O Canada! > Canadian > TekSavvy > Going from TS DSL to TS Cable in Cambridge area

Going from TS DSL to TS Cable in Cambridge area

There is still a stop sell for Cambridge in place (I believe) due to the horrible speeds.

I was on Teksavvy cable for a while but dropped them about 4 months ago due to the fact that during primetime (6pm - midnight) the speeds dropped to less than 1mbps causing constant buffering in Netflix. After weeks of complaining from the wife and kids I switched to Rogers and haven't been happier.

I don't like the fact that Rogers is more expensive or the fact that I have a monthly cap but at least my connection is USABLE.

Steer WELL CLEAR of TSI cable till they get their shite together and get their Kitchener POI upgraded.

My plan was to stay with Rogers for the 3 month promo period when I signed up but that has come and gone and I'm still not even considering switching back.

Darryl

p.s. I'm on Rogers Ultimate plan and my speedtests show I am getting the 50mbps I am supposed to. During primetime it may dip down to 30-35mbps but that is still 30-35x faster than I was seeing on Teksavvy.

reply to rogerstv
I switched as soon as teksavvy cable was available in Cambridge, as my DSL connection was very flaky (was living in an older part of town). Initially the speed was great, but there was a month (I think it was in August or September) where the speed was terrible due to a long protracted set of upgrades at the node. It has been great ever since. I don't think that netflix will pull more than 5 mbps, so you probably wouldn't see a difference if your DSL line is at 6 meg, unless you're doing other downloads at the same time.

Do a speed test at 9PM this evening and report your results.

I would be very surprised if they are anything approaching the advertised speeds.

My speed would drop to less than 1mbps in the evenings and there is zero chance it was local node congestion because I plugged the new Rogers modem into exactly the same line / same router / same everything and my speed in the evenings magically went from less than 1mbps to over 35mbps (routinely pegged at 50 but have to be honest and say the speed does drop in the evenings on my rogers connection to the 30-35 range on occasion).

And I was using a Docsis 3 modem with Teksavvy (still have it in the closet in case I ever switch back).

Darryl

Actually, they are reaching (and exceeding) advertised speeds (I'll try to remember to get a speed test posted tonight).

So here's the "real" deal.... some people in KW and Cambridge had/have issues, but not all... I don't know the specifics of why this is (may local node congestion, maybe something else), but the picture you're painting is that the whole area is bad and that it's totally a Teksavvy network issue - it's not.

The reason you get better speed with Rogers is that you are not getting limited by any physical connection in the POI. The TS physical connections into the Rogers POI only have so much capacity and that is what TS is waiting for Rogers to fix (upgrade). The cable from your house to the POI (through many steps) is the same regardless of the provider in this case.

Simply put, more physical connection to Rogers POI = good TS speeds where as Rogers delivering the service directly doesn't have the problem as they can control their own network as they please.

The stop sell is there because it's risky for TS to sell service in this area (for the situation you experienced) when Rogers is dragging their heels on getting more POI throughput to TS.

It's unfortunate that you've had this experience, but please don't taint the view of someone else based on not having all the fact present. Once the upgrade happens (and yes, I admit it's taking way too long....) TS for KW and area will be a very good choice again.

Post some speedtest results tonight at 9PM to make me a believer

Just tired of hearing the same excuse that always gets thrown around whenever somebody complains about bad speed.... "well it must be local node congestion".

In my case that is definitely not the case and the reasonable explanation is that the TS infrastructure / poi / whatever can't handle the volume of people they have signed up and hence the reaon for the stop sell.

Could there be some people out there who get a half decent speed during primetime. Probably. There are certainly a LOT of people in the K/W - Cambridge area who are getting truly horrible speeds though and I am definitely not the only one who jumped ship and are waiting for TS to get some upgrades before considering switching back.

I've still got my Docsis 3 modem TS sold me and will switch back but not until some serious upgrades are in place and lots of people have reported a solid increase in their primetime speeds before I'll consider it.

Darryl

reply to johnboy105
It's all a moot point however because the original poster was asking about switching to Cable. Since there is a stop sell in place he can't do it anyway.

The only way that stop sell is getting lifted is after the upgrades are done (I would hope) in which case the switch might make sense.

Darryl

I'm at the south part of cambridge, basically where franklin road ends so I don't know if it's still the kitchener POI or not. I wish Teksavvy had an upgrade path from DSL to Cable but this is a forced $150 experiment. Netflix has been ok with DSL, just can't torrent or game at the same time.
I can call again tonight but the stop sell is on and off depending on what day you call in so I don't trust it.
I really appreciate the feedback so far. The question is for those who had a successful switchover with decent speeds, is the service noticeably that much better for your day to day use of the net compared to your experience on DSL?

I was on Bell DSL (5mb) before switching to Teksavvy.

When I first switched the difference was night & day. Way faster than DSL. When on DSL I was always having spotty VOIP performance and was just not impressed at all with the speed.

I was on the 15mb plan (before it got bumped up) and it was fabulous. This was before the performance dropped off dramatically late last year.

You will notice a significant difference going from 5/6mb DSL to cable.

Darryl

reply to rogerstv

As promised: (two times, just to take out the chance of a fluke...)

Well then I'm a believer (that some people are getting reasonable speeds).

I however was one of the ones at the other end of the spectrum so moved on until whatever the issues are have been resolved.

Darryl

Well turns out there's still a stop sell in Cambridge for Teksavvy. I wonder if the other cable providers like Acanac still connect to the same kitchener bottleneck as they don't seem to have a stop order in place there...They would be happy to take my money, based on their customer service reputation who knows if the speed is up to par. At least Teksavvy has scruples not to sell an inferior product until it's ready/fixed.