sbrook
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join:2001-12-14
H0H 0H0
 ·Rogers Hi-Speed
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Rogers
Bell Canada
| Sorry but you're horribly mislead ...
Rogers is the twin of Comcast .. It was a cable operator, purchased other companies that included cable and pager and then wireless companies and later media and sports. Filthy Rich? I don't think so ... their debt rating after losing @Home service a few years ago plummeted to junk after they had to borrow so much to become their own ISP. Canadian lenders looked on broadband as a high risk business ... see below.
Bell Canada is the evil twin of AT&T! It's the telephone company and offers ADSL services in Ontario and Quebec. If that line is so bad, then it won't do well with ADSL!
There's no reason why your wife's parents should be stuck on rotary dial, especially in downtown Toronto! If it was anything like MY parents, they'd say that they aren't paying extra for touch tone! (We pay an extra fee for touch tone!) Crackly when wet outside is purely from not complaining!
We HAVE fibre into the residential areas ... that's how cable and cable internet is delivered too ... just like Comcast, it's an HFC network. Similarly Bell Canada is introducing FTTN remotes to deliver higher DSL speeds, although deployment is slow.
What we LACK is FTTH like Verizon's FIOS.
Canada is a lot more fiscally conservative and it's why we didn't have banks like Bear Stearns fail and didn't have a mortgage crisis, as a result they're a lot more careful about lending to companies like Rogers to invest in the internet (especially after the .com bust of the early 2000's.
The governing body for Canadian telecoms is the CRTC (Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission) which is like the FCC. It operates under 2 Federal Government ministries ... the Department of Industry, and the Heritage Ministry. Policy is made by the Dept of Industry and Parliament and not the CRTC ... this makes things a little strange. The CRTC does not regulate the internet as such.
Bottom line is that cable is your best bet.
There are other options like the fibre service offered by what was Toronto Hydro (the power company) but you have to be in a building serviced by their fibre.
Bottom line, your wife's best deal is with Rogers cable. The service is generally stable and definitely a LOT faster than the wireless service. Sounds like she's using it for something it really isn't intended for. It's far more like tethering a laptop to a cellphone with a data plan ... except not QUITE as much a rip off! |
