 JCohenPremium
join:2010-10-19
Nepean, ON
kudos:3
 ·Start Communicat..
 ·TekSavvy Cable
 ·Bell Fibe
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| reply to Davesnothere
Re: TPIA Providers for Ottawa said by Davesnothere:How many monthly GB do you normally use (and how many would you anticipate using if it would not break your budget) ?
Most months I keep my usage below 300GB as it's just me using the internet in my house.
I have 28/1 with TekSavvy now and I'd like to keep the same speed as I need the upload speed, I did consider getting 25/7 but than I'd need to get a dry loop as well. |
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DavesnothereNo-BHELL-ity DOES have its Advantages
join:2009-06-15
START&Cogeco
kudos:6
1 edit |
OK, so you are already with one of the choices which you are comparing.
Do you have any gripes with them ?
One other thing which I can add now, in favour of START, is that they will waive their $50 setup fee if you are doing a transfer of service at the same location.
Not sure what Acanac or D'Tel would do in that regard.
START's 'Advanced' plan includes 300GB/Mo and currently half a buck per GB if you exceed.
BTW, they also are not currently counting upstream traffic.
Modem rent is $5 per month, or they can sell you one, or support BYOM if yours qualifies.
I am on the Cogeco equivalent of this START plan (runs at 16/1 speed) and the monthly cost is $62.09 including modem rental and HST.
It has been just as solid as my Cogeco direct service was before, but NO BS, less cost, more monthly GB, and not quite as fast (though fast enough, considering that I was on a DSL-5 service just before Cogeco 30/2/175).
I use CallCentric & CallWithUs (VoIP) for phone, supplemented by a Rogers PAYG cell, and my only TV comes from streams & p2p.
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We have only 2 things about which to worry :
(1) That things may never get back to normal
(2) That they already HAVE !
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START Forum »Start Communications
Or you can still use Canadian Broadband.
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JCohenPremium
join:2010-10-19
Nepean, ON
kudos:3 Reviews:
·Start Communicat..
·TekSavvy Cable
·Bell Fibe
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| I'm not eligible for the the startup fee being waived with Start as my cancellation date with TekSavvy is on June 30.
I'm considering Acanac because of the free home phone that they offer to their customers which will save me ~$35 month as well as I no longer use the home line all that much but just want to keep the number.
I'm in the same boat as you with the TV stuff, streaming and P2P. |
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DavesnothereNo-BHELL-ity DOES have its Advantages
join:2009-06-15
START&Cogeco
kudos:6
3 edits |
I see, on the June 30 thing. - So you must have your reasons....
Acanac is not all that well-known for their VoIP, AFAIK. - Neither is TSI, for that matter.
If your phone service is important to you, you might best concentrate your remaining grace period on whether or not Acanac will be good/reliable-etc enough for your phone requirements, and can port your current number properly, and let the Internet part take the back seat as those providers all would likely be within some degree of similarity.
Though I guess that you are kind of 'down to the wire' anyway, on all parts of the puzzle.
Who is your current phone provider ? |
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JCohenPremium
join:2010-10-19
Nepean, ON
kudos:3 | Current phone provider is Rogers home phone over cable. |
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DavesnothereNo-BHELL-ity DOES have its Advantages
join:2009-06-15
START&Cogeco
kudos:6
3 edits | said by JCohen:Current phone provider is Rogers home phone over cable.
OK, so you know how to do the 2 cable modems on 1 wire thing. 
If you have not already cancelled your phone (and you could easily extend that date - I did that with my Cogeco Internet when transferring to START, at a prorated monthly charge), I would say to keep it until your new Internet is determined stable.
THEN do the phone part.
Unless enough folks here (or who you know) are prepared to get out the stack of bibles and swear to Acanac's VoIP phone being rock solid and all, I'd do that part later if it was me.
Of course, Acanac prob'ly wants the whole thing in one order to give their deal. - And again, if it was me, THAT would be a deal-breaker.
Something in my gut tells me that you ought to contact TSI to try to extend your cutoff date far enough that you could do a transfer to START. - There might yet be time to do that, and surely they'd still accept your money.
And see about getting your VoIP from VOIP.MS or CallCentric, who are both proven providers with moderate costs. |
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JCohenPremium
join:2010-10-19
Nepean, ON
kudos:3 Reviews:
·Start Communicat..
·TekSavvy Cable
·Bell Fibe
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| said by Davesnothere:said by JCohen:Current phone provider is Rogers home phone over cable.
OK, so you know how to do the 2 cable modems on 1 wire thing. If you have not already cancelled your phone (and you could easily extend that date - I did that with my Cogeco Internet when transferring to START, at a prorated monthly charge), I would say to keep it until your new Internet is determined stable. THEN do the phone part. Unless enough folks here (or who you know) are prepared to get out the stack of bibles and swear to Acanac's VoIP phone being rock solid and all, I'd do that part later if it was me. Of course, Acanac prob'ly wants the whole thing in one order to give their deal. - And again, if it was me, THAT would be a deal-breaker. Haven't cancelled the home phone and won't be doing anything with it until I can run the Acanac VoIP through it's paces with a random assigned number and port later.
said by Davesnothere:Something in my gut tells me that you ought to contact TSI to try to extend your cutoff date far enough that you could do a transfer to START. - There might yet be time to do that, and surely they'd still accept your money.
I already tried and unfortunately it can't be done because Rogers is so useless that their TPIA department can't process a un-cacellation request in time.
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No matter what provider I choose I might still end up just going with VoIP.ms for home phone as it's mainly just to keep the number and because I need a home line for my alarm system. |
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Yodums
join:2012-05-23
Gloucester, ON | reply to JCohen
Re: TPIA Providers for Ottawa I'll chime in here, because you mentioned your TV comes from streaming, and that you want to go with Acanac. TekSavvy had a stop-sell in May here in Ottawa and I signed up for Distributel. One of the main things I do online is stream. I subscribe (PPV) to a lot of video game tournaments and streaming was a major problem on Distributel. I was unable to watch any content in 1080p or 720p. It was really strange, because my speeds were great (28/0.5 when I was paying for 18/0.5) and my modem stats are fine, but I even had trouble streaming at 360p or 480p sometimes. I looked into the issue further and found that the issue had affected other users in different locations, as well as Acanac customers. Tech support gave me the regular runaround. They told me my line stats checked out, my speeds were okay, and looking into the issue any further was not necessary. I followed up again with the CSR Admin and she forwarded my issue to a network engineer. He replicated the issue by testing the streaming site on Distributel and using other ISPs and having no issues. He told me his director was aware of the issue and actually looking into it. He mentioned that the resolution required core changes and they were “testing the effects”. He did set out that these changes would come this month, but I canned them and moved to TekSavvy because I wasn’t given an update since June 11th. Now, I’m on TekSavvy with the same cable line stats, another DCM475, and able to stream without a single issue. Some of the sites I had issues with on Disributel were Twitch.tv (primary site for these PPVs), Vimeo, and CBC. I read other users had issues with Comedy Central. The weird thing about this whole streaming issue was 1080p YouTube was never an issue. It never buffered, once. I believe other users on RFD mentioned they were able to stream Netflix without an issue. Some links for you: » Distributel - Problems Streaming» community.acanac.com/Acanac/view···p=117866» community.acanac.com/Acanac/view···p=109733» www.google.ca/search?sugexp=chro···&bih=667 |
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DavesnothereNo-BHELL-ity DOES have its Advantages
join:2009-06-15
START&Cogeco
kudos:6 | said by Yodums:....I followed up again with the CSR Admin and she forwarded my issue to a network engineer. He replicated the issue by testing the streaming site on Distributel and using other ISPs and having no issues. He told me his director was aware of the issue and actually looking into it. He mentioned that the resolution required core changes and they were “testing the effects”. He did set out that these changes would come this month, but I canned them and moved to TekSavvy because I wasn’t given an update since June 11th.
Now, I’m on TekSavvy with the same cable line stats, another DCM475, and able to stream without a single issue. Some of the sites I had issues with on Disributel were Twitch.tv (primary site for these PPVs), Vimeo, and CBC. I read other users had issues with Comedy Central. The weird thing about this whole streaming issue was 1080p YouTube was never an issue. It never buffered, once. I believe other users on RFD mentioned they were able to stream Netflix without an issue....
Interesting anecdote.
Then our OP here will need to decide on whether to take a chance that your info about the 'FIX' proves to be good, as they have a firm cancellation of TSI Cable for end of this month.
Speaking of CBC, I view them a lot, and their player looks to yield a 640x352p box on the screen, or is the stream actually of a higher res and the box is under-sized by default ?
If it really IS 640x352, then nearly nobody should have troubles with it.
CTV seems to do the same as CBC, by appearances. |
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DavesnothereNo-BHELL-ity DOES have its Advantages
join:2009-06-15
START&Cogeco
kudos:6 | reply to JCohen
said by JCohen:Haven't cancelled the home phone and won't be doing anything with it until I can run the Acanac VoIP through it's paces with a random assigned number and port later.
That sounds wise, regardless of the other factors.
said by JCohen:I already tried and unfortunately it can't be done, because Rogers is so useless that their TPIA department can't process a un-cancellation request in time.
OMFG or OY ! [you choose]
said by JCohen:No matter what provider I choose, I might still end up just going with VoIP.ms for home phone, as it's mainly just to keep the number, and because I need a home line for my alarm system.
They have a decent reputation, and so does CallCentric. |
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JCohenPremium
join:2010-10-19
Nepean, ON
kudos:3 Reviews:
·Start Communicat..
·TekSavvy Cable
·Bell Fibe
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| So I decided that I can't be disconnected from the world for the 2 weeks it would take to get connected with a TPIA provider, only option was to sign up for Rogers 1 month and since I now have an active cable internet service I will likely be going over to Start at the end of the month. |
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DavesnothereNo-BHELL-ity DOES have its Advantages
join:2009-06-15
START&Cogeco
kudos:6 | said by JCohen:So I decided that I can't be disconnected from the world for the 2 weeks it would take to get connected with a TPIA provider, only option was to sign up for Rogers 1 month and since I now have an active cable internet service I will likely be going over to Start at the end of the month.
That might be for the best. - After all cannot have 'Net Withdrawal, can we ? 
What does Rogers think of your idea, as you would have to give notice right away, right ?
Or will they be more lenient about notice for Internet as you also have their home phone for now ? (Cogeco apparently is like that)
Also what is Rogers charging for setup for Internet ? $15 ? or more ? |
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Reviews:
·Start Communicat..
 ·voip.ms
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| reply to JCohen
Do they charge for installation? I can't recall ever paying them for installation of any service.
I now have only Internet services with Rogers, having dropped cable TV a year ago and home phone (switched to voip.ms) last February. I'm a bit tempted by the TPIA, but I get this feeling that my cable could get disconnected "by accident" at some point... |
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JCohenPremium
join:2010-10-19
Nepean, ON
kudos:3 Reviews:
·Start Communicat..
·TekSavvy Cable
·Bell Fibe
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| reply to Davesnothere
said by Davesnothere:Also what is Rogers charging for setup for Internet ? $15 ? or more ?
said by MichelR:Do they charge for installation? I can't recall ever paying them for installation of any service.
I was not informed of any installation fees, but I also told them that I do not need a technician sent to my house for the install and I went and picked up a DPC3825 from the Rogers Plus store. |
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JCohenPremium
join:2010-10-19
Nepean, ON
kudos:3 Reviews:
·Start Communicat..
·TekSavvy Cable
·Bell Fibe
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| reply to Davesnothere
said by Davesnothere:That might be for the best. - After all cannot have 'Net Withdrawal, can we ?
Exactly why I signed up for Rogers as I was able to get activated on the same day.
said by Davesnothere:What does Rogers think of your idea, as you would have to give notice right away, right ?
Well the rep I spoke to gave me a credit for the modem rental for the month.
said by Davesnothere:Or will they be more lenient about notice for Internet as you also have their home phone for now ? (Cogeco apparently is like that)
Home phone is Rogers but that account isn't in my name so it won't affect anything. |
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JCohenPremium
join:2010-10-19
Nepean, ON
kudos:3 Reviews:
·Start Communicat..
·TekSavvy Cable
·Bell Fibe
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| reply to JCohen
So I gave Rogers my 30 day notice today and they asked why I was cancelling so I told them that I'm going back to a third party because I use about 300GB/month and they offered me the 18Mbps tier with 300GB for $67/month; I still went ahead and gave them my 30 day notice. |
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DavesnothereNo-BHELL-ity DOES have its Advantages
join:2009-06-15
START&Cogeco
kudos:6 | said by JCohen:So I gave Rogers my 30 day notice today and they asked why I was cancelling so I told them that I'm going back to a third party because I use about 300GB/month and they offered me the 18Mbps tier with 300GB for $67/month; I still went ahead and gave them my 30 day notice.
K00L to know this.
So what GB do they normally include with 18Mb service these days ?
And Rogers normally charges extra for a modem rental ? (so does START, so that's even, there) |
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DavesnothereNo-BHELL-ity DOES have its Advantages
join:2009-06-15
START&Cogeco
kudos:6 | reply to JCohen
said by JCohen:I was not informed of any installation fees, but I also told them that I do not need a technician sent to my house for the install and I went and picked up a DPC3825 from the Rogers Plus store.
DPC3825 ?
When did Rogers decide to support THAT model ?
Isn't that the one with the combo wireless router in it ?
There are some threads mentioning it for Cogeco about a week ago, but I had not heard for Rogers using it.
Hmmmm....
As for install fees, I read the $15 somewhere on the Rogers site back in March, when I was making that Ontario IISP comparison spreadsheet. |
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 diskaceElectronic Box CEOPremium,VIP
join:2002-02-21 | reply to Davesnothere
said by Davesnothere:
I forget his name at the moment, but I remember that he rides a bike, drinks Red Bull, and writes a lot of letters to the CRTC.
And sometimes he eats Breakfast.
LOL
Yeah he does ride a bike and i suspect it's part of the reason why you haven't seen him around recently. Just thinking out loud...
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Electronic Box Inc. - Jean-Philippe Béïque
Ebox forum »ELECTRONICBOX |
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