Canadian ISPs Fire Up Attacks On Canadian Broadband Critiques > Let's take a quick look...

Let's take a quick look...

To be fair, I've generally found Rogers' speeds more reliable than Bell's. All too often do I hear people talking about getting maybe 2-3mbps max speed on a 12mbps Bell connection, with Bell telling them that it falls within the acceptable speed threshold. I wouldn't be surprised if Bell decided one day to name a 25mpbs as their 100mbps connection, and then tell everyone that calls in that it's not their problem. Would you like to downgrade to a speed you can actually use? Sure, that'll be a $25 fee. Bell business internet also went down for a whole day at a company I worked for (heard it wasn't the first time), and their technician who was called in the morning never showed up.

But yes, Rogers is full of BS and their upload speed is crap, further crippled by throttling to 80kbps. Although, with the use of fine-prints, footnotes that don't appear on the same page, swapping the word "contract" for "commitment" etc., many of the things they say aren't technically lies. They're misleading to the point where it's about the same as a lie, but it's enough to cover their asses for most lawsuits. For example, they claim the fastest speeds. But if you read the tiny disclaimer in the footnote on another page, you'll find they're only comparing themselves to the download speeds of DSL. Not uploads. Not FTTH. Not other possible cable services.

I wish Novus covered more area, including Toronto. A 20/10 residential package with 110GB monthly usage for $37.50... compare it to Rogers 10/0.5 package with 60GB monthly usage + throttling for $46.99 + $3 modem.

Then, there are the Novus' Soho packages with symmetrical speeds. Very nice for businesses and/or servers. Looking at Roger's business packages, I am left to wonder: how is a 10/1 speed with 1 static IP worth paying $170 for? In fact, why even bother with a business line that's crappier than a residential line? "For companies that require significant bandwidth and up to 5 static IPs to run multiple servers, for example. " Multiple servers with a 10/1 line... 1mbps upload would mean 1mbps download from the servers. Imagine using that and Rogers 10/1 residentia line and trying to access your server from home. You upload at 1mbps, the server uploads at 1mbps, your connection to the server is up to a 1/1 connection! Isn't that grand...

That's why you use iWeb for web hosting. That said, I still think the internet situation in Canada is crappy.

reply to iansltx
Bell's FTTH deployments, at least from what I understand, are actually Bell-Aliant and located in the Maritime Provinces only.

There is no FTTH offered by bell in Ontario/Quebec that I know of, unless said areas are serviced by Bell-Aliant.

Also, Bell Aliant is not the same thing as Bell. In fact, they are against UBB/Caps etc..

Interesting. I didn't know what the difference between Bell and Bell Aliant was. Figured they weren't really the same thing...

reply to iansltx

Is cable that rare compared to DSL?