have had my internet connection for basically a decade. Bell has been unable to improve my line in all that time. "Not economical"
Bell has already put it out there that they are incapable of doing Fibre to the Home; as that "Not economical"
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Review by graniterock
UPDATED: 30 days ago
member for 6.9 years, 398 visits, last login: 5 days ago
London,ON
$48 per month (12 month contract)
about 30 days
Bell Canada
"Reliable and stable"
"installation was significantly late"
"Average ISP... but you could do better."
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I have dropped Bell and switched to a different ISP. I left bell mostly for a cheaper offering elsewhere with promises of better support.
When I first got the service moved to my house it was significantly late (by about a month) from the date they said it would be activated. The account was in my wife's name who had the account for many years before it came to my house. Initially 12 month contract but then month to month.
I have found using the Broad Band Report direct support forum and the chat support very useful in solving my problems. I wouldn't recommend telephone support due to hold times and their inability to give me solutions to my problems.
I had an unlimited package but was forced out of it due to raising the cost of it. I was also very annoyed becuase they promised me a 7 meg sync rate if I changed to a capped package. I specifically said I know you guys say up to, but what will the actual rate at my house be. The guy on the phone said after clicking a few buttons it would be 7. After getting changed to the 60 gigs per month package, I found it was slower and the direct support guys on the forum confimed I would only be getting 6 (5015 actual speed).
I have now changed over to a different ISP. I would have been willing to take a retentions offer. However the offer was one of the packages listed on the homepage. No special deals. The kicker was this new package they offered me had a 25 gig cap. My usage the previous month was also right around 25. I wasn't going to risk overages. So instead I cancelled the service and went to a new ISP.
Followup comments: graniterock
join:2003-03-14
London, ON | re: rare case There would have been a time I would have agreed with Jakob. But those days are long gone. | |
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Review by killiar
UPDATED: 40 days ago
member for 1.2 years, 70 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Innisfil,ON
$35 per month
about 1 days
Bell Canada
"Fast, Reliable, You get your promised speed, fantastic latency, decent support"
"Have to rent the modem, 310-SURF has pretty bad support"
"Beats Rogers. Great for online gaming."
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Edit: Profile updated. Speed is even better then before! Bell continues to impress me with amazing service.
I was looking at Rogers Cable, however, my previous experience with them (prices, reliability) turned me away. The other provider I was looking at was Acanac and Teksavvy, but their low speeds turned me away as well.
For an extremely long time now, Bell has been providing me with fantastic internet!
I am on the 7Mbps Performance plan with 100GB a month and my speed is about 6.8-7.2Mbps.
I play WoW and my latency on it is always under 90ms, better then Rogers could ever offer me. Huge bandwidth cap, so I can download my Apple TV movies without worrying.
Strongly recommend Bell over Rogers any day (based on my personal experience)
Installation was a simple plug into the phone jack and off I go. They provide phone filters for free (so you can use your phone while you browse). Service stays up through power outages.
Installation was fast and easy, but I wanted my service fast, so I plugged it in before the installation time. That set me back about a day. Don't do this! Wait for the time listed on the page
SPEED TEST RESULT:
Attachments:
Followup comments: 
Oinktastic
join:2005-08-24
Scarborough |  Just wondering...
Also, have you considered a Bell wholesaler like Teksavvy, Velcom, Acanac, Caneris, Ebox etc..? | |
| | killiar
join:2008-11-22
Innisfil, ON
 ·Rogers Hi-Speed
 ·Bell Sympatico
 ·Rogers Portable In..
| Re: Just wondering... The $35.00 a month does include the modem rental fee.
I have considered Teksavvy and Acanac. However the speeds were a bit of a turnoff for me. Since it says 5mbps download. I'm getting 6mbps, I don't know if I want to drop 1mbps (as little as that sounds ,I'm paranoid).
Teksavvy looked great to me. Especially their unlimited / 200GB a month limit (but Bell is trying to change that).
Either way, at the time I like Bell personally, until they pull a move that rips me off (it's probably coming). | |
| | | | | | | killiar
join:2008-11-22
Innisfil, ON
1 edit | Re: Just wondering... Thanks for the response | |
| | | langez
join:2009-11-18 | I find it funny how about 4-5 years ago a 3Meg connection was considered to be "fast" but now 5Meg isn't good enough for people.... | |
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Oinktastic
join:2005-08-24
Scarborough
·TekSavvy Solutions..
·3 Web
1 edit | Re: Just wondering... said by langez :I find it funny how about 4-5 years ago a 3Meg connection was considered to be "fast" but now 5Meg isn't good enough for people.... 3Meg WAS fast 4-5 years ago. The available content did not require anywhere near as much bandwidth as it does today. Youtube et al. were just getting started and web sites were much smaller and simpler compared to today's interactive and media-laden beasts.
Plus, throttling makes my 5Meg connection feel much slower than yesterday's 3Meg connection... Not to mention that I have 4 internet users in my household now, whereas it used to be 1-2.
Also, I'm noticing more and more of my neighbours are getting connections as well. Every time someone else signs up, that means less pipe for your data, given Bhell's policy of neglecting to upgrade their equipment.
Sorry for ruining your review, killiar. | |
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Oinktastic
join:2005-08-24
Scarborough
·TekSavvy Solutions..
·3 Web
1 edit | Re: Just wondering... What type of router do you have? Are you able to implement QoS to minimise the effects of multiple users using your connection all at the same time?
Just in case you're not familiar with it, QoS (Quality of Service) is an intelligent routing system which prioritises different types of traffic, or traffic from different ports/computers so that certain activities are given priority over others on your local network. When set up and working properly, this can often alleviate local congestion symptoms by making sure that heavy downloads and transfers don't interfere with time-sensitive data transfer. | |
| | | | | | | killiar
join:2008-11-22
Innisfil, ON
·Rogers Hi-Speed
·Bell Sympatico
·Rogers Portable In..
| Re: Just wondering... I really couldn't tell you if I can implement QoS.
All I know at the time is that my Apple TV movie rentals, barely interfere with my download speeds.
I run an Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station dual band wifi. I run in 5GHz
--
Bell Internet Customer
Happy as can be
Bell | |
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Oinktastic
join:2005-08-24
Scarborough | Re: Just wondering... Unfortunately, the AirPort Extreme does not appear to support QoS, but I know a lot of people are quite happy with it for its ease of use, performance and reliability. | |
| | | | | | | | | killiar
join:2008-11-22
Innisfil, ON
·Rogers Hi-Speed
·Bell Sympatico
·Rogers Portable In..
| Re: Just wondering... Yeah, I looked that up, without hacks, it's unable to support QoS. However as I said, I'm quite happy with it. It's working great (but that may just be because of Bells connection is more then enough bandwidth for what I want to do).
I switched from a Linksys router to a DLink, then threw those both out and grabbed an Apple airPort.
And I find the Bell modem/router to be garbage.
--
Bell Internet Customer
Happy as can be
Bell | |
|
um yeah
@videotron.ca | "Definitely a MUST HAVE" Well that statement is far from being the truth if you live in a place with no other alternatives.
Maybe it's a "MUST HAVE" if that's all you can get and if you can get it for about 30$ and grandfathered unlimited. | |
| | killiar
join:2008-11-22
Innisfil, ON | Re: "Definitely a MUST HAVE" Beats Rogers imo | |
|
Chuck Carlso
@bell.ca | Ever heard of overhead? It's impossible to get 6.8 megabits per second on a 7 meg line no matter how close to the central office you are. The most in theory is around 6.3. | |
| | killiar
join:2008-11-22
Innisfil, ON | Re: Ever heard of overhead? I will post a screenshot of my speed test for you.
As you can see, I am achieving 6.84Mbps download and 0.91Mbps upload. 26ms ping.
It is not "impossible" | |
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Oinktastic
join:2005-08-24
Scarborough
·TekSavvy Solutions..
·3 Web
2 edits | Re: Ever heard of overhead? said by killiar :I will post a screenshot of my speed test for you. ...As you can see, I am achieving 6.84Mbps download and 0.91Mbps upload. 26ms ping. It is not "impossible" Actually, it is. If that speed test is accurate, you're on at least an 8Meg profile, which is why you're able to download at 6.8Mbit.
Calculate it yourself: 8Mbit - 15% overhead for PPPoE. Hint: I already gave you the answer 
Also, a 7Mbit profile would leave you with about 5.95Mbit after overhead.
Also, those speed tests are sometimes inaccurate, so I wouldn't trust a single snapshot. | |
| | | | killiar
join:2008-11-22
Innisfil, ON | Re: Ever heard of overhead? I'll post another when I get home
however. Even though I may be on that profile. I'm on a 7meg plan.
Either way. Bell is the best. | |
| | | | | | | | | | | acrufox
join:2004-07-14
Canada | Re: Ever heard of overhead? lol!
I threw up a LOT. Oh wait, I have H1N1, nevermind :> | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | killiar
join:2008-11-22
Innisfil, ON
·Rogers Hi-Speed
·Bell Sympatico
·Rogers Portable In..
| Re: Ever heard of overhead? If you are referring to my 7Mbps plan, I'm on a Bell Performance grandfathered plan. As far as I'm aware, it has been moved to 6Mbps in Ontario, 7 still in Quebec.
I ordered Bell before they made the plan switch, and they left me on that plan. One thing that I really love about Bell! They continue to amaze me. | |
| | | | | | | | | | ZZink
join:2002-06-16
Etobicoke | Lucky You are the luckiest mofo ever... bell is the best?! LOLZ | |
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| Forums » comments on review of Bell Sympatico |
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Review by mikesirius
Posted: 42 days ago
member for 156 days, 67 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Saint-Ambroise,QC
$33 per month
Bell Canada
"pas cher ne fait pas afaire avec videotron!!!"
"service qui fait dure"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
|
chez bell le service fait dur mais je suis relativement heureux de mes service
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Bell Sympatico |
| »next page (previous review)
Review by arthur5005
Posted: 44 days ago
member for 3.9 years, 51 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Canada
$35 per month
"There are none."
"If you can think of one, Bell probably has one."
"By far one of the worst providers of internet in all of Canada."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
At my mother's new apartment for the holidays in Montreal. Incredibly useless tech support, throttled connection on certain streaming video sites (such as watch.ctvnews.ca) but optimized for youtube and other major sites, so that other people don't believe it's a flaky connection. They choose winners and losers on the internet, this company is evil, period.
Followup comments:
UR eyes open
@videotron.ca | You got it "By far one of the worst providers of internet in all of Canada."
Bingo | |
| | killiar
join:2008-11-22
Innisfil, ON | Re: You got it No problems with Bell here. Looks like some areas seem to have bad luck with Bells. though the majority seem to have great luck with it. | |
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