| Advise on Switching Over to Teksavvy Hello All,
I have been doing quite a bit of research on this site as well as other as to what my options are when choosing an ISP. Currently I am a Rogers Express subscriber but am interested in looking at what else is available to me. From reading these forums is it quite clear that many of your are much more knowledgeable on the topic than I would give myself credit for. From what I gather Teksavvy is a viable alternative to Rogers, and from looking at their plans it seems as though they provide some quality service. I want to be clear however before I jump ship about a few things.
Currently, as I stated before I subscribe to Rogers Express, which entitles me up to 12Mbps down and 512Kbps up and 60GB (soon to be 80GB of data a month). They are charging me $46.99 a month plus a $4 per month modem rental fee (Motorola 5101). It is also my understanding that the rates are changing and due to increase an extra $2 per month for a total of about $53 a month give or take.
I'm interested in possibly switching to Teksavvy. They have an Extreme package listed at $46.99 (New price starting Feb 2nd) a month with 24Mbps down and 1Mbps up with 300GB of data a month. Downside obviously is that I have to purchase a DOCSIS 3.0 modem, and pay for installation...running me about $120-$150.
I phoned Rogers retention department and explained my situation they offered me free modem rental for a year (From what I gather it's the crappy SMC Gateway) as well as an upgrade to their Extreme service at a 30% discount. This also ups my data to (soon to be) 120GB a month. Total cost for this after discounts is around $43 a month plus tax. Downside here is they want to lock me in for a year long contract.
With all of that said, my main concern is quality of service. Having not heard of Teksavvy until last week I'm a little weary...however I don't see how they could be worse than the Empire that is Rogers.
I ran a speedtest on my current connection, and living in downtown Ottawa I achieved results of 18Mbps down and 0.5Mbps up to Kanata, 15ms ping. Ran again to a server in Toronto and achieved results of 21Mbps down and again 0.5Mbps up, 25ms ping. This impressed me quite thoroughly considering I'm only paying for 12Mbps and using a DOCSIS 2.0 modem.
My question is, will I still see similar performance from Teksavvy? I noticed some people here having issues underachieving speeds, but from what I can tell were mainly DSL. Which from my understanding depends on how far you are from the Bell access point or whatever. I'm wasn't able to find much information regarding Teksavvy's cable reliability or performance. Am I correct to assume it would be the same as Roger's considering they are using Roger's lines?
If I were to go with Teksavvy, is the Motorola 6121 a suitable choice in modems? I read the some people did not like the Thompson model due to various issues. I am unsure whether or not having the capability to have 8 upstreams channels is/will be relevant in the future.
The 300GB of data a month is very attractive to me from Teksavvy as well as not having to lock into a contract. As long as I will be able to see comparable speeds.
If this is of any consequence we are a heavy usage household, 4 students that like to download.
I would appreciate any advice or input anybody has to offer regarding the price points/offerings as well as testimonials regarding levels and quality of service. I would also be open to other suggestions regarding different ISP's if anybody feels as though they are suitable for my usage.
I know there is a lot there but at this point anything will help, so many options and things to think about.
Thank you kindly. |
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 elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
 ·Cybersurf Intern..
| One word, DON'T.
They are seriously oversubscribe in most markets, and have stop sells on most of them.
At last count it's been 6 weeks since some of the POI's were supposed to be upgraded.. still waiting. Waiting some more....
I'd suggest checking out Acanac/Distributel (same company really), much better prices, 24mb service UNLIMITED about 50 bucks a month compared to Teksavvy and their $62 for the same thing.
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No, I didn't. Honest... I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake....... |
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| Hey elwoodblues, thanks for your input.
I'm assuming you are referring to being oversubscribed on cable lines in most areas? Would this limit download speeds due to a congested network?
I'm not sure exactly what a POI is, but I'm guessing it is the node or whatever that everybody in a certain geographical region has to connect to...and once these get clogged up with too many people service suffers? Upgrading would mean improving the POI to service a larger number of people with better speed?
Anybody specifically in the downtown Ottawa region with any experience? |
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kenze
join:2009-10-09
Montreal, QC | reply to Tankhouse
I suggest you go with Distributel, seems like the best option in Ontario for cable internet. |
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 MerovingianCause and Effect
join:2011-03-31
Toronto, ON
kudos:1 | reply to Tankhouse
The POI is the Point of Interconnect, between TISP & the last mile provider ie: b#ell or robers. Sometimes refered to as a primary hub (Phub). Where the CMTS routers are set up (Cable). |
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Reviews:
·TekSavvy DSL
| Another word Don't Teksavvy Just pulled the worlds biggest fast one on all its customers. With a Multitude of Hidden charges not being announced in the price Hike.
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Every time Someone leaves Sympatico an Angel gets its wings.
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| like what? |
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| reply to morisato
Thanks for explaining that Merovingian.
I'm really set off by all of this negative feedback. I have a friend who subscribes to Teksavvy quite happily, but I'm not sure if he would know whether or not he is receiving the types of speeds and quality of service he is paying for as far as monitoring the line for speed, noise, congestion etc.
Morisato, what "Multitude of Hidden Charges" are being introduced during the price hike that I should be made aware of. I know the price is set to increase a couple of dollars but that is all I am aware of.
The more I am reading about this the less I want to commit to a company that has been having so many evident issues...albeit many of the major ones seem to be stemming from the Toronto area (ie dupont).
It seems as though the St. Laurent POI would be the one I would be connected to as it appears to be closest to my house. Anybody have any experience with problems there?
If not Teksavvy, can anybody else speak to the quality of anything else. Perhaps corroborate elwoodblues' suggestion of Acanac/Distributel...which once again I've never heard anything about. |
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Reviews:
·TekSavvy DSL
| Well tankhouse Earlier this month they sent out their new pricing , which was fine everyone was mostly fine with it not like we get a choice, But when they updated their website today Theres a 1.50 DSL fee for the both 2m/6m tier Ontop of the price, and for the 25/7 Tier theres a Previously Undisclosed Modem fee which is Not even Listed in The tariff That is $8 a month , neither of these Fees was included in the price change notice Both were dropped today, on us Also now the policy for Going over your gigs usage is if you go over 2 rolling months IE if you use between 2 months more than 600 gigs Your automagically upgraded to unlimited and Paying whatever more it costs.. for example on my 25/7 tier it would be $25 dollars.. yikes
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Every time Someone leaves Sympatico an Angel gets its wings.
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MerovingianCause and Effect
join:2011-03-31
Toronto, ON
kudos:1 | If you got rick-rolled over would you also get dinged a $25 upgrade fee to that tier. Seeing theres a $25 price difference between the limited to unlimted for 25/7. Thats a virtual $50 jump for one month anyways. Unless I'm reading this wrong. |
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Reviews:
·TekSavvy DSL
| wow i didn;t even Consider if they would charge for a change there but this is not a speed change so i don;t think theres any fee involved if they did it.
if this is the new policy would it not just make more sense to charge 25 cents a gig per gig over and put a max hardcap since yknow they are copying bells ULTRA smart marketting and pricing structures...
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Every time Someone leaves Sympatico an Angel gets its wings.
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| It seems as though all of those pricing issues are regarding their DSL service and does not affect their cable internet offerings? |
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elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand Reviews:
·Cybersurf Intern..
| said by Tankhouse :It seems as though all of those pricing issues are regarding their DSL service and does not affect their cable internet offerings?
Cable is is $63 + HST or $72.45/month for 24/1 unlimited
Distributel is offering the same thing for $50 + HST or $57.50, that's 15 bucks a month or $180/yr FOR THE SAME SERVICE.
In both cases you bring your own modem or rent one from Distributel for 5 bucks a month.
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No, I didn't. Honest... I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake....... |
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Reviews:
 ·TekSavvy Cable
·TekSavvy DSL
| reply to morisato
said by morisato:Well tankhouse Earlier this month they sent out their new pricing , which was fine everyone was mostly fine with it not like we get a choice, But when they updated their website today Theres a 1.50 DSL fee for the both 2m/6m tier Ontop of the price, and for the 25/7 Tier theres a Previously Undisclosed Modem fee which is Not even Listed in The tariff That is $8 a month , neither of these Fees was included in the price change notice Both were dropped today, on us Also now the policy for Going over your gigs usage is if you go over 2 rolling months IE if you use between 2 months more than 600 gigs Your automagically upgraded to unlimited and Paying whatever more it costs.. for example on my 25/7 tier it would be $25 dollars.. yikes
Your forgetting the increased cable activation fee that went like this $20>$25>$45>$65. Another plus for Distributel is the activation fee is only $39.00. |
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| reply to Tankhouse
ive been happy with my teksavvy service so far, but yeah alot of people have been complaining. This is mainly because of the whole CRTC mess where they screwed over the small ISP's. Those fuks should choke on a giant nutsack. Ive been hearing good things about distributel, maybe you should check them out? The past few months teksavvy has been in a state of chaos. My personal experience with it has been highly positive though and even though its not as reliable as say Rogers or Bell, having 300gb bandwidth and unlimited off peak more than makes up for that. Recently ive had about 5 days outage in the 1 and a half year that ive had tek. |
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| 300gb bandwidth and unlimited off peak only applies to DSL customers not cable customers. |
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elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand | reply to blaznazn224
If the CRTC screwed over the small isp's how come its Teksavvy that's become uncompetitive?
The last cash grab before they go under? |
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Reviews:
·TekSavvy Cable
·TekSavvy DSL
| said by elwoodblues:If the CRTC screwed over the small isp's how come its Teksavvy that's become uncompetitive?
The last cash grab before they go under?
He'll answer after the next toke because you'd have to be high to believe Bellsavvy's new price gouges are all Bell,Rogers,CTRC's fault. |
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| wheres the link to that saying the off peak is only for dsl? The way I see it only dsl customers are being screwed over and not the cable customers. I don't see that as price gouging, since if that were the case tthen cable customers would also be similarly facing the SAME fees, which they are NOT. Im not sure of their reasons but its probably not all teksavvys fault. |
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Reviews:
·Cogeco Cable
| reply to elwoodblues
said by elwoodblues:The last cash grab before they go under? well they did lay off a bunch of people apparently |
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