Telus 6.0/$42 or Shaw10.0/$45 or neither?

[fefrie]

I'm about ready to fire Telus as a home phone provider and go with free phone line.

Saying that, I'm considering the competition since with a FPL/voip.ms phone, it doesn't really matter which provider I use.

With that, are there better prices than the standard advertised prices?

Telus, I've never banged up against bandwidth caps, even though I can download as much as 400gb/month. Shaw only allows 125gb, or do they enforce that?

I don't do cable, and I'm looking for the cheapest possible. However, if I can get cheaper for all three for less than $50 I could consider.

I do have to say, I hate switching all the time, but threatening to do so may be the only way to get a consistent good price.

Any recomendations?

[stephroll]

Here's my tip ....never ever ever telus lol .

[ijustgotadeal]

Telus doesn't enforce bandwidth caps and Shaw doesn't enforce bandwidth caps on non-broadband plans.

Shaw is better if you're a gamer: https://mail.pfak.org/smokeping?target=Network.CA.BC

and don't forget about Teksavvy which offers service via Telus(dsl) or Shaw(cable) for less

http://oi47.tinypic.com/2kfvcl.jpg

[chimp]

telus uplink is slow. I picked it only because I don't care too much about the speed(was using Shaw but their promote period expired and don't want to extend it) but I don't go telus unless you see siginficant $$$ saving.

[zod]

I think I'll give a better answer than the previous poster.

Shaw went through a period where they weren't enforcing caps (probably because they spent the last year inventing new packages and rolling out new technology). I've read a few other forums and it seems they are starting to call people for exceeding caps again. Shaw does have bigger/better packages. It could turn out they ask you to go to a bigger package. If you use 400gb/month you might be better off with Shaw's BB50 package.

I used Telus for nearly a decade because I couldn't stand Shaw's cap enforcement. I had my own trials with Telus. Everytime I needed a fresh install or speed upgrade they found a way to mess it up. On the other hand when It was up and running, it was always up and running. Telus has always been lenient (except a short stint in 2005/2006ish) with their caps. I could download all I wanted and they didn't seem to care. They post overages on their website but they never charge them. I currently use bb50 with Shaw. Even though I'm only supposed to get 450gb/month bandwidth (400 plus the 50 extra for being a triple play/shaw friend customer), I use between 500-700 gigs/month. If shaw does enforce that with me, I'd have to go from paying 59/month for bb50 to 79 for bb100 (with 750gig cap). At the point I'd be willing to go back to telus if they have upgraded my area to 25mbps (the reason I left telus was that I moved to an area that only had 15mpbs top speed.).

My conclusion. If you want a low price for unlimited bandwidth usage go with Telus. If you want faster speeds go with Shaw. I think with Shaw you would run into problems downloading 400gb on a package only sold at 125gb. They would want you to upgrade.

[fefrie]

Well it sounds like I'll stick with telus since no one (in this thread anyways) knows of an awsome deal for under $42.

6.0 is fine for me. It actually runs at 7mbs. Upload is slow, but uploading has never been a real concern for me. Dropbox takes hours, but that's no big deal for what I need.

And FWIW, I've never had a sevice outage for at least the last 5 years.

That Teksavvy link is outdated.

[chimp]

Well it sounds like I'll stick with telus since no one (in this thread anyways) knows of an awsome deal for under $42.

6.0 is fine for me. It actually runs at 7mbs. Upload is slow, but uploading has never been a real concern for me. Dropbox takes hours, but that's no big deal for what I need.

And FWIW, I've never had a sevice outage for at least the last 5 years.

That Teksavvy link is outdated.

If you want reasonably good VOIP(SIP) quality, it is a factor to consider. I am using Optik 10/1.5 and is find with one single SIP line but if you have other things going on, be careful.

[dealrus]

Teksavvy's website for BC shows:

7.5Mbps/512kb unlimited cap for $34.95

25Mbps/2.5Mbps unlimited cap for $44.95

How is it outdated?

[nsx]

:arrow:

Moved from "Hot Deals" to "Computers & Electronics"

[fefrie]

Teksavvy's website for BC shows:

7.5Mbps/512kb unlimited cap for $34.95

25Mbps/2.5Mbps unlimited cap for $44.95

How is it outdated?

Edit My bad, Had to switch to BC rates...

Those are the prices for cable internet I guess. It makes no sense I guess to go with adsl if I have to pay an extra dry loop fee.

[fefrie]

If you want reasonably good VOIP(SIP) quality, it is a factor to consider. I am using Optik 10/1.5 and is find with one single SIP line but if you have other things going on, be careful.

The home phone rarely rings so it's not that big of an issue....

Bandwidth is not so much the issue since it only uses 100-200kbs. I think jitter and ping (whatever those mean) are more important. And my router has a 400mhz processor, so that's good.

[PianoGuy]

Ping measures the length of time it takes for data to get from one place to another and back again. In this case, it refers to the round trip time from you to your VoIP provider.

Jitter is a variation in ping time. As you can imagine, VoIP requires your voice to get from your phone to the recipient's as quickly as possible. If some of the data doesn't arrive in time, the recipient won't hear it. This results in "choppy voice".

[fredsmith]

I've never had a sevice outage for at least the last 5 years.

That isn't at all likely to be accurate . . . . . . too many factors can cause outages.

Perhaps you should change the 'had' to 'noticed'.

[fefrie]

That isn't at all likely to be accurate . . . . . . too many factors can cause outages.

Perhaps you should change the 'had' to 'noticed'.

Sure enough with that.

I wonder if I switch to teksavvy if I'll have a problem with them. Can anyone vouch for them?

[wilsonlam97]

Telus doesn't enforce bandwidth caps and Shaw doesn't enforce bandwidth caps on non-broadband plans.

Shaw is better if you're a gamer: https://mail.pfak.org/smokeping?target=Network.CA.BC

and don't forget about Teksavvy which offers service via Telus(dsl) or Shaw(cable) for less

http://oi47.tinypic.com/2kfvcl.jpg

Woah uplink in BC is blazing fast.

-Toronto

[ijustgotadeal]

Woah uplink in BC is blazing fast.

-Toronto

We have Novus for that

http://oi46.tinypic.com/23jjw9x.jpg

and

http://oi48.tinypic.com/vevhxu.jpg

[Texxaz]

TekkSavy is uses Shaw cable but cheaper

British Columbia Cable Internet
Product Speeds Up To
(Down/Up) Bandwidth
(/Month) Price
(/month) Purchase
TekSavvy Basic Cable 1 1M/256kb Unlimited $24.95 Order Now
TekSavvy Express Cable 7.5 7.5Mb/512Kb 75GB $31.95 Order Now
TekSavvy Express Cable 7.5 Unlimited 7.5Mb/512Kb Unlimited $34.95 Order Now
TekSavvy Extreme Cable 25 25Mb/2.5Mb 75GB $39.95 Order Now
TekSavvy Extreme Cable 25 Unlimited 25Mb/2.5Mb Unlimited $44.95 Order Now

[JamesA1]

Which is best depends on your neighbourhood, and it changes over time. Telus speed was terrible in my area for years, while Shaw had caps and throttling. Then Shaw put in some new infrastructure for their phone service, and their performance in my neighbourhood improved radically. Shaw generally has better ping times than Telus, but they are stricter about enforcing bandwidth caps. Recently they've begun to throttle again in peak hours, so they must have reach capacity. May be time to switch to Telus again.

TekSavvy is also an option, but there's more investment to switch back and forth since you have to buy the modem. They use Shaw and Telus infrastructure, so in theory they have the same performance, but they occasionally have issues where it's clear that they get low priority from the Shaw and Telus maintenance staff, as you would expect.

As for customer service, it takes forever to get anyone from Shaw on the phone, while it's easier to get hold of Telus - but with Telus it will be somebody in the Philippines who is very polite and completely useless, and then they will proceed to screw up whatever you asked them to do.

[fefrie]

I don't think that there will be much of a problem with the teksavvy modem. They're all around in thrift shops and can be had for as little as $5 if not even less.

[BingoRingo]

I don't think that there will be much of a problem with the teksavvy modem. They're all around in thrift shops and can be had for as little as $5 if not even less.

Make sure you buy a modem that will work on the cable network, for example Rogers and Videotron cannot use the same modem (even if it's the same model and all, the firmware is different) so if I move to Ottawa I will need to buy a new one even if I stay with the same company.

[fefrie]

I just got my telus bill. It's $43.04 total including tax, and that includes a land line aswell.

TKS with the 7.5 unlimited is 39.09 with tax so after all hardware fees, it's a pretty tight race, except for the PITA of having to tell Telus to at least match the competition in price.

Yes Telus comes with a phone line for 'only' $4 extra, but I can get freephoneline.ca for free.

So with the transition fees of $180 to go to TKS, I'll stick with telus for now, since @$180, @$4/month difference, it would take me a couple of years to make back my investment.

For me to switch, depending on transition fees, it would have to be in the sub $35 range for service, and I don't think that I could find that....

Unless you guys help me of course....

I don't think that I can find a better

[Keas]

not sure exactly what your getting with telus especially with phone service but 43$ sounds decent. my mom and sister have both phone and internet with telus and atm i am not ure what they pay for internet but i do know that shaw called and offered them 15$ for phone service and when they talked to telus the loyalty dept lowered thiers to 14$ a month which includes either 2 or 3 services (call waiting,call display...) and 4c a min LD to can and states.

Basically what i am trying to say is after awhile of being with them play the 2 companies against eachother. i do it as well but i have optic tv,int and phone with telus and pay 117$ a month after taxes -atleast for the next 12 months and with shaw to get even close to what i get in channels and stuff it would be 160$ or so.

Only thing i really resent is that they make you pay full price for internet but about half of it or so is used by the optic tv.

Quality is great but costomer service has been a nightmare at times over the years.

[fefrie]

For $43 all in, I get a 6.0mbs down/0.5mbs up internet connection (about 300gb/month), and a POTS telephone number with one calling feature (caller id).

Not really interested in digital TV. I download all my tv shows commercial free, and the olympics are coming in perfect free on my rabbit ears.

4c/min is a bit pricey to the states, but I guess it is convenient to just pick up the phone and dial.