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Webslinger
Premium Member
join:2004-05-01

4 edits

Webslinger to jdsf8934ohsd

Premium Member

to jdsf8934ohsd

Re: [Cable] Pricing

said by jdsf8934ohsd :

In every example listed, Teksavvy is the most expensive or the same price as the most expensive option, but with a smaller cap. What gives?

Zap the Cap is where Teksavvy pricing has an advantage.

Ebox doesn't have a Netflix cache server for Ontario cable users, and at the moment, it doesn't offer unlimited usage during 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. in Ontario, but they are working on implementing something. I'm not convinced Ebox's aggressive Ontario pricing is sustainable in the long term. But I did give them some serious consideration. Ebox's rep is very honest and very approachable. I think they're in good hands, and I'm interested in what the future for them holds.

Start actually has the top rated customer service out of any provider in Canada, and if they offered something similar to ZTC, this would be a more interesting conversation (for me). The CEO is also very approachable, and I also look forward to what they have planned in the future. I do trust Start, and from what I've seen its network is excellent. And they care about routing and using quality transit providers.

Vmedia is predominately flooded with customer complaints here in at least a couple of forums. It's going through some growing pains, I feel. And I know some people who have left Acanac. At this time, I wouldn't consider either of those options. Maybe reps are going to come in here and start defending their services, but whatever . . .

For now the cheapest, palatable (to me) unlimited option is coming via Teksavvy due to the well thought out Zap the Cap plan. If you're not using ZTC, then yeah, I would agree that looking around may make sense.
xdrag
join:2005-02-18
North York, ON

1 edit

xdrag

Member

said by Webslinger:

said by jdsf8934ohsd :

In every example listed, Teksavvy is the most expensive or the same price as the most expensive option, but with a smaller cap. What gives?

Zap the Cap is where Teksavvy pricing has an advantage.

Ebox doesn't have a Netflix cache server for Ontario cable users, and at the moment, it doesn't offer unlimited usage during 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. in Ontario, but they are working on implementing something. I'm not convinced Ebox's aggressive Ontario pricing is sustainable in the long term. But I did give them some serious consideration. Ebox's rep is very honest and very approachable. I think they're in good hands, and I'm interested in what the future for them holds.

Start actually has the top rated customer service out of any provider in Canada, and if they offered something similar to ZTC, this would be a more interesting conversation (for me). The CEO is also very approachable, and I also look forward to what they have planned in the future. I do trust Start, and from what I've seen its network is excellent. And they care about routing and using quality transit providers.

Vmedia is predominately flooded with customer complaints here in at least a couple of forums. It's going through some growing pains, I feel. And I know some people who have left Acanac. At this time, I wouldn't consider either of those options. Maybe reps are going to come in here and start defending their services, but whatever . . .

For now the cheapest, palatable (to me) unlimited option is coming via Teksavvy due to the well thought out Zap the Cap plan. If you're not using ZTC, then yeah, I would agree that looking around may make sense.

IMO though there are some packages from start.ca/ebox that are much much cheaper than TSI. 20+ % difference in cost.

ZTC is innovative but people are reporting issues with pings and the speed decrease is a hard hit for people with the highest speeds. Their unlimited late-night download and upload is great. BUT, for example, ebox offers 1 TB of usage for a reasonable price which mitigates the need for ZTC or these features.

I would encourage people to shop around based on their needs. Since TSI has become a much larger entity, the staffing has become the major increase in cost.

Sure, TSI has to invest in equipment but on average, each additional body will cost them $40,000 per year. Imagine how many more subs (and profit) they have to sell per year to feed this new employee.

I've been a TSI customer for almost a decade but might consider switching since the pricing has become a lot more competitive and start/ebox/rogers are now have quite an attractive pricing. Unlike most people here, i already receive a $5 discount from referrals so I can imagine how much more expensive the new plans are for people.

I'm a bit tired from playing the "rogers" game. Submitting a ticket to TSI, TSI contacts rogers and rogers might do something about it. On top of that, there's the issue of my modem becoming "obsolete". I bought a 6121 a few years ago for $100+ and now I can't even use it on the new packages. I also have to find Teddy to flash my modem everytime rogers pushes a new firmware.
Webslinger
Premium Member
join:2004-05-01

3 edits

Webslinger

Premium Member

Again, I'm skeptical that Ebox's current aggressive Ontario pricing is sustainable in the long term (appears to be promotional
In nature and intended to attract new Ontario cable customers) and they also don't offer a Netflix cache server for Ontario customers. Pings for Ontario customers are slightly higher since some stuff is going through Quebec first.

Consequently, at this point, I feel Start and Teksavvy have better networks for Ontario cable customers.

If you're looking for unlimited from Start (which isn't true unlimited), you're (on the 60/10 service), looking to pay an extra $10 than the ZTC option from Teksavvy.

If you're not using ZTC, Start looks mighty attractive.
xdrag
join:2005-02-18
North York, ON

1 edit

xdrag

Member

said by Webslinger:

Again, I'm skeptical that Ebox's current Ontario pricing is sustainable in the long term, and they also don't offer a Netflix cache server for Ontario customers. Pings for Ontario customers are slightly higher since some stuff is going through Quebec first.

Consequently, at this point, I feel Start and Teksavvy have better Ontario cable networks.

If you're looking for unlimited from Start (which isn't true unlimited), you're (on the 60/10 service), looking to pay an extra $10 than the ZTC option from Teksavvy.

If you're not using ZTC, Start looks mighty attractive.

I am aware that Start does "prioritize" the bandwidth once you exceed 30Gb download per day. That being said, most people don't complain about it or there's no wide-spread report of their unlimited being much worse than TSI. I think the policy is there just to keep people from abusing their connection and controlling the cost.

Again, the ZTC option reduces the speed of 60 to 15megs but for start, it's 60 all the time and (in practice) unlimited. TSI's true unlimited is $15+tax more than start.

I agree that ebox may not be sustainable in pricing but also, that's money saved now rather than a hypothetical situation in the future. If it's terrible, take their promo and with no contracts, switch to TSI, start or somewhere else.

beauty of competition
Webslinger
Premium Member
join:2004-05-01

3 edits

Webslinger

Premium Member

Not sure I want to jump to a network that's going to give me higher pings and potentially inferior Netflix service

I thought TSI doesn't wave install fees.

So if you jump to Ebox and notice that its network is worse, you'd have to jump to Start to avoid install fees, I think.

And then you're looking at $80 for 60/10 unlimited with Start.
I'd rather go with ZTC for now for $10 less.

Otherwise, I'm in agreement with you about Teksavvy's pricing.

If I were not going with ZTC, I'd probably take a long hard look at Start.
xdrag
join:2005-02-18
North York, ON

3 edits

xdrag

Member

said by Webslinger:

Not sure I want to jump to a network that's going to give me higher pings and potentially inferior Netflix service

I thought TSI doesn't wave install fees.

So if you jump to Ebox and notice that its network is worse, you'd have to jump to Start to avoid install fees, I think.

And then you're looking at $80 for 60/10 unlimited with Start.
I'd rather go with ZTC for now for $10 less.

If I were not going with ZTC, I'd probably take a long hard look at Start.

Quite frankly, I'm going to play the devil's advocate and say that rogers is offering 50% off their internet plans if you get their winback department. Pretty hard to pass up since the 150 plan can be had for $60 even just for a year.

I've been a TSI customer (and supporter) before the majority of the people here and dating back to DSL and pre-cable era. I've stuck with them with the whole congested POI link issues that brought my internet to a crawl (that had to be upgraded again and again and again and again....) because TSI oversubscribed. Then there was the install issues and super super long wait times (when rogers decided to screw with the tickets).

I don't think I need to be told why TSI is a great company. But it's also awareness that there's competitive pricing out there. I'm a little tired of getting caught in the middle of the rogers/TSI gong show. Revolving modem requirements, pricing and ticketing. Yikes.

Ideally i should just move into a complex with a beanfield connection and never worry about internet again.
Webslinger
Premium Member
join:2004-05-01

Webslinger

Premium Member

said by xdrag:

Quite frankly, I'm going to play the devil's advocate and say that rogers is offering 50% off their internet plans if you get their winback department. Pretty hard to pass up since the 150 plan can be had for $60 even just for a year.

Other than ZTC, I'm right with you on Teksavvy's pricing.

However, since I haven't been a Rogers customer in years, I don't qualify for the promotion you just mentioned.
Wheemer8
join:2005-11-30
L3S0B7

Wheemer8

Member

The 300 GB limit is forcing us to look for a more affordable solution. You can get unlimited 60/10 for 70 bucks a couple of places. I've just seen eBox's 67 dollar 1TB package.

You guys think ebox is good? I'm not sticking around with Teksaavy if they are not updating their prices.
Webslinger
Premium Member
join:2004-05-01

3 edits

Webslinger

Premium Member

said by Wheemer8:

You guys think ebox is good?

- Ebox doesn't have a Netflix cache server for Ontario cable customers

- Ebox pings will be slightly higher (probably add 7 to 9 ms to your current pings) for Ontario cable customers due to traffic going through Quebec first

- Ebox email doesn't have an option to send via SMTP outside of its own network

- Ebox's current pricing for Ontario cable customers is not likely sustainable in the long term (aggressive pricing likely reflects a desire to land more Ontario cable customers)

In terms of its network, I think the only true alternative to Teksavvy is Start Communications for Ontario cable internet customers.

That said, I think the future looks bright for Ebox, their rep on dslreports is very honest and approachable, and the things I listed may not affect you much.

diskace
Retired
Premium Member
join:2002-02-21

diskace

Premium Member

said by Webslinger:

said by Wheemer8:

You guys think ebox is good?

- Ebox doesn't have a Netflix cache server for Ontario cable customers

- Ebox pings will be slightly higher (probably add 7 to 9 ms to your current pings) for Ontario cable customers due to traffic going through Quebec first

- Ebox email doesn't have an option to send via SMTP outside of its own network

- Ebox's current pricing for Ontario cable customers is not likely sustainable in the long term (aggressive pricing likely reflects a desire to land more Ontario cable customers)

In terms of its network, I think the only true alternative to Teksavvy is Start Communications for Ontario cable internet customers.

That said, I think the future looks bright for Ebox, their rep on dslreports is very honest and approachable, and the things I listed may not affect you much.

Ok their is a bit of misinformation going around here.

1: We don't have a netflix cache and this is not a problem as you can stream superHD without problems. I do use netflix @ home and it's working perfectly. It just cost us more money in transit. We do have cache for other major services but netflix is a bit harder on prerequisites. We're not very far from having a cache but from a user perspective you should not see any differences.

2: This is true however you cannot base your decision on the first hop latency as what really matters is the full path and we have a good amount of peers. We're also connected to internet exchanges with Akamai/Google/Microsoft/Ovh. At the end of the day you have to run a full trace to your favorite website and see which network perform betters. Knowing you have 5 ms more on the first hop is just 5% of the maths. Basing your decision on that single piece of info would be foolish.

3: Smtp is locked to our IPs to avoid spam. There is a webmail where you can relay your emails when travelling

4: Our pricing is aggressive (especially our 6 months promo) but this is in the interest of your wallet. On the long run, we always had very good pricing across all markets where we are available. We've done our maths and the CBB rates in Ontario is much lower than in QC so it's one of the reason why we're providing higher limit.

5: Thanks for the kind words, appreciate it. Sorry to jump in but Ontario is our new market and reputation is quite important to me.

Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada

Davesnothere to xdrag

Premium Member

to xdrag
said by xdrag:

I am aware that Start does "prioritize" the bandwidth once you exceed 30GB download per day.

That being said, most people don't complain about it or there's no wide-spread report of their unlimited being much worse than TSI. I think the policy is there just to keep people from abusing their connection and controlling the cost....

 
I believe that it is 20GB in any particular day, but no matter, because as you already said, no unlimited START customers seem to have been reporting noticing any difference to their activities on the web during peak period.
fefrie
join:2012-08-17
Vancouver, BC

fefrie to xdrag

Member

to xdrag
said by xdrag:

ZTC is innovative but people are reporting issues with pings and the speed decrease is a hard hit for people with the highest speeds.

I was having problems with service with terrible pings to google.ca, but not to the gateway.

I wonder if my problems had to do with TS having gateway issues managing ZTC.