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kevinte
join:2012-09-22
Nepean, ON

kevinte

Member

[Internet] Should I make the switch (Rogers Extreme to Bell Fibe

I've been a Rogers Internet customer since the @home days. I like the service (now) and it's generally reliable. I've been working more from home lately and the 1 Mbps (advertised) but more like 400-500 kbps upload is a big impact (VPN performance). My download experience is very good (I watch a lot of Netflix as well).

I'm considering making the switch. Apparently, my area doesn't support fiber-to-the-home (only fiber-to-the-node) so Fibe 25 would be the best I could expect. DSL has never been an option for me because of the distance (I had tried it once and it was horrid) so I'm naturally worried about the quality when it's effectively the same copper service to my home. I’m also concerned that, when I want more, I’m SOL because, unlike with cable, I’d be at the max service available already.

What can I likely expect from the service? When I spoke to Bell, I was told that the area had service of 63Mbps. What does this mean for me? Would that be shared amongst other Fibe customers in my area? What are the likely and worst case scenarios? Do you think I should switch?

Thanks!

ChuckcZar
@teksavvy.com

ChuckcZar

Anon

Re: [Internet] Should I make the switch (Rogers Extreme to Bell

You better check the cap limit first if you watch a lot of netflix. Even on the worst quality you could bust your caps with Bell. An area doesn't have a service of 63 Mbps it's all proportional to the distance from the remote or central office from your house. If you're farther than 900 feet you probably can't get the full 10 Mbps upload speed.
kovy7
join:2009-03-26

kovy7

Member

said by ChuckcZar :

You better check the cap limit first if you watch a lot of netflix. Even on the worst quality you could bust your caps with Bell. An area doesn't have a service of 63 Mbps it's all proportional to the distance from the remote or central office from your house. If you're farther than 900 feet you probably can't get the full 10 Mbps upload speed.

900 feets ? that's like 300 meters... he will get 10mbps no problem.

Anyway to the OP... Your best bet is to try the service and keeping your cable at the same time... it's only then you'll know 100% what you like best.

I have fibe25 and it's really stable like cable.
ruggs
join:2012-03-26
Ontario

ruggs to kevinte

Member

to kevinte
There are a lot of factors to determine your overall speed, distance being the main factor, but, with bell the big annoyances I feel are the low bit caps, the best part is the unshared bandwidth...

Shared
@videotron.ca

Shared

Anon

said by ruggs:

the best part is the unshared bandwidth...

It's shared. Don't kid yourself, or try to pull the wool over everyones eyes by pretending cable is like the 1990's with the "shared garbage". What do you think caused Bell to state to the CRTC that they had to throttle? That's right. Congestion. Congestion caused by a "shared points on Bell's systems.

Bell is very much shared. You don't have your very own little wire going out to the internet you know.
urbang33k
join:2010-02-13
Canada

1 edit

urbang33k

Member

said by Shared :

It's shared. Don't kid yourself, or try to pull the wool over everyones eyes by pretending cable is like the 1990's with the "shared garbage".

Bell is very much shared. You don't have your very own little wire going out to the internet you know.

That's funny, hop over to the rogers or teksavvy (over rogers) sections and checkout how many 'slow speed due to congestion on they're nodes' comments are mixed in to the posts there. More than here that's for sure. Sure we have slow speed in general ALMOST always due to distance limitations or poor line conditions. But show me more than a handful of threads in the last year where the customer HAS their sync rate on dsl but still have slow speed due to genuine congestion in the bell network. In and around the 905 west region, I've yet to get a report for slow speed and it was a legit congestion issue in our CO - I haven't been around for ever though, only 13 years and counting so far.

regarding the upload speed over distance... I've found it doesn't really start to suffer until 700 meters or longer. Hell, I just put a 25/10 service in on a loop of 1050 meters in 'less than optimal plant conditions' and still got him 3000 mbps attainable on the upstream.

Shared
@videotron.ca

Shared

Anon

If that is indeed the case (ie. Rogers overloaded nodes & not another teksavvy planning problem w/ overloaded links) then that it's specific to Rogers. Not all cable. Just like the congestion (and the need to throttle, per Bell) was specific to Bell and their shared architecture. No different when you come down to it. No different at all. All shared. Just like Rogers.

To reiterate, do you think you have your own little wire going to the internet?
ruggs
join:2012-03-26
Ontario

ruggs

Member

it may be shared, but its not impacted as much...

Shared
@videotron.ca

Shared

Anon

said by ruggs:

it may be shared, but its not impacted as much...

So now we agree Bell is also shared. That's a start.

It's all the same. This isn't the 90's anymore.

Granted, I will state Rogers is trying to cheap out their customers compared to other cable co's. This isn't a guess. It's a fact as stated in their CRTC filings and the reason why Rogers throttled in Ontario. But you have to keep your eyeballs open. This is a specific Rogers phenomena, not a cable issue across the board. Nor is all this *only* a Rogers issue since some cheapo cable resellers will over-sell what they can actually supply. Acanac-Distributel's business model was/is based on this (recall the Distributel deviation from CNOC?). These people were all for throttling people to keep profits higher.

It is not a matter of cable is shared like they used to advertise in the 90's. That is very passe and 1990's. Bell is shared just as much (and was worse a year or so ago) and resellers wanted to profit from that just as much.

There is zero difference today. Zero.

This "shared" thing is a non-issue today. Except for those who want to milk people for all they are worth (ie. Rogers as presented by the CRTC, and some resellers with saturated links blaming Rogers).

They are all the same today. All shared. They always were all shared.

The "shared" issue is very passe and a non issue today.

Well.... I shouldn't say a non-issue. Bell started 3 years worth of CRTC bullsh*it due to Bell being so shared they had to throttle people and run to the Harper government to allow this and whatever else they did. ...So who is worse? Who is "more shared" that they had to petition to gov in counsel?

The answer to this is: ... drum roll please... Bell Canada.
ruggs
join:2012-03-26
Ontario

ruggs

Member

I don't point fingers to say who is to blame for what, I was just trying to use facts that I believed to be true to help aid in his decision, rogers is good and so is bell, and rogers is bad and so is bell, it just all depends on the experiences you've had that makes one better than another, to me I say stay with the devil you know... We all lose because of high prices and bit caps...
Viper359
Premium Member
join:2006-09-17
Scarborough, ON

Viper359

Premium Member

Great comment! I have used Rogers for years, usually on their highest tiers. Not sure what all the complaints about them are about when it comes to nodes etc. Hell, I have been on one of the nodes they are complaining about often, with no issues. Mind you, I made the switch to D3 pretty much when it came out. I am waiting for Bell to offer higher speeds and caps, so I can switch. Not because I have internet issues, I just cannot stand the new CEO trying to suck every available penny from their customers, and little to no action on problems. -----Just look at the mess with their Nextbox 2.0 crap. To me, they are all pretty much the same. I just want to see Rogers hurt in the bank so they change their attitude from the top down.
kevinte
join:2012-09-22
Nepean, ON

kevinte

Member

A big "Thank you!" to everyone for their input. I'll continue to watch for additional comments and experiences. I'll likely try Fibe for a month without cancelling Rogers (as kovy suggested) and see what it's like.

Is Bell able to tell me how far my home is from the node?

Thanks again!

Kevin