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agtle
join:2013-03-09

agtle to Gone

Member

to Gone

Re: Niagara Falls, Ontario Area ISP

said by Gone:

said by coaxguy:

I use a bell connection 25/10 and a Start connection and enjoy them both.

Unless he's in the south or west end of the city he probably won't be able to get VDSL, and even then it's hit or miss. St. Michael Ave is amusing because it has everything from legacy ADSL to VDSL2 to FTTH depending on what part of the street you live on.

Am in NF, with 4 sites - north end (portage/huggins) & downtown have VDSL, south end (portage/front) & west (kalar/mcleod) can only get legacy ADSL.

Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON

Gone

Premium Member

said by agtle:

Am in NF, with 4 sites - north end (portage/huggins) & downtown have VDSL, south end (portage/front) & west (kalar/mcleod) can only get legacy ADSL.

VDSL coverage in Niagara Falls can probably be best described as swiss cheese. St. Catharines is blanketed in a much better way. I talked with a Bell tech who described Five Corners and the North End as an "ADSL Hole." My mother lived at Mountain and Dorchester and was limited to 6Mbit/s. The tech said he had a co-worker at Five Corners who couldn't even get any usable DSL. I used to live closer to downtown and that address now qualifies for VDSL, albeit only 25Mbit. There's also a neighbourhood north of Lundy's Lane and west of Garner that's all VDSL2.

Kalar/McLeod specifically is only legacy VDSL, but go a tad further north between McGarry and Forestview and you've got VDSL. Go even further north to Angie and it's all FTTH. The new stuff that's going in south of McLeod will all be FTTH, too.
agtle
join:2013-03-09

agtle

Member

I think it comes down to how the city has grown - NF today is made up of four formerly independent municipalities, amalgamated over the years (50s-70s). The smaller parts - when independent - were "remote" switches (not in the DSL sense, rather the old-school mechanical) hanging off the co on victoria; some places north of huggins hung off the st. davids switch which was a remote of the notl co.

Over the last 13 years or so, my experience - bouncing between cable and DSL in this city at my four sites (as availability and pricing fluctuates) - has been that DSL is far more reliable than cable.

Granted - I haven't used cogeco in about 5 years - but I could never get vpn tunnels to stay up reliably on their network (I strongly suspected at the time it was due to their dpi, which they consistently denied using, but later turned out to be true), but on DSL, they have always been rock solid stable, and far less downtime (although slower in some parts of the city).

so to the OP, go DSL if you can, otherwise cable. Teksavvy either way

Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON

Gone

Premium Member

St. Catharines is an identical situation with amalgamate towns/townships (Port Dalhousie, Merriton and Grantham), remote COs and all sorts of stuff. That really has nothing to do with any of it. The difference is that while the buildout in St. Cats was substantially completed last summer with very few holes (oddly enough, the new communities near the Welland Canal only have legacy ADSL, and the new development in Merriton near the old canal only has ADSL2+ with no Fibe TV), Niagara Falls is still ongoing.

This summer is when Bell will be going gangbusters, not just in Niagara Falls but across the entire region.
agtle
join:2013-03-09

agtle

Member

said by Gone:

...That really has nothing to do with any of it. ...

it absolutely did, loop length is everything with dsl, and the history of it, is why one side of the street may have a loop length 2km longer than than other side of the street. And Bell wasn't going to rush to install DSLAMs at the remote DMSs serving 800 customers.

Not nearly as much of an issue today, and going forward, with vdsl and tiny remotes pushed out to the neighborhoods, but it is why nf (and so many other cities) have been so inconsistent in the past.

Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON

Gone

Premium Member

I know how DSL works. It was just as much an issue in St. Catharines ten years ago as it was in Niagara Falls. Secord Woods in St. Catharines could never get DSL because they were served by a remote that never had a DSLAM installed, and they didn't get any sort of DSL until the Fibe TV rollout. Niagara Falls was by no means unique in this regard.

Today? It's a non-issue in either city. They just throw a 7330 onto the OPI and they're done with it. This has been done for the most part in St. Catharines with a few limited exceptions. The rollout isn't complete in Niagara Falls and is still ongoing. You'll see a lot more OPIs with 7330s strapped onto them or next to them in the Falls this summer.