said by InvalidError:If you put yourself in Rogers' shoes, you might not want the cost overhead, complexity and potential confusion of supporting a dozen extra combinations of manufacturers and models either. Although TPIAs will usually accept any modem on the cableco's approved list unless the cable rejects it for some reason (lost, stolen, non-returned, known-bad, etc.), most TPIA ISPs themselves only recommend, sell and lease 1-2 models themselves as well.
I remember the "it's too complicated" excuse from the early days of Rogers cable Internet service, back when CSR's would refuse to provide any support if you were using a router (I'm not kidding). I don't have an IT degree but even I find it hard to believe that two major brand DOCSIS 3 modems could be so different technically to justify barring one from your network. As sbrook said, Rogers CSRs won't provision third party modems for Rogers customers yet they will do just that if one of their wholesale customers asks for it. To me that says more about Rogers attitude toward customer relations than it does about anything technical. Rogers would rather have you pay them $200 and buy their approved hardware than run the risk of having to actually exert itself in fielding the occasional above average service request. This is the limit beyond which the company ceases to listen to its customers. Only when those customers are multi-million-dollar wholesale accounts will Rogers flex its customer relations muscle.
said by hurleyp:It looks like I'm in the same boat. I bought a SB5100 in 2004. Somewhere along the way, Rogers grandfathered me to a 10 Mbps profile and started charging me for the 24 Mbps Extreme package. It looks like I'll have to start exploring my options.
Don't wait until the next billing cycle to take action. I downgraded to Express and honestly I can't tell the difference. If you can live with the lower bandwidth cap until you get a new ISP, go for it.