Switching from Shaw to Telus, worth it?

[ZMan2k2]

Currently, I have all services running into the home from Shaw. (TV, Phone, and internet.) With the hockey lockout, I have turned to Netflix for an entertainment fix, because current TV offerings don't interest me much. With Shaw, I have the BB50 internet speed, but can max out at only 29Mbps on Speedtest.net at 2:30 in the afternoon. At night, I'm lucky to get 6Mbps. This affects my Netflix watching, as I can't get the signal past 2 bars, even though I have it set up for Best streaming. Another thing with Shaw is, that I've had a new drop and new lines run through the house, and they still needed to add a booster in the system, with an attenuator at the modem to get my signal up to an acceptable level. I live in the inner city of Calgary, AB, and think that it should be possible to get better signal than what I'm seeing.

Onto the consideration of switching to Telus. I have an XBox360, and would no doubt use that as my STB for the one TV in the home. I have it currently wired directly to the router for best possible signal. What I'm wondering is, will Telus lock me into a contract, if I don't take any offers from them? I'm more interested in trying it out, to see if it's any better than what I'm getting from Shaw currently. Telus offers Optik TV and internet to my area, and the phone would be a non issue. But I'm not sure about the contract thing. Or would Telus be any better? My understanding is that you don't share the same line with your neighbors, so the signal should be stronger, with less lag during peak times. Is this true?

What I'm looking for is someone who's done it, someone who's thought about it, and decided one way or another. Looking for advice really. Any help is appreciated.

[jumperman8]

With Telus your line is direct from CO to house, no sharing, seperate pair (if copper) that is dedicated to your home.

As far as boosters etc used on your lines, possible there are so many splitters they need to do this, with telus each tv is set up with line from modem to tv, each tv is set up on a singal line.

With Contracts etc, if you buy out your boxes from telus or Future shop best buy etc, you can do a month to month service. if you intend on renting or taking advantage of any of the free gifts telus offers you must sign on a dotted line for at least 1 year.

Also, if you are planning ot use your XBOX as your STB you must subscribe to Xbox live GOLD, this is an agreement between telus and microsoft. Xbox can not be used as a PVR and you must have an intermediate and above xbox, arade one will not work due to space issues. So ensure your xbox has a large space capacity.

Any other questions post them and ill answer them the best way i can.

[ZMan2k2]

Thanks for that info. I didn't realize I had to buy new equip. to set up. But if I buy it, I don't need to sign the contract, so that's a plus. Let me think on it a bit, I may have some more questions for you, otherwise, please others post opinions.

[Mar]

I considered it once for about 2 seconds. I run a webserver in my house and Shaw's IP rarely changes, Telus changes theirs all the time. Plus Telus blocks port 80 so you'd never be able to access a local web server anyway. Until they change that I'd never switch.

[ae92gts]

I did that switch.

And ever since i have regretted it. Now i have to wait for my 2 year contract to end before i can make the switch back.

reasons why i dont like telus:
1. slower internet
2. crappy channel packages (the basic channels suck)
3. you pay and arm and a leg just to get the good channels packages
4. not as many HD channels
5. you have to pay even more to get the good HD channels

they suckered me in with a great low monthly fee for internet, cable and home phone (also free Xbox), but once you add on all of the channel packages (movie channels, HD, ect) you will end up paying about the same as Shaw.

[Cos]

.

[ZMan2k2]

Originally posted by ae92gts
I did that switch.

And ever since i have regretted it. Now i have to wait for my 2 year contract to end before i can make the switch back.

reasons why i dont like telus:
1. slower internet
2. crappy channel packages (the basic channels suck)
3. you pay and arm and a leg just to get the good channels packages
4. not as many HD channels
5. you have to pay even more to get the good HD channels

they suckered me in with a great low monthly fee for internet, cable and home phone (also free Xbox), but once you add on all of the channel packages (movie channels, HD, ect) you will end up paying about the same as Shaw.

Mar, not worried about running a server, just basic use.

I realize that I would pay the same with Telus as I would with Shaw, but that's not my issue. My issue is with my internet specifically. I get horrible speeds during peak hours, I'm going to test it tonight, to see what's up, but like I said with my experiment last night, I have netflix set up to stream at best rate, and with my wife surfing on the laptop beside me, the signal on netflix was only 2 bars max. I think I may be too far from the node in my area to get what I pay for, I pay for BB50, but the best speeds I've seen are 29Mbps.

[Kavy]

I can understand wanting the change but the only way the change would be worth it is if you were on the fibre system and that you have 4 Feeds.

I went from Shaw to Telus and im back with Shaw. I Switched back to shaw when I found out my new house was only a 2-3 Feed line and was copper.

Love the speed of the gateway system and do not miss the laggy telus menus. I also have BB50 and I am above 40Mbps 100% of the time in the area I am in. Also on telus remember that you pay not only for xbox gold but also telus a monthly fee for using the Xbox as a STB (or at least I had to when I was on telus).

[dewytrain]

I've heard telus tv runs off the internet, and if someone is watching the television the speeds already are slower due to bandwidth issues.

Maybe someone can expand on this if its true or not.

[jumperman8]

Yes Telus TV is internet based tv, same as the shaw gateway system.


For example:

If you pay for 25mb service with Telus tv attached, telus sends more then 25 mb down the line to your home. Telus tv needs 6-7 mb to run the box and media system, therefore they send the proper speed to run your tv and still allow you to get 25mb internet. If you were to have your tv on and do a speed test, you will see 23-24 mb to your computer with an upload of around 3-4mb.

Shaw gateway is pretty much identical, works as a internet based tv, and shaw again will send down proper level of mb through the lines to accomidate for the loss to tv usage.

The biggest difference between Shaw and Telus is simple. Shared lines. Telus provides you an individual line from port to home, shaw pulls off shared line to home. There is no Peak/Slow period for Telus, Shaw has had this forever and should never come as a surprise to any customers.

[dewytrain]

Originally posted by jumperman8
Yes Telus TV is internet based tv, same as the shaw gateway system.


For example:

If you pay for 25mb service with Telus tv attached, telus sends more then 25 mb down the line to your home. Telus tv needs 6-7 mb to run the box and media system, therefore they send the proper speed to run your tv and still allow you to get 25mb internet. If you were to have your tv on and do a speed test, you will see 23-24 mb to your computer with an upload of around 3-4mb.

So if i have Telus internet with the 25Mbps and i have 4 tvs there sending me 49-53Mbps? Why dont they offer 50 Mbps speeds?

[BottleFed]

Originally posted by jumperman8
Yes Telus TV is internet based tv, same as the shaw gateway system.

Not sure where you got that information, but the Shaw Gateway is certainly not Internet based TV. It tunes the channels using Digital RF QAM carriers, no different than any of their other cable boxes. You could hook up 50 gateways in your home and your internet speed would not change.

[benyl]

I am going to quote myself from a different thread.


Originally posted by benyl
This is with my IPTV, my homeserver online and a VPN tunnel back to work.

TELUS is consistent... haha

Calgary
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2200725888.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Edmonton
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2200728567.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Vancouver
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2200734850.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Brooks (I think the test server is the bottle neck):
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2200736019.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

St Johns NFL:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2200737513.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[shakalaka]

I've got Telus Optik TV and Internet. Can't complain honestly, the thing is super fast.

[speedog]

So how many of the posters in this thread actually work for TELUS or Shaw and in a position that would actually put them in the know? It just seems that there be more than a few in this thread who are just blowing smoke up our arses.

[Bladeh]

I would go back to Telus if I could get OptikTV, moved to a new area and only thing available is Shaw.

I have no issues with Shaw internet, TV on the other hand is poor compared to Telus guide, so out of date and clunky. I was only on a 15mb profile for Telus and could only record 1 HD and 2 SD but I had timeshift which helps.

I signed up for 10mb from Shaw for $29 for 2 years, I actually run between 16Mbps and 20Mbps depending on the time of day so I'm happy with that.

[jumperman8]

Originally posted by BottleFed


Not sure where you got that information, but the Shaw Gateway is certainly not Internet based TV. It tunes the channels using Digital RF QAM carriers, no different than any of their other cable boxes. You could hook up 50 gateways in your home and your internet speed would not change.

My apologies, the tv services comes in from coax or fiber connection into the main portal which then creates IP to send off to the other portals in the home via coax and or wifi. There is no affect on your internet speed, you are correct. That info comes directly from someone who knows the shaw gateway system, so if he is incorrect then I have no idea and nor does he. Im no expert when it comes to Shaws digital or gateway system.

take the info from other Telus users on this forum. As far as satisfaction, most are very satisfied. You will always have customers who hate telus and customers who hate shaw. I think the general consensus of Telus optik tv is it a very very good system, and it is really nice to get exactly what you pay for to your computer with their internet to, without having to deal with shared lines.

[codetrap]

Originally posted by speedog
So how many of the posters in this thread actually work for TELUS or Shaw and in a position that would actually put them in the know? It just seems that there be more than a few in this thread who are just blowing smoke up our arses. I worked for both at one time in network related positions.. but that was quite some time ago.

As for sharing the local loop vs dedicated pair to the dslam.. doesn't really matter in the end. There is still going to be congestion on the link from the DSLAM to the upstream network from all those "dedicated copper" pairs.

As has been discussed here 100 times already, which service is the better one depends on where you live, and how many customers are on the local DSLAM, or how many people are tied to the CMTS.

[ZMan2k2]

Well, I've been talking with Shaw tech support since posting this, they contacted me :nut: , and things have already improved. I'm getting 30Mbps down speed now during peak hours, not the 50 advertised, but I'm definitely happy with it. According to Shaw, the node I'm assigned to is not saturated, and they were concerned that my performance was as poor as I was saying. They even had me do a few speed tests from different sources on the line, and they could see the speeds just weren't there. They re-provisioned my modem for bridged mode, and that seems to have cleared some things up. I recently upgraded the firmware on my router, and figured that may have something to do with the slowdown, so I downgraded that to what was on there when I purchased it. Netflix streams better, connecting to Xbox LIVE is faster, it just works better again. I think the modem needed a swift kick upside the head. I'm no longer thinking of switching, if I can keep this performance, I'll be a happy camper.

[eblend]

I did the switch and don't regret it one bit. I know ur not switching anymore, but regardless, I did the switch and I have no regrets. Stable internet speeds (had same issue in the evening with shaw, but I wish I was getting 6mbps at that time..more like 1 in the evenings haha). Love their TV service and good internet, can't really complain.

You don't have to do any contracts at all, could go month to month and try them side by side with shaw. That's what I did before I made the switch. Telus PVR costs like $100 now (on sale at Costco and other places) and each additional terminal is another $100 (go figure, dumb terminal has same cost as a 500gb pvr), so the investment is pretty small, and you can still take advantage of all of their offers like 6 month at so and so, or 12 month whatever. The contract just gets you free equipment or table or laptop or whatever.