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Glen T
join:2003-11-03
BC

1 edit

Glen T

Member

Shaw HS 10 up another 10%

Got my Sep bill in the mail today. Price is up another $5 fto $55. It went up $5 just ten months ago. Price increases are running at more than 10% per year -- 22% in 10 months.

That's it. I've had enough. I'm looking for recommendations on alternative cable ISPs in the BC tri-cities area. DSL has never worked well in my area, so I would prefer to stick with cable.

bucko2012
@sasknet.sk.ca

bucko2012

Anon

if you stick with cable then you pretty much stuck with Shaw. unless you have telus or novus available.

let us know if you any alternatives but I wouldn't hold any luck in your area.
bucko2012

bucko2012

Anon

or teksavvy dsl if you have it there. don't get teksavvy cable cause Shaw will still get some money, try to get get an isp that doesn't involves Shaw infrastructure.

sorry
Glen T
join:2003-11-03
BC

Glen T

Member

So far, I'm seeing Teksavvy and Lightspeed as alternatives. Its been quite a few years since I tried DSL here. Telus bent over backwards, but it was never very reliable. Had to reboot the modem all the time.

bucko2012
@sasknet.sk.ca

bucko2012

Anon

teksavvy might be a good if you want to avoid Shaw like a plague. but dsl is the only way Shaw will not get a dime from you. we need Shaw to get the message. hopefully tek has a dsl option.
Glen T
join:2003-11-03
BC

1 edit

Glen T

Member

Looks like they do have a DSL option in my area. 15 would do me. Lightspeed has a 25 cable service UDL for $37 that sounds good.

bucko2012
@sasknet.sk.ca

bucko2012

Anon

dsl 15 is good bit faster than hs 10 and it cheaper, go for it. hope it turns out. good luck and have a great night
Glen T
join:2003-11-03
BC

Glen T

Member

It's interesting, looking back over the history. I was on Shaw 5 and paying about $45. Then about two years ago, I noticed that Shaw 10 was actually cheaper than Shaw 5 at about $42.50, so I changed. Almost immediately, the price started going up after they had killed the Shaw 5 plan.

Today, the price for Shaw 10 is $55 and the price for Shaw 25 is $60. In fact, I've been getting consistent 20 speeds since I upgraded, so I'm guessing that Shaw 10 doesn't really exist at all. It's just got a lower data cap. So I would imagine that once everyone has switched over to Shaw 25, Shaw 10 will disappear.
zod5000
join:2003-10-21
Victoria, BC

zod5000 to Glen T

Member

to Glen T
Shaw's rates are spiralling out of control.

I got my current package in Feb 2011 (just under two years ago).

BB50+Personal TV+Best of HD+Phone for 116.90/month.

I now pay 127 without the phone (it would be 142 with phone as the phone was 15/month). That's over a 21% increase in less than two years.

I understand cable TV is going to the crapper. The channels are asking for more money for shaw to rebroadcast them (its happening with cableco's all over north america) but the fact that Shaw keeps racking up the internet rates to compensate makes it twice as bad.

I killed the phone line in the spring when I got the $7 increase. With the $10 increase this fall.... my bill is slightly more than it was 8 months ago. I bought an antenna the other day to see what OTA channels I can pick up.

If shaw comes out with another astronomical increase I may kill my cable and see if I can get a 25mbps teksavvy DSL unlimited connection.
tlhIngan
join:2002-07-08
Richmond, BC

tlhIngan

Member

It's not the cable channels fault - Shaw can easily drop a bunch of them and avoid paying the carriage fees.

The problem is that for cable, which is profitable, but not as profitable because of the internet. Things like Shaw On Demand are not making Shaw as much money as they used to (believe it or not, but cable companies made a ton of money on porn pay-per-view/on-demand).

Couple that with internet TV piracy, and well, Shaw's just making up their cable losses from people downloading TV shows (remember Shaw Media owned channels? Yeah, when you download, they don't get ad money). Add in Netflix, iTunes and other legit video services and basically the internet is eating them.

And yes, internet is VERY profitable, and you know some of that is to make up for lost TV revenue
zod5000
join:2003-10-21
Victoria, BC

zod5000

Member

said by tlhIngan:

It's not the cable channels fault - Shaw can easily drop a bunch of them and avoid paying the carriage fees.

Not as easy as you think. Content owners know when they have channels in demand and channels that aren't. Carriage fee's aren't the only thing they negotiate. They also negotiate carriage terms which includes things like bunding crappy channels in with popular ones (so they can sell the crappy channels).

The TV industry is way more crooked then you give it credit for.

You are right though. I think the Internet side of the business is becoming the profitibable one. The costs assosciated with licensing TV content are skyrocketing. Internet not so much.
Glen T
join:2003-11-03
BC

Glen T

Member

That is certainly reflected in the pricing. The trend across the board seems to be to eliminate the entry level Internet services. Everyone is getting pushed into buying higher speed packages at higher pricing.

The reality (for me) is that I was fine with Shaw 5. It was fast enough for what I needed. Now, the entry level is $50++. It is the opposite of cell phone plans. I can get a decent cell phone plan for $18 now. The same plan was $25 a year ago.

So, while Canadian cell phone companies are becoming more competitive, the ISPs are going in the opposite direction. See what the threat of real competition (Verizon) does?
zod5000
join:2003-10-21
Victoria, BC

zod5000 to Glen T

Member

to Glen T
I disagre.. Most of the cell phone money is now in smartphones and those plans are getting crazy expensive. If you're one of the people still using a non-smartphone it's pretty cheap, but now that most people use smartphones the plans are pretty expensive. I don't think the threat of Verizon did anything at all. The CRTC invoked 2 year contracts to the big 3 and racked up the prices more than the reduced subsidization period. The shift has been from charging from minutes to charging for data. It has nothing to do with competition but the the change of focus from conventional cell phones to smart phones.

ISPs are moving in the opposite direction because they all own TV distribution as well. I think we agree on this one though. They see the future. Cable is going to price itself out of the market (and cableco's can't get the carriage fees under control... the CBS blackout in the US is a good example of that). I figure the shift is going to be from cable to internet over the next 10 years. Since the cableco's sell internet, that means they shift their revenue from cable to internet.

I think my long run play if cable bills keep going up is to cancel cable and go to an unlimited reseller for internet. I don't need 50mbs speed with shaw. I buy the 50mbps package because it comes with the 400gb cap. The caps on Shaw are still low enough that the speed is overkill for the cap you get. Teksavvy's unlimited 25mbps DSL package looks pretty attractive (and cheaper than Shaw's 50mbps 400gb capped package). I imagine my usage would be insane if I cancelled cable and streamed everything in HD.
Glen T
join:2003-11-03
BC

1 edit

Glen T

Member

True, I did site a phone only plan. But I just opened a new smart phone plan with Virgin on a BYOP basis @ $45 with 1 gig of data and (almost) unlimited calling within Canada. This phone now replaces our home land line and will be carried by my wife, who loses her work phone at the end of the year. Prices are trending down. Wind Mobile has an unlimited smartphone plan for $33 (+ $8 for voicemail). There are deals to be had in cellular, but very little in ISP.

Right now Teksavvy appears to be in chaos due to Roger's push-back. There are not a lot of viable alternatives.
dbarron
join:2000-01-03
Sudbury, ON

dbarron to Glen T

Member

to Glen T
We've been using Teksavvy cable in Vancouver for a couple of years and I can highly recommend them. $45 per month for obtained 25/2.5 and unlimited downloads. Only had a slowdown/problem once and it was fixed in a few hours.
zod5000
join:2003-10-21
Victoria, BC

zod5000 to Glen T

Member

to Glen T
I guess we'll agree to disagree on cell phone rates. Everything I see when shopping out rates shows they keep going up. My $55 plan now costs $70 or $75/month on most providers. Non-Contract rates can vary because you have to negotiate them, but the cell companies are making that hard and harder. ARPU (average revenue per user) reported by the big 3 keeps going up. Which means there average customer is paying more. I think your an exception to the rule.

spock8
join:2012-07-08

spock8

Member

The reason cell phone plans jumped was the 2 year contracts. Hard for the telco's to subsidize a 900$ iphone for 55$ for 2 years

What I would like to see if some cheap plans for us that buy our phones outright or do not want to upgrade.
zod5000
join:2003-10-21
Victoria, BC

zod5000

Member

I'm not sure if you noticed but the phone plans went up more than the impact of reducing the subsidization period. They were really clever about it and in fact did raise fees.

I do agree that I would like to see more competition and advertising of non subsidized rates. I'd rather buy a phone outright and get a decent cell rate. Virgin gives you 10% off for BYOP but since the rates all jumped that stills more expensive than my current subdized plan.. lol
tlhIngan
join:2002-07-08
Richmond, BC

tlhIngan to spock8

Member

to spock8
said by spock8:

The reason cell phone plans jumped was the 2 year contracts. Hard for the telco's to subsidize a 900$ iphone for 55$ for 2 years

What I would like to see if some cheap plans for us that buy our phones outright or do not want to upgrade.

Those exist.

You'll note the plans that subsidize phones generally cost a lot more than regular plans. I was checking some out - get a phone on contract and the plans they let you pick from are $80+. Off contract, and you can get better ones for $30-$50, especially on deals. Of course, you cannot use those plans if you want a phone on contract.

Did the math, bought an unsubsidized phone - the extra $400 gets made up in a year by using the cheaper, better plan.

Of course, the trick is you have to know where to buy 'em - carriers rarely if ever let you pay the month-to-month rate for a phone.

And US carriers have been doing the 2 year thing for years now and subsidizing phones on plans that are cheaper and better than what we have. They're just using it as an excuse.

Think about it - when Verizon was threatening to come in, they spent tons of money claiming it'll ruin them. ANd at the same time, they ran (through their lapdog industry group the CWIA) ads saying that Canadians pay less than Americans (the top two US carriers, that is - because they know they can't match T-Mobile and Sprint's unlimited plans). So they claim on one hand Verizon will eat them alive, and on the other, that Verizon would cost more than them. I'm sure Verizon would attract hordes of customers who want to pay more.

And these are the same people who wanted to buy out Wind's spectrum the moment they were allocated it at a 10-to-1 return. Right before Wind put up the first cell tower - they wanted to buy them out.

And the same ones who killed the Industry Canada wireless calculator because it always put them at the bottom of the list - all the AWS carriers floated to the top, no matter how you arranged the requirements.

They could do it, but it means their CEO won't get his airplane or yacht or will have to give up his mansions. Can't have that, obviously.
Glen T
join:2003-11-03
BC

Glen T to spock8

Member

to spock8
said by spock8:

The reason cell phone plans jumped was the 2 year contracts. Hard for the telco's to subsidize a 900$ iphone for 55$ for 2 years

What I would like to see if some cheap plans for us that buy our phones outright or do not want to upgrade.

Virgin has bring your own phone discounts of 10% on all plans. That's what I did -- bought a new open box smart phone on flea-bay. Finally got up the courage to kill my landline. Wife is going to carry the 'home' phone number that we've had since 1986.
Expand your moderator at work
barkes99
join:2013-01-22
Langley, BC

barkes99 to Glen T

Member

to Glen T

Re: Shaw HS 10 up another 10%

said by Glen T:

Right now Teksavvy appears to be in chaos due to Roger's push-back. There are not a lot of viable alternatives.

As much as I probably wouldn't touch a TPIA in Rogers land at the moment, I've had not problems in Shaw land with Teksavvy. I've been watching the crap they are going through out east, and it appears that for the moment Shaw is not behaving in this way. I've have Tesksavvy 25 (39.95) for about 4 - 5 months now, as a direct result of Shaw's overpricing of their services direct to consumer and am VERY happy...
Chilli
join:2013-10-05
Canada

Chilli to Glen T

Member

to Glen T
But don't you find it distressing that with Shaw, they just blindly go along, making all these changes to their plans, but leave you holding the bag with an old one that is a shitty deal compared to their new ones? Am I the only one that thinks Shaw is failing to protect their customer's interests when they don't contact you to tell you that they have a better deal for them? Why do they leave that up to you to make sure you are getting what you pay for? Frankly I'm not surprised at all that they let you over pay for less service.
Chilli

1 edit

Chilli to tlhIngan

Member

to tlhIngan
d

kevinds
Premium Member
join:2003-05-01
Calgary, AB

kevinds to Chilli

Premium Member

to Chilli
When Shaw calls you to tell you they have a better deal then you are paying... Do you continue listening or dismiss them immediately as a sales call?
zod5000
join:2003-10-21
Victoria, BC

zod5000

Member

I would listen but make sure I understood what they were trying to offer. If the deal sucked I would turn it down. I would have to account for how much I'd loose in the long run by giving up my grandfathered rates.
Glen T
join:2003-11-03
BC

Glen T to Chilli

Member

to Chilli
said by Chilli:

But don't you find it distressing that with Shaw, they just blindly go along, making all these changes to their plans, but leave you holding the bag with an old one that is a shitty deal compared to their new ones? Am I the only one that thinks Shaw is failing to protect their customer's interests when they don't contact you to tell you that they have a better deal for them? Why do they leave that up to you to make sure you are getting what you pay for? Frankly I'm not surprised at all that they let you over pay for less service.

My mistake last time was switching from Shaw 5 to Shaw 10 (which was cheaper at the time). No sooner had I done that, then Shaw 5 disappeared and they started ratcheting up the price of Shaw 10. I'm sure their justification is that it is faster.

Now that Shaw 10 and Shaw 25 are only $5 apart, I'll bet they do the exact same thing. As soon as everyone switches to Shaw 25, they'll kill Shaw 10 and start ratcheting the price of that up.
Chilli
join:2013-10-05
Canada

Chilli to Glen T

Member

to Glen T
Hey Glen T, how much do you want to bet that Shaw won't tell any of their HS10 customers that Internet 25 at $60 bucks a month is a way better deal? When you see two distinctly different performing services getting that closely priced, I'd watch them like a hawk.
Chilli

Chilli to bucko2012

Member

to bucko2012
the greatest satisfaction comes from dealing with Teksavvy at a price lower than Shaw charges you for it and having Shaw get only a fraction of what they originally got. In other words, when you insert the knife, twist it several times to make sure they feel the pain.