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Comments on news posted 2011-05-26 10:37:57: Last month we noted that Canadian cable operator Shaw the downstream speed of their Extreme tier from 15 Mbps to 25 Mbps, while giving the upstream speed a slight bump from 1 Mbps to 2.5 Mbps -- promising additional speed changes would be coming soon. ..

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st7860
join:2004-05-13
San Francisco, CA

st7860

Member

big traffic limits

sure the new plans have great traffic limits, very high.

but shaw throttles anything except normal downloads and uploads.
camelot
join:2008-04-12
Whitby, ON

camelot

Member

The good news in this, is hopefully it will jump-start a Cap war. Telus was looking at reintroducing UBB. Now that Shaw is offering a better incentive maybe the others will follow suit.
MyDogHsFleas
Premium Member
join:2007-08-15
Austin, TX

MyDogHsFleas

Premium Member

Dumb question

What do the TV columns on the chart mean? i.e. what's Legacy TV vs. Personal TV (SPP)?
atnozm
Premium Member
join:2006-02-03
Schenectady, NY

atnozm

Premium Member

Legacy is the way they used to do tv service, with the basic cable, then you can add/remove the tiers 1,2,3.

SPP is a little more like satellite, where you start with a basic package and then add 'theme' packs.

It's kind of the same idea, but the tiers would have a little bit of everything in each tier, where the theme packs are geared specifically to certain things, like sports, news etc...

The idea behind it is to give customers more choice.
jc10098
join:2002-04-10

jc10098

Member

Internet at the cost of a car payment

84 dollars for 1mbit unlimited? 144 dollars for 100/5? Holy crap, Shaw certainly won't go broke offer unlimited to anyone. Can we say cash cow?

logicbomb1
join:2011-01-19
Vancouver, BC

logicbomb1

Member

It should be noted that their current pricing for 50/100mbps internet standalone is $107 and $150 respectively. The new pricing will include TV and higher caps, and is priced at $84.90 and $94.90. The phase two pricing and speeds will be even better, so you may find it expensive, but its considerably better value than the current pricing.

jadebangle
Premium Member
join:2007-05-22
00000

jadebangle

Premium Member

my 25/25 fios by surewest is unlimited! better then shaw!

for only 69.99 a month!
28 days
7.2TB
if doing up and down up to 14TB of data transfer a month
1TB for 250MBIT is just BS
I can easily hit 1TB in just 4 days on my 25mbit connection
shaw still sucks
i now understand taht speed alone is not good enough
im paying less then 84.00 a month and still get more speed
25 times faster

logicbomb1
join:2011-01-19
Vancouver, BC

logicbomb1

Member

well there is going to be unlimited and 250mbit as well. I'm sure you understand that your usage is amongst the minority of users, and as far as pricing is concerned, you're never going to see the pricing at the same scale. The US has 10x the population. Its a simple matter of economy of scale.

pkarlos_76
join:2004-08-24
Edmonton, AB

pkarlos_76 to jadebangle

Member

to jadebangle
said by jadebangle:

for only 69.99 a month!
28 days
7.2TB
if doing up and down up to 14TB of data transfer a month
1TB for 250MBIT is just BS
I can easily hit 1TB in just 4 days on my 25mbit connection
shaw still sucks
i now understand taht speed alone is not good enough
im paying less then 84.00 a month and still get more speed
25 times faster

Dude stop trolling your in the States.........and Stop being a bandwidth hog, or else pay for the $150 unlimited plan.
MaynardKrebs
We did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17

MaynardKrebs

Premium Member

No tied selling

There is ample precedent in the financial services world which prohibits tied selling.

The CRTC ought to lift a page from that book and require that all services purchased from incumbents must be offered a la carte, and at identical prices irrespective of whether you bundle or not.

DooD
join:2002-02-10
O Fallon, MO

DooD to jadebangle

Member

to jadebangle

Re: my 25/25 fios by surewest is unlimited! better then shaw!

Cool story, bro.
But seeing as Surewest and Shaw service totally different areas - countries for that matter - it's kind of a moot comparison. It would be like my cousin coming in and saying, "Surewest sucks, in Japan I get 100Mbps. I pay less than $60USD and still get more speed. 4 times faster "

It's a step in the right direction for their users with, hopefully, more to follow.
hottboiinnc4
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH

hottboiinnc4 to jadebangle

Member

to jadebangle
FiOS? You don't have FiOS as that is a Verizon product and trademark. You have SureWest Internet.

StevenB
Premium Member
join:2000-10-27
New York, NY

StevenB

Premium Member

It's about time

Canadians get unlimited bandwidth! Maybe this will push other providers to get their acts together and follow suit. plus the cap isn't bad at all, giving users alot of bandwidth.

Ultibeam
join:2008-05-27
USA

Ultibeam to hottboiinnc4

Member

to hottboiinnc4

Re: my 25/25 fios by surewest is unlimited! better then shaw!

said by hottboiinnc4:

FiOS? You don't have FiOS as that is a Verizon product and trademark. You have SureWest Internet.

Yeah I hate when people think FiOS is a common name for fiber optic service. It's a trademark of Verizon's fiber based services.
bt
join:2009-02-26
canada

bt to StevenB

Member

to StevenB

Re: It's about time

To be fair, there are some other regional incumbents that still have unlimited. It's all of the smaller ones though, like Eastlink and Sasktel.

What is notable here is that the caps are going UP, and not down like the trend has been in Canada.
Wilsdom
join:2009-08-06

Wilsdom to logicbomb1

Member

to logicbomb1

Re: my 25/25 fios by surewest is unlimited! better then shaw!

Only a minority of users needs anything above 5Mb/s. There is no point in 100Mb or 250Mb/s unless they are unlimited or have huge caps. The unlimited option doesn't look bad, however, though the upload is a joke.

Dicbdhdb
@mycingular.net

Dicbdhdb

Anon

Not quite true. More and more people need 12 mb or 20 mb but they may not need yet 50mb. It depends all on what households we talk about. 5 mb is decent but not great. A signle hd 720p stream may max out bandwith.

logicbomb1
join:2011-01-19
Vancouver, BC

logicbomb1 to MaynardKrebs

Member

to MaynardKrebs

Re: No tied selling

I suppose there's merit to that, but considering the costs for a bundled service are actually lower than the previous rates for standalone, I can't see this being much of an issue.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx to Wilsdom

Member

to Wilsdom

Re: my 25/25 fios by surewest is unlimited! better then shaw!

15 Mbit is faster than I can get here with Comcast...
iansltx

iansltx

Member

Better than Comcast

$60 per month gets you 25/2.5 with a 250GB cap. Compare that to Comcast where the same price gets 12/2 with the same cap.

Also, the high-cap broadband packages may sound expensive, but let's compare with Comcast. Their 50/10 is $117 and 100/10 is $200. If you count in modem rental fees, Comcast's 50/10 comes out to more like $125. For the same price a few months from now you'll be able to get 250/15 with a 1TB cap. Or $145 for no cap. Both cost less than Comcast's 100/10 service. Plus you don't even need to ever sign up for the $145 tier...just let it bump you up from the $125 one when you transfer more than 1TB.

Is it expensive? No question about it, yes, particularly if you look at the unlimited 1M tier. But when you compare Shaw's new pricing to service across the CA-US border, they actually come out ahead. $85 including TV for 50/5 with a 400GB cap, or $95 for 100/10 with a 500GB cap is, again, better than what Comcast wants to offer without TV bundled in.

IH8shadyISP
@acsalaska.net

IH8shadyISP to st7860

Anon

to st7860

Re: big traffic limits

Shaw's action here appears to be a first strike against a pending review of CRTC's earlier decision where ISP force re-sellers under UBB (greased palms make government work for business). This move by Shaw is also an attempt to fend off legislation hinted at by parliament which could ban UBB altogether.

It's fairly hilarious observing the huge disparity between Shaw's old limits and Shaw's new limits on usage.
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

sonicmerlin to logicbomb1

Member

to logicbomb1

Re: my 25/25 fios by surewest is unlimited! better then shaw!

said by logicbomb1:

well there is going to be unlimited and 250mbit as well. I'm sure you understand that your usage is amongst the minority of users, and as far as pricing is concerned, you're never going to see the pricing at the same scale. The US has 10x the population. Its a simple matter of economy of scale.

That doesn't even make sense. In France free.fr offers phone, TV, and FTTH for a triple play $40/month. Scale has nothing to do with this.

iFly55
join:2010-01-19
canada

iFly55 to st7860

Member

to st7860

Re: big traffic limits

yes but traffic shaping is easily circumvented through VPN

Suntop
Wolfrider Elf
Premium Member
join:2000-03-23
Fairfield, MT
·3Rivers Communic..
·T-Mobile
Netgear R6400
Netgear WNR1000
Netgear WNDR3400

Suntop

Premium Member

Greedy telecoms (Cable/telephone/sat)

I had CLICK! in Tacoma, Washington. they are cheap, they have unlimited access and they have 15(20)/1 (which was truly 1.5MBPS up when I left and the number in the parentheses is MEGABurst. For an additional $5.00 a month it will give you 20 MBPS speeds for the first 5mb of any download. Meaning that you will have 2.41mbps for that short period of time which is perfect for most Youtube videos.) And unlike AT&T, CLICK! gives you a choice of 3 isps. Advanced Stream (my old and MISSED provider) »www.advancedstream.com/ has 2 sets of service, Residential or Commercial which I gladly paid for

Now CLICK! is a municipality cable company/electric/water owned by Tacoma Power. They have since doubled the download speeds since I last used them in 2005. They are a little behind the times but that is okay as they do not have caps Tell me does any cable company in the USA mainly that allows you to choose that? Plus the greatest thing is you do have to pay $10.00 extra for cable modem only (which they put a RF attenuator on the lines for TV and since it cannot block all the channels they charge $10.00 a month to recoup those costs of those channels. The RF suppressor can be removed but I would not suggest that. Unlike dirty AT&T they can actually trace that. Their system is so sensitive that one day Click rolled up and asked if I was on the CB radio. (Well I was before they rolled up to the door and knocked on it like a cop) They asked me if I was on the CB I said yeah I was and they said it was ingression in the system. Meaning I was sending RF down the cable lines. And all it was was a loose connection on the modem itself. Once the cable like was tight on there it had no more interference.

Now also unlike AT&T they do not suffer the crosshatch effect of FM Capture on channel 17-19 analog for VHF (2m+) and 54-56 analog (for 70cm). Whenever I talked on 2m I would knock those channels out with my rig on the lowest settings. Now before you say anything my system was grounded properly this is due to the splicing crap that AT&T does Click built their system with 2 way to start with in fact it was this company that states the simple truth: "The first cable company owned by a city that made Tacoma at the time the most wired city." They started this back in the 90s and they have since expanded to reach everywhere they service power and most of the "wires" used are made of glass yes they use a fiber optic system for their cable system. (so they do not have to pay pole rent) It in matter of factually broke the grip of @home/AT&T/Comcast. For one they did not have any slowdown (and AFAIK it is still the same) even at peak times. Unlike AT&T/COMCAST who throttle the speeds so everyone can share the bandwidth/or has a very crappy 2-way system.

Another thing, being the first fiber optic system deployment for a city; they have no slowdowns, no caps, and a choice of providers. I liked the fact that none of the channels got any interference on them even when I was pumping 50 watts out of my rig on 2m I did not interfere with those channels in the 2m range. Now Click offers as high as 15mbps and down of 2mbps up for $99.95 a month this includes 2 static IP address for your commercial business and they AFAIK do not block ports. Yes that is a little steep but considering no caps, no port blocking*, clean 2-way system and the choice of 3 isps I consider it to be one of the best cable providers out there. In addition, if you have any problems including your cable modem not working they (at least Advanced Stream did this) replace it. (Meaning they return it as defective to Motorola)

In closing, despite the fact that Shaw will offer speeds 16.66~ times the speed for the same price there, do they allow you to use P2P otherwise that is just a waste of money not that I condone illegal activities, but P2P can be used for legal activities, it does suck that they block the internet video unless you pay them more. And is everyone getting a good deal? Well, that depends on what you use it for. However, it is grossly unfair to charge people "unlimited" access and bock internet video unless you pay them some extortion (just kidding) money.

Who is the most unfair is Hughes Satellite, they throttle you big time plus their caps are smaller and if you abuse it they will kick you off permanently. I do know that Wild Blue in the US also slows you down. It is better than dial-up but DSL would be cheaper unless that is your only choice. And right now Hughes is using some of the stimulus money to get broadband everywhere.

I hope the heck someday I will get access to a Fiber Optic system that has no limits and great speed so I can have a low ping and be a sniper in my favy FPS games.

Here in Montana only in huge cities like Havre, Great Falls, Lewistown, etc have cable modems. I am lucky to maintain 5mbps here download without it booting me off for a second. I am not complaining just disappointed with the QoS being like that on my 7/1.5mbps ADSL connection.

Have a good day and thank you for reading.
David
*unless they did that recently there is no blocks of any sort.

IH8shadyISP
@acsalaska.net

IH8shadyISP to st7860

Anon

to st7860

Re: big traffic limits

Look at the "Unlimited Lite" and "Broadband 50" packages. Same pricing.

Shaw's 1Mbps "Unlimited Lite" package is a disingenuous offer considering that the maximum (download) of transferable data @1Mbps in a month is between 320-330GB. You're actually losing download/upload speed and and about 70-80GB of usage by selecting the lower "unlimited" tier. Shaw is no doubt marketing the lowest tier at those who fear overages, and they hope that your average gullible consumer won't be able to recognize this.
MaynardKrebs
We did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17

MaynardKrebs to logicbomb1

Premium Member

to logicbomb1

Re: No tied selling

said by logicbomb1:

I suppose there's merit to that, but considering the costs for a bundled service are actually lower than the previous rates for standalone, I can't see this being much of an issue.

The point is that you should not be REQUIRED to get cable TV service as a prerequisite to getting internet service.

logicbomb1
join:2011-01-19
Vancouver, BC

logicbomb1 to Suntop

Member

to Suntop

Re: Greedy telecoms (Cable/telephone/sat)

Yes, Shaw allows P2P. I use it nearly 24hrs a day sharing free VSTs and stems for music production without any discernable degradation in speed. Over wireless using torrents I regularly see speeds over 2MB/s on a 25mbps connection. Furthermore, Shaw employs SpeedBoost to accelerate downloads on 7.5mbps connections to scale up to 25mbps, which is the same as MegaBurst.

MerinX
Crunching for Cures
Premium Member
join:2011-02-03

MerinX

Premium Member

Well some moves in the right direction

These rates and tier bumps are an interesting way of enacting UBB.
I suppose it is better then bhell/rogers in the east however i would rather just purchase unlimited for my tier whatever it may be.
MerinX

MerinX to StevenB

Premium Member

to StevenB

Re: It's about time

Problem is their main competition is telus and they have never enforced UBB or truly tried to implement such changes. Also shaw has to compete with Novus(fiber) in vancover and sasktel and wholesalers so them lowering limits before implementing UBB was doomed to fail.

Hopefully since telus can not compete with shaws speeds they will stay competitive with unlimited internet usage at their current speeds which are more then enough for most homes.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5 to MerinX

Premium Member

to MerinX

Re: Well some moves in the right direction

said by MerinX:

These rates and tier bumps are an interesting way of enacting UBB.
I suppose it is better then bhell/rogers in the east however i would rather just purchase unlimited for my tier whatever it may be.

It is more fair than a hard cap and very high per byte overage charges. The tire bump idea is very workable and fair option in my opinion.
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