Computers & Electronics

Any companies other than Bell/Rogers that own the network and don't have to pay them?

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  • Jan 31st, 2011 8:52 pm
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Any companies other than Bell/Rogers that own the network and don't have to pay them?

There are many smaller companies like Acanac, AEI, TekSavy that resell internet from those 2 big monopolies. Are there any companies that actually own the network don't have to rent anything from Bell?
I've heard that In Quebec there are some for internet and they were able to offer 24mb internet for a long time now for less than $50/unlimited with no caps. That's because they are not going through Bell or Rogers and own the network.
Is that true? Any in Toronto?
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Allstream
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Unfortunately, Allstream only appears to be for businesses and not for home consumers so there still isn't anything.
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Nettles wrote: Unfortunately, Allstream only appears to be for businesses and not for home consumers so there still isn't anything.

Is someone have a home based business, would they be able to get Allstream?
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Keigotw wrote: Is someone have a home based business, would they be able to get Allstream?

No, unless one was willing to commit to paying for enough facilities/infrastructure to bring service to one's house.

For instance, someone could theoretically attach to Allstream at one of their POPs in the GTA, rent fibre from a provider to get the signal to a Bell CO, and then rent dry pairs to transfer the signals from the CO to one's house. The cost of this venture in terms of equipment and engineering would cost you many tens of thousands of dollars in engineering, equipment costs, etc., and you would still have to rent dry pairs from Bell and pay the costs of co-location in their CO.
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There is EyeSurf which is currently only available in Kitchener-Waterloo area.
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The US has a tonne of satellite internet companies. Canada doesn't seem to have them yet and the ones they do have are pretty expensive with bandwidth caps.

These would be a solution for people not in apartments but the price sucks.
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No. For the majority of homes, there is nothing besides Rogers/Bell wires entering the house. Thus, any ISP you use will be subject to charges from these two carriers. Unless you live in a MDU which offers services from other companies (TELUS Cityplace is a good example), you will be subject to using these two carrier's networks in most parts of Ontario and Quebec.

Fibernetics/Primus/Allstream/TELUS all have DSLAMs colocated in COs throughout parts of Bell territory. If you are within coverage of these DSLAMs, you will be exempt from UBB as Bell literally only provides the wire connecting your house to the central office. Currently, Teksavvy and a majority of third party providers use a lot more of Bell's facilities (DSLAM, AHSSPI, etc.) to connect their gear at the datacentre to Bell.

Out West, it's a way different story as TELUS offers substantially more competitive pricing in comparison to Bell. Not to mention they don't cap as of yet.

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jyeung wrote: No. For the majority of homes, there is nothing besides Rogers/Bell wires entering the house. Thus, any ISP you use will be subject to charges from these two carriers. Unless you live in a MDU which offers services from other companies (TELUS Cityplace is a good example), you will be subject to using these two carrier's networks in most parts of Ontario and Quebec.

Fibernetics/Primus/Allstream/TELUS all have DSLAMs colocated in COs throughout parts of Bell territory. If you are within coverage of these DSLAMs, you will be exempt from UBB as Bell literally only provides the wire connecting your house to the central office. Currently, Teksavvy and a majority of third party providers use a lot more of Bell's facilities (DSLAM, AHSSPI, etc.) to connect their gear at the datacentre to Bell.

Out West, it's a way different story as TELUS offers substantially more competitive pricing in comparison to Bell. Not to mention they don't cap as of yet.

- Jason

Yep - EyeSurf = Fibernetics which is why those in Kitchener-Waterloo have another option. If only there were more options that were able to advertise like this on their website today:

[IMG]http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/3931/eyesurf.jpg[/IMG]

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Blackmajik wrote: Why did I just get hard reading that picture???

Because UBB creates the opposite effect.
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sillysimms wrote: Yep - EyeSurf = Fibernetics which is why those in Kitchener-Waterloo have another option. If only there were more options that were able to advertise like this on their website today:

[IMG]http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/3931/eyesurf.jpg[/IMG]

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Too bad you can only get service when you're like ~3 km from their CO (3 of them? Kingsway, Water, Albert&Columbia), and I am too far away :(
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I thought Shaw and Cogeco also owned their own line?
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kittypink wrote: I thought Shaw and Cogeco also owned their own line?

I'm not in Shaw/Cogeco territory, but aren't they capped as well?
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jyeung wrote: Fibernetics/Primus/Allstream/TELUS all have DSLAMs colocated in COs throughout parts of Bell territory. If you are within coverage of these DSLAMs, you will be exempt from UBB as Bell literally only provides the wire connecting your house to the central office. Currently, Teksavvy and a majority of third party providers use a lot more of Bell's facilities (DSLAM, AHSSPI, etc.) to connect their gear at the datacentre to Bell.
Despite Primus having their own DSLAMs in certain areas, they don't seem to be offering any unlimited.
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jerryhung wrote: Too bad you can only get service when you're like ~3 km from their CO (3 of them? Kingsway, Water, Albert&Columbia), and I am too far away :(

Yup. I can't get their DSL on the west side of Waterloo. Strangely, they can offer me home phone service, which I'd think implies they are reselling Bell phone service. But a coworker 2 km away can't get DSL or phone from them.
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Yak.ca also uses the Fibernetics lines I believe, and advertises uncapped internet.

According to their site they're in Kitchener-Waterloo, Barrie, and "some parts of Toronto"?
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Mark77 wrote: No, unless one was willing to commit to paying for enough facilities/infrastructure to bring service to one's house.

For instance, someone could theoretically attach to Allstream at one of their POPs in the GTA, rent fibre from a provider to get the signal to a Bell CO, and then rent dry pairs to transfer the signals from the CO to one's house. The cost of this venture in terms of equipment and engineering would cost you many tens of thousands of dollars in engineering, equipment costs, etc., and you would still have to rent dry pairs from Bell and pay the costs of co-location in their CO.

So there's NO way to get away from UBB? I know Robhellus actually has "Business" plans that home users can apply for, and provide unlimited bandwidth (at least right now they do), but I'm weary whether or not in the future they'll also be UBB-ed, and they are substantially more expensive ($55+ for Rogers for 8/1/un), plus, I'd still be supporting them which is not a pleasant feeling.
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Jon Lai wrote: So there's NO way to get away from UBB? I know Robhellus actually has "Business" plans that home users can apply for, and provide unlimited bandwidth (at least right now they do), but I'm weary whether or not in the future they'll also be UBB-ed, and they are substantially more expensive ($55+ for Rogers for 8/1/un), plus, I'd still be supporting them which is not a pleasant feeling.
Not sure about non-Bell business plans, but according to this post from TS, Bell is going to scrutinize business plans now (or soon) to ensure they are in fact business plans (apparently used to be easy to do if you got a dry loop). Other providers will no doubt follow Bell's lead:

http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/r25400065-
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